Last day

So I wasn't quite sure what to do on my last day, so I just dinked around with my breadboard to see what I could make.

I got a 7,9,5,4, the decimal, a backwards 1, a backwards 3, and an H

Whoever learned to wire clocks must've done a lot of work, this is complicated.

What concerns me is the first switch is having no effect on anything, I'm wondering why that is.. it might explain why some numbers appear to be impossible. Or maybe it was designed that way, because fiddling around with everything does not yield a way to get the first switch to do anything.

I took it apart, I'll miss the little guy.. or not. haha

The taste of sweet success

IT FINALLY WORKS! I discovered that apparently, the +/- terminals on the top and bottom are connected on the left half and right half, but have a gap in the middle. Putting all the wires on one half apparently helped and it started working. Yay!
The only actual number I can make is a 7 but it is still cool.

I will now calculate the voltage through each part of the circuit for my mathematical model, and my resource Mr. Boorsma will email me back tonight so that should be all set as well.

A unique title

End of the week, and I have my circuit wired exactly like the book does. Found out my first circuit didn't work because I needed 6 volts and I only used 1.5. Encouraging and frustrating at the same time. I'll have Kirk take a look at it and find the flaw, somewhere in the mess of wires the circuit must be broken.

I'll email Mr. Boorsma tonight and ask him how you know what kind of engineering field you should go into. I believe that is what my final project will be about, how I will probably not be an electrical engineer (unless of course I get something to work, then maybe why I could be an electrical engineer).

Creative and clever title

So sorting resistors does not sound fun (or physicsy) so I consulted the expert, Kirk, and am giving this project another go. I think I understand what's going on now, but I won't have much time today to actually figure out...

Day something else that I haven't already said but a new week, which I also lost count of

So I made a discovery today! Resistors have a color code by the number and color of bands on them! I kinda wondered what those were.. By the color code, that means I'd need a orange-orange-brown gold resistor based on the images I found. I FOUND ONE! ... only it's broken. I'll keep looking...

Well considering we have so many of these, I really am kinda curious what each band means and how to understand them. I'm going to sort some and figure out what exactly they are! There seems to be numerous combinations, so I'll try to get a few figured out.

This first bunch is all 4 band resistors. They all seem to end in the color gold, which means 5% (something). 5% what? Wikipedia gives it as the tolerance. What is the tolerance?

We'll start learning about an easy(?) one. I have a bunch of red-red-red-gold resistors, which http://www.digikey.com/us/en/mkt/calculators/4-band-resistors.html translates as 2.2k ohms 5%.
How do we understand this? The code has a gap between the third and fourth bands (labeled A-B-C-D), so bands C and D, to distinguish left from right. C is used as a multiplier. Wikipedia has a great code that functions as how to read A and B by the color. Each color has a unique number with it, as well as a multiplier and a tolerance. The picture is shown here:

This table will help me read random ones!
It makes it obvious red-red-red-gold has to be 22 * 10^2, or 2.2 * 10^3, or 2.2k with a tolerance of +/-5%.

Another one I found several of was a yellow-violet-red-gold resistor. This must be 47*10^2 or 4.7k ohms with a tolerance of +/- 5%.

If we have a 5th band, we simply use A-B-C-D-E with A-B-C as our first 3 digits, D as the multiplier, and E as the tolerance.

A 6th band would not be the same actually! The last digit (F) would be a ppm reading. Not sure what that is but I will look into it!

Note to self: If I was going to organize it, I should pick a common band (probably the multiplier) to sort by so they are all similar in terms of powers of 10. Sorting every single color combination would be a little too much work I'm thinking.

Day # Senior Skip Day (even though I showed up for Chemistry and Physics cuz I'm so cool)

This image looks helpful for understanding the 7448 decoder for the 7-segment readout..

It seems like it makes sense, but trying to figure out how to actually wire it is going to be a beast. Hopefully I'll actually have time tonight or this weekend to confer with my dad about circuits and whatnot, but we'll see.

These 2 images seem to show how they should be wired together:

Understanding the numbering on the 7448 is important, which the second image is helping with. It also shows the numbering on the 7-segment readout, which I am having trouble with. All images are in that way, but the ones we have are horizontally orientated, not vertically. I'm not sure which side is which.. Guess we'll just have to find out. The first shows how to wire them together.

A google search yielded the part was LSD3221-11-LHDP/RHDP, which has a total of about 15 pictures on google images.. Shortening the array of letters/numbers doesn't help much, either.

Another day of lots of research... At least I think I'm making progress. I think my overall question will simply be how this thing works because it's pretty complicated! Now to find a mathy aspect..

Day # Something that I had counted +3

So I scrapped my previous circuit board, something was just not connecting right so I am moving to the next project. I am now starting the clocks project. I decided to look online for an easier-to-follow procedure, but I didn't really get anywhere. Tomorrow I'll actually be here, so I'll dig more to try and find a way to make this work, and I wouldn't mind trying to make an actual clock sort of thing if it's possible. I thought that sounded like fun, but baby steps I suppose.

Note: I did not remember to talk to my dad yet, but I will soon.

Day # I lost count +2

So I didn't post a picture of my circuit board yesterday as I was barely unable to finish. I had to quick hook up the battery, so here is the finished product:

Apologies on the picture quality, that's as good as it lets me get..

Unfortunately, it is not quite functional at the moment, and I'm attempting to troubleshoot why that is. I asked yesterday how exactly this thing works, and it turns out beneath the breadboard there are metal plates. Inserting the wires in the middle columns connects them together, as they are all in one circuit. The top 2 and bottom 2 rows are the + and -, + and minus, as in the way the electricity is flowing. These rows are all connected, but are separate from the middle rows. Wires from the +/- down to the middle rows will connect them for electric current.

