Click here to see the weeks post
As said in my post for this week i missed the fist session so i got started with this project using information Given on student central. I learned the basics required to get started this project before i moved onto the breadboard and soldering.
This is what was outlined on that page.
Electrical devices are powered by electricity (e.g. lights, kettle, fridge, toaster). Electronic devices use electrons in a clever way (e.g. to control a robot or display like a TV).
Ohm’s law: Voltage (Volts) = Current (Amps) x Resistance (Ohms)
V = I x R
Note also that the power used by the circuit is also an important consideration, where Power (Watts) = Current (Amps) x Voltage (Ohms)
P = I x V
A good analogy to understand what these terms are. Voltage determines how much oomph you can get. The resistance indicates what is restricting the flow. The current is how much stuff is flowing.
Circuits?
Series Circuits – circuits in which numerous resistances are linked one after the other. Such connection is also termed as an end to end connection or a cascade connection. There is a single path for the flow of current
Parallel Circuits – circuit in which numerous resistances are linked across one another in such a manner that one terminal of every resistance is connected to form a junction point while the remaining end is also linked to form another point.
These 2 types of circuits determine how the components are arranged
Signals
- Analog waves are smooth and continuous (e.g can vary anywhere between 0-1)
- Digital waves are stepping, square, and discrete (e.g. are either 0-off, or 1-on).
Note that you can represent an analog signal digitally with PWM (pulse width modulation). This simply turns the signal ON and OFF in different amount to give an overall average percentage ON (voltage output).
Components?
Input devices – Input devices provide an input signal to the circuit, typically they sense something in the environment. (temperature, humidity, light)
Output devices – Output devices use an input of electrical energy to provide an output of some type of energy (DC, BLDC, servo, stepper, lights, speakers, solenoids, displays)
Moving onto the physical aspect of this project I looked into the how to used before i started to use them myself.
Bread Board Circuits
A breadboard is a solderless device i can use to make temporary prototype electronics and test circuits. Most electronic components can be interconnected by inserting them into the holes. The breadboard has strips of metal underneath the board that connect the holes on the top. The metal strips are laid out as shown below.
The top and bottom rows of holes are connected horizontally and split in the middle while the remaining holes are connected vertically.
Soldering
Soldering is bonding two or more items are together by melting and putting a filler metal into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal. Unlike welding, soldering does not involve melting the work pieces.
Soldering Practice
The kit given was a Moisture Detection Circuit which i had to solder components onto. i made sure the tip was hot enough before using the soldering iron otherwise the solder would ball, the desired shape was a cone that covers the majority of the circle it sat on.
Soldering practice
I found soldering isn’t a problem if one gets the hag of it through practice but certain things would make it a lot easier to do, such as clamps that hold the pieces steadily in place and a finer tip on the soldering iron.
