Electronics

One Man’s Trash is Another’s Treasure

What if I told you that there is a crap-load of electronic and mechanical components that one would normally have to buy available for FREE?

My last post on circuit analysis was more theoretical, this time we’ll delve into the practical and talk about salvaging electronic parts, where to find them, and how to do it effectively.

We’ve become a throw-away society over the last several decades. Big business’ never-ending thirst for more profits has pushed consumers in that direction — sometimes against their will. While there are a lot of negative consequences of living in a throw-away world (like environmental impact and shoddy-made consumer products), there are positive consequences for makers, hackers, and electronics enthusiasts.

3 Ninja Circuit Analysis Tricks

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In the last post concerning circuit analysis (Simple Circuit Analysis Techniques You Should Know) I went over some very basic but important techniques.

First, we had a quick over view of resistors in series, parallel, and series-parallel circuits. Then, we talked about Ohms Law. Finally, Kirchhoff’s Laws were introduced.

This time, I’m going to show you a few simple tricks for combining parallel resistors before I go into circuit analysis using some other very important (and slick) methods.

Video – Use an Arduino & 2 Push Button Switches to Control an LED

7 Resistor Characteristics You NEED to Consider for Your Next Project

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You may have heard someone say something like “…nothing in life is perfect” before. This is definitely true for resistors, which, like everything else in life, are imperfect.

When we need a resistor, most of us dip our hand into the appropriate drawer in the parts bin and pull one with the right color bands without giving it much thought. A few of us may consider things like tolerance and power rating, but other important considerations often fall victim to neglect.

Sometimes this is okay, other times this can cause problems and headaches if you don’t pick the right resistor for your application.

Practical Electronics: Resurrecting My Electronics Workbench, Part 2

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The last post Practical Electronics: Resurrecting My Electronics Workbench, Part 1 dealt with picking a location for your bench.

I also showed you the “before” version of the bench, went over a quick (and cheap) computer upgrade for running simulations and programming, and did some “house cleaning.” Finally, I laid out some of the plan for the newly remodeled workspace.

The first post was more about planning, but this one is where the action is. This is where you’ll see the “after” version of the workbench.

Practical Electronics: Resurrecting My Electronics Workbench, Part 1

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Recently, I decided to resurrect my electronics workbench.

Let me explain what I mean.