So I went to take the battery out to check if I had a dead battery and I about burnt my hand, so I must be short-circuiting somewhere..
I also noticed I misplaced about three wires, I moved them all but to no result. The battery has cooled so I fixed the short circuit, but it's still incomplete.

I'm not quite sure why the circuit still isn't working, so I guess I'll write out my outside reference thing now.
I'll talk to my dad, because he knows a lot about computers and circuit boards. I'll ask him how they work, what components do what, and how to know if the circuit is complete. I think if he can get me a better understanding of how the board works, I'll actually get this bad boy to working condition on Thursday.

Week#3, Day number I forgot +1

So today I am starting this project: http://makezine.com/projects/projects-in-motion-control-three-types-of-motors-with-555-timers/

How does this thing work?!

Day# I lost track..

Started the power supplies experiment. Then I didn't know what the power supply diagram really was, so I took apart the Power Supply Model NO 33032 apart and this is what it looks like:

I do see a transformer in there.. Some tape (really? professionals use simple tape with something like this?!), some capacitors.. lots of wires too. I do see a couple resistors sitting on a circuit board after close observation. Oof, just realize that the inside of the box reeks...

Day#5

More looking for parts today... I also wrote on the bag what is what, hopefully the expo marker doesn't erase.. I'll let Kirk finish up the resistors, and if he gets time he can double-check what I'm pretty sure we don't have.

Updated list:

Parts list
Project 1
1- 1N914 diode - need 3
√1- Bridge rectifier - I think we have some
1- 7805 regulator IC (Three Terminal Regulator) - not seeing any of these
1- 100 µF capacitor @25 VDC - need 1
√1- 3.3 µF capacitor @50 VDC have it
√1- 220 Ω 1/4 W resistor have it
√1- 1000 Ω 1/4 W resistor have it
√1- 2200 Ω 1/4 W resistor have it
√1- 100 kQ potentiometer - have it
Project 2
1- 10 MΩ resistor
1- 1 kΩ resistor
1- 330 Ω
1- 100 kΩ
2- 10 kΩ
√1- .01 µF capacitor - have it
√1- .47 µF capacitor - have it
√1- .1 µF capacitor - have it
1- 60 Ω mini-speaker - I think odds are we don't have this
√1- 100 kQ potentiometer - still have it
√1- LED - gee I wonder if we have any LED's... haha
√1- 555 IC - have it
Project 3
7- 330 Ω resistor
8- 4.7 k-Ω resistor

√4- LEDs - we only have like a thousand of these

√1- 7 segment readout (common cathode) - have them

√1- 8 bit DIP switch - in with the 7 segment readout

√1- 7448 IC - have it

√1- 7404 IC - have it

1- GE H24A1 Opto-Coupler - Pretty sure we don't have any

Week#2, Day#4

Stole this from Kirk Brink (and edited it for what I was looking for) http://kirkelectronicsproject.blogspot.com/
I looked for hex inverters, which seem to be fairly well sorted but are still pretty hard to distinguish. I put a bunch of the ones I found in bags for easy finding later.

Parts list
Project 1
1- 1N914 diode - need 3
1- Bridge rectifier
1- 7805 regulator IC (Three Terminal Regulator)
1- 100 µF capacitor @25 VDC - need 1
1- 3.3 µF capacitor @50 VDC have it
1- 220 Ω 1/4 W resistor have it
1- 1000 Ω 1/4 W resistor have it
1- 2200 Ω 1/4 W resistor have it
1- 100 kQ potentiometer
Project 2
1- 10 MΩ resistor
1- 1 kΩ resistor
1- 330 Ω
1- 100 kΩ
2- 10 kΩ
1- .01 µF capacitor
1- .47 µF capacitor
1- .1 µF capacitor
1- 60 Ω mini-speaker
1- 100 kQ potentiometer
1- LED
1- 555 IC have it
Project 3
7- 330 Ω resistor
8- 4.7 k-Ω resistor

4- LEDs

1- 7 segment readout (common cathode)

1- 8 bit DIP switch

1- 7448 IC - have it

1- 7404 IC - have it

1- GE H24A1 Opto-Coupler

Day#3

Well I just figured out what a capacitor is! In one of the snap-circuits there was a capacitor and I had no idea what it actually did. The capacitor stores energy flowing to it, but also lets some pass. If it is connected to a battery, it eventually accumulates the same voltage as the battery, so the wire can have no current. Visually, a light bulb would light and get dimmer as the capacitor stores energy.
I also started looking through what stuff we should probably get organized... and about had a heart attack. We've got some work to do.

Day #2

Today consisted of working on a couple more snap circuits, which I have pictured below. I think I have a basic enough understanding of these circuits to move onto the actual circuit boards soon.

This first image pictures a circuit that charges a capacitor (the middle green piece), and then changes the circuit. This causes the red LED to begin by glowing, but soon fade and eventually die out, even if the circuit is still connected. The practical application of this was a nightlight that you want on to get to your bed, but shuts off soon so the room is dark to sleep in.

This circuit used a phosphoresistor to activate and deactivate the fan and space music. In the presence of light, the circuit is allowed to be completed so the fan spins and the speaker makes noise. Without light, the circuit shuts off and is incomplete. There was also a switch that could activate the circuit, or speed up the fan if there was also light present.

Day 1

Day 1 was spent mostly on snap circuits and just familiarizing myself with the typical components. I tried a couple of the example circuits it gave me and will probably need to do a few more before I start the more complicated circuits.