Doddling in Instructables, need help

[Zambini]

how do those boards work? I might go to Fry's or Radio Shack (might be cheaper)

How are the holes connected and all?

Because if I could just get one of those that works it would save myself a ton of stress and anger and more stress. lol.


ps: My current stockpile of circuits/resistors/boards came from you ;) remember from Max Pc? I got uber pissed and stopped. lol. But if I have a solder-less board, I won't get mad at all after spending 5 minutes kicking out a design. (I spent almost 2 hours soldering stuff on this and I was quite frustrated when it didnt work.)



[edit] I googled "Breadboard" and found a very good website
Breadboard
it explains it quite well. and it has probably the exact circuit I want to try.
So now all I need is a suggestion from you as to what type of board I should get.

also Wiki helps a lot. :)

lol, who wants to build an Intel 8088 board?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rd_complex.jpg

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by Zambini

how do those boards work? I might go to Fry's or Radio Shack (might be cheaper)

How are the holes connected and all?

Because if I could just get one of those that works it would save myself a ton of stress and anger and more stress. lol.


ps: My current stockpile of circuits/resistors/boards came from you ;) remember from Max Pc? I got uber pissed and stopped. lol. But if I have a solder-less board, I won't get mad at all after spending 5 minutes kicking out a design. (I spent almost 2 hours soldering stuff on this and I was quite frustrated when it didnt work.)



[edit] I googled "Breadboard" and found a very good website
Breadboard
it explains it quite well. and it has probably the exact circuit I want to try.
So now all I need is a suggestion from you as to what type of board I should get.

also Wiki helps a lot. :)

lol, who wants to build an Intel 8088 board?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rd_complex.jpg

LOL, OK cool. I send a good number of people freebies so I forget sometimes who is who and when names change forum to forum I generally end up clueless.

The wiki image reminds me of my work. Birds Nest 101! OK seriously look at the wiki pic you linked to. Lets say the chips run Horizontal. Notice how the chips span the gap in the protoboard. There are 5 tie points off each pin on the chip. Actually 4 on a small width chip as the chip uses one of them. Looking at things vertically extending from the chip, each hole (tie point) is connected together. The small strip on the left is being used as a power strip. Another animal. The jumper wires are all solid conductor and I forget the gauge, thinking like AWG 20 or AWG 22 maybe.

Yeah, look Ma no solder is the merit. When a person is doing prototype work (fancy way of saying will this design actually work) these boards are invaluable. Thay are a great tool. They allow the designer to easily add & remove components and try different combinations. Unfortunately the circuit in the picture is rather complex and the wiring blocks much of the layout. Bummer.

All you really need for what you want to do is a single section of what you see in the picture which is one that I linked to earlier. I also noticed the wires in the pic have small plugs on most of them. You don't need that. Just basic stripped solid conductor wire works fine.

Note: The Breadboard link you provided shows the 555 set up for "Monostable" operation. Think about my previous post. Note the trigger pin is connected to a button. You want an Astable circuit.
Ron

[Zambini]

Umm. ok. I dont know these fancy terms.
whats the different between Monostable and Astable when it comes to the blinky?
I would assume monostable means only 1 LED?


But soon (probably next time I'm there) I'm gonna go to Fry's. I found a bunch of em <20.

FRYS.com*|*Twin Industries like this one looks good. Or I'll just look around.

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by Zambini

Umm. ok. I dont know these fancy terms.
whats the different between Monostable and Astable when it comes to the blinky?
I would assume monostable means only 1 LED?


But soon (probably next time I'm there) I'm gonna go to Fry's. I found a bunch of em <20.

FRYS.com*|*Twin Industries like this one looks good. Or I'll just look around.

First the protoboard you linked to is perfect for what you want to do! Not bad at all for $20.

OK, lets look a little at the Monostable and Astable thing with respect to the blinkey thing. You want a LED to blink meaning simply turn on, turn off over and over again. When power is applied you want on, off, on, off as long as power is applied. That is called "Astable" meaning it is just free running. The device has no single stable state. The state keeps changing.

Now "Monostable" as MONO implies has a single stable state. When power is applied it can be On or Off and all it will do is sit there in that state. Nothing going on, no blinkey action. The LED will just sit there On or Off waiting for user or some intervention. That intervention comes in the form of a "Trigger". When the device is "triggered" it will change state. Thus if the LED is Off it will turn On or if it is on it will turn off. Now how long it turns on or off is a function of the R*C time constant. Thus if the time constant is 1 second it will change states for 1 second and return to its original on or off state. So if we trigger with a push button and you simply tap the button (much like turning your computer on) the LED will do whatever for a set time duration. Then it returns to its original state till triggered again.

Back to Astable. We now know astable just means the thing keeps running and running. The output is going on, off, on, off over and over again. Now here's the deal with that stuff. The output has a "Frequency" and the reciprocal of that frequency is time. Time = 1/F and Frequency = 1/T. OK, without getting too complicated lets say we have a 1 uF capacitor (That is 1 times 10 to the -6th power) and a 1 Mega Ohm (that is 1 times 10 to the +6th power) resistor. We have .000001 * 100000 = 1 therefore the R*C time constant is 1 second and the frequency is 1 Hz.

