This week is an introduction to the production of electronics.
Firstly we have been tasked with using a breadboard to create a light, temperature or moisture circuit using the kits provided by the university. Unfortunately, due to being ill, I was not able to get one of the packs with the equipment necessary to make these physically, so instead, I am going to look into the theory side of creating the circuits and document my findings on here.
First things first, what is an analog circuit?
An analog circuit is a circuit that conveys a continuous and variable signal which varies depending on the current input to the circuit. This differs from a digital circuit, where the signal is one of two signal inputs. Some of the variables an analog circuit uses are: current, voltage and frequency. Changes to these affect the output of the circuit.
After looking into the subject more, I have learned of the software Fritzing, recommended to me by my lecturer. I am unfamiliar with this programme so I am going to research into it to find out more.
After looking into Fritzing, I have learnt that it is a programme used to simulate circuits without having to purchase the parts in real life. This may be an alternative to using the parts in the pack that I do not have.
My first mess around with Fritzing has left me with this circuit which I used a reference to create, to help with my lack of knowledge with the programme and electronics. The circuit allows the user to power an LED using a 9v battery when they press the button.
After this, I wanted to look into how the difference in resistors would affect the LED, however without the equipment it is impossible to simulate using this, however this did not stop me from setting up the experiment, in a circuit, on Fritzing. Below is the same circuit, except it is duplicated and has weaker resistors, set to 100 resistance (Green LED brown Resistors) compared to the original circuit (Red LED red resistors) which are set to 220 resistance (the default setting). This can be seen below:
The test would be to see whether or not the resistance level within the resistors affects the brightness of the LED and if this can cause the LED to burn out.
The next step is to try and create a circuit that can detect a different form of input, such as moisture, temperature or light.
The Circuit I decided to go with would be the Temperature sensor. In this circuit I used a button linked to a temperature sensor which then affects the brightness of an LED. The lower the temperature the dimmer the light, with the light being on, only as long as the button is pressed. This can be seen below:
