User:Tompoes

Project

* Find or design a project / circuit to build
* build it
* modify / adapt it
* document

There are a few requirements

* The project needs to have a relation to your own practice.
* The circuit is part of the entire aesthetics and concept.
* For the final project there is no breadboarding allowed (you can use a breadboard for prototyping though)
* Remember your focus is to expand your toolbox, experiment and process is important. Document!
* Don't overcomplicate, you need to be able to explain what is going on. 
* A written reflection document including documentation of your circuit.

Inspiration

* Stan Wannet, Logica / 0
* Tristan Perich, 1-Bit Symphony
* Tristan Perich, Drawing Machine
* Peter Vogel, The sound of shadows
* Tom Verbruggen, Crackle Canvas
* Tom Verbruggen, Module #2
* Jerobeam Fenderson, Oscilloscope Music
* Jerobeam Fenderson, Khrang
* Aram Bartholl, On

Techniques

* Circuits, dead bug style
* Volumetric circuits (related to the dead bug style)
* Wire wrapping
* Parallax breadboard tutorial
* PCB making, Toner transfer method
* PCB making, etching
* PCB making, fab house

Week 1 homework

Although this homework may be a bit boring, it is fundamental to your understanding of electronic circuits. Look at it as a material study. You can use a resistor calculator to help you with the resistor color code (See resources below)

* Create a personal wiki page and link to it here. You will need to keep your progress and document your results on this page. See for an howto: http://opensource.wdka.nl/wiki/Wiki_Writing_Workshop

Circuit with one resistor

* Make a circuit with one battery and a resistor. Note the voltage of the battery and the resistance of the resistor.
 * What is the voltage across the resistor
 * What is the current through the resistor
 * What happens to the current and voltage if you double the resistor value
 * What happens to the current and voltage if you half the resistor value

Circuit with two series resistors

* Make a circuit with one battery and two resistors in series. Note the voltage of the battery and the resistances of the resistors.
 * What is the voltage across each resistor
 * What is the current through each resistor
 * What happens to the current and voltage if you double the resistor value of one resistor
 * What happens to the current and voltage if you half the resistor value of one resistor

Circuit with three or more series resistors

* Do the same for three or more resistors in series

Circuit with two parallel resistors

* Make a circuit with one battery and two resistors in parallel. Note the voltage of the battery and the resistances of the resistors.
 * What is the voltage across each resistor
 * What is the current through each resistor
 * What happens to the current and voltage if you double the resistor value of one resistor
 * What happens to the current and voltage if you half the resistor value of one resistor

Circuit with three or more parallel resistors

* Do the same for three or more resistors in parallel

Extra: Circuit with resistor and LED

* Make a circuit with a 9V battery, a 470 Ohm resistor and an LED.
 * What happens when you use a higher value resistor, how high can you go, what happens?
 * What happens when you use a lower value resistor, how low can you go, what happens?

Week 2 homework

For this week you need to find and build a (small) circuit using the 555 timer.

* For this weeks homework it is fine to build the circuit on a breadboard and make sure it works.
* For bonus points use one of the other techniques we discussed, e.g. the dead bug style or the volumetric style.

A good primer on the 555 timer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX01x1z7fTY 555 timer circuits:

* http://www.555-timer-circuits.com/
* http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/50%20-%20555%20Circuits/50%20-%20555%20Circuits.html
* http://electronicsclub.info/555timer.htm
* https://duckduckgo.com/?q=555+circuits

Choose a simple circuit of which you understand what it is supposed to do and you think you can build. This most likely will be something with sound or blinking LEDs.

Week 3 homework

* Download and install CadSoft EAGLE
* Download the EAGLE 555 blink template with schematic and PCB layer here: Media:Eagle_555_template.zip‎ . 
* The template contains all the components needed to create a simple 555 Astable circuit (aka a Blinking LED):

555 blinking schematic

* Recreate the schematic on the left.
* Create the PCB layout
* Following the SparkFun tutorials on EAGLE (see resources below) will be VERY helpful along the way!!
* Don't not make your PCB larger than 3 x 3 cm (as in the template).
* Don't make your traces smaller than ~0.3mm (12mil)

Note:

* You may use any other program (KiCad, gEDA or even Illustrator) to create the PCB layout but this is on your own account.
* You can create your own schematic instead of the template but you will need to figure out yourself where to find the components in the library (HINT: use the search option with wildcards (*) in Eagle). 
* I will be providing enough components for everyone to build the template on a 3x3cm board. If you need other components let me know which ones or what size your board did become. However I can not guarantee they arrive in time. 
* Remember this is an exercise in create a circuit from scratch not in designing the coolest gadget in town (that is what your project is for ;-).

Resources

Circuit elements and theory

* Resistors in Series
* Resistors in parallel

Handy tools

* Resistor color code
* Resistor color code calculator

Tutorials and informational resources

* Ladyada on Multimeters
* 555 monostable and astable modes explained
* SparkFun EAGLE Schematic tutorial
* SparkFun EAGLE PCB Layout tutorial

Circuit collections

555

* 555 timer circuits
* http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/50%20-%20555%20Circuits/50%20-%20555%20Circuits.html
* http://electronicsclub.info/555timer.htm

Programs

electronics CAD packages

* Cadsoft Eagle
* KiCAD
* gEDA

circuit simulation

* online java circuit simulator with many examples
* quite good online circuit simulator (timed trial)