That 1 Hz is the Frequency and since the reciprocal of 1 is 1 the time is 1 second. However, if we assume a symetrical output the signal is On for 1/2 second and Off for 1/2 second. We won't get into symetry right now. Just assume equal on off time.

Something else you need to understand and grasp well. What you are seeing here is not basic electricity. This stuff is not covered in EL101 or EL102 for that matter. This is typically second year electronic theory. A typical student has had a full year of having his/her brain toasted before they see this stuff. Logic theory and Booleen Algebra.

Frustration is your worst enemy! When I learned this stuff there were no chips, transistors were breaking news and I was learning Vacuum Tube theory. You need to take very small (baby) steps. I smoked countless parts, hell I smoked vacuum tubes and that is hard to do!

Now, what part of what I wrote do you not understand? Not understanding is normal as if you get 10% you are doing well.

Ron

[Zambini]

damn dude I wish U had taught my physics class (the part we did electronics) this year. lol. I understood all of that until the EL101 stuff.


One thing I don't understand is this whole "LEDs are their own resistor" thing.

Or did I just miss something?
What (in lamens terms) is different from an LED and a regular light bulb (like one you'd find in a Maglight mini-flashlight)


ps: I might actually use the Monostable version for a movie I'm gonna do this summer. Think: big bomb with blinker device.
If I understand this correctly, which I am almost certain I don't, I could, in theory, make a monostable setup, but instead of an LED, it would link to an astable setup, and the monostable setup would have a very very very high time constant, such as 10 seconds (yay for basic math :)). Then I could do the normal blinky astable, and VIOLA! There is my bomb.hehe.
ps: I have one of these, that's what I would need right?

pps: Check out Fry's Aisle 1 (of 2) of circuits




Thank you very much for all your help so far btw :)

[MantaBase]

Originally Posted by Zambini

And where do I get some sort of test board so I don't actually have to solder the stuff together, but can place them securely in some circuit? I know they exist, but I am clueless as to what to look for, could u recommend one? (a brand, model, or somethin)
preferably less than 15 bucks. =/ A starter board thing.

RadioShack also has them. Just ask for a Proto-board - and if they look clueless, ask for a bread-board. I don't know why, but twice I had to ask for that to find a protoboard. Make sure it has the wire lugs and will take the gauge you want.

They only have pretty basic ones there. I'm not sure what a bread board is - I think its a proto-board that requires soldering, but you will know what you want when you see it.

Manta

[Zambini]

I went to fry's and got the one I linked to. Looks nice, only 15 bucks, has the nubs for Va, Vb, and -|l (lol)

I also went to radio shack and bought 2 555 timers. I asked at fry's (cuz they have 2 walls the size of the picture above) where they were and the guys were like "wadafudge?" and I couldn't find it on their website (had an open computer) and radioshack was blocked. lol.

Anyway I'm gonna bread-it-up within the next 2 days and hopefully I can fix my lil problem :)

I think a lack of parts has been my major obstacle. That and patience. :)

[Reloadron]

damn dude I wish U had taught my physics class (the part we did electronics) this year. lol. I understood all of that until the EL101 stuff.

The refrence to EL101 & EL102 was to semesters of college for someone starting out in electronic engineering.

Glad you have some parts and you picked up a board to work with. Just post if you have any problems getting the circuit to work. Post also when it does work.

If I understand this correctly, which I am almost certain I don't, I could, in theory, make a monostable setup, but instead of an LED, it would link to an astable setup, and the monostable setup would have a very very very high time constant, such as 10 seconds (yay for basic math :)). Then I could do the normal blinky astable, and VIOLA! There is my bomb.hehe.
ps: I have one of these, that's what I would need right?

Yes, but for now focus on the basic circuit at hand. There is another chip in the family called a 556 which is two 555s in a single package. Again, just focus on getting what you want working. :)

Ron

[Zambini]

<@:P)

Got it working. Blinks very well. I just need to figure out the resistor for the LED (All I had was a 470ohm and thats wayy too high, it ran dim) Somewhere around 200 is what I need (6v=R*30mA [for the LED]), and I have one somewhere..... its a fatty 1/2w one. LoL. :)


I had (still have, but its inoperable/broken) a lil circuit board that has almost the same layout as the breadboard does, with the metal connection thingy on the back
Found it

I'll just have to plan out how I'm gonna mount it :) I might need to get a different one cuz that one isnt good for a 555 chip. :)

I'm off to LA now (lunch + seeing "knocked up"), but I'll be back later tonight and tomorrow I can hit up Radio Shack again (depositing $ into WaMu, its almost next to the RS)

[Reloadron]

Well there you go, it works! You have just built your first free running clock circuit using the 555 timer chip. Yeah, if your LED is dim try around a 220 Ohm in there. Nice going!

Ron