2015 New Year Statement

 In this year, I plan to do much of what I could not do last year. I spent much of last year building and testing the Elenco Micro-Master MM-8000 Basic Microprocessor Course that I was able to test out today. I plan to be posting the MM-8000 to my blog this coming week. I have a Hexapod Robot Kit and a Arduino CC/Robot that I plan to work with this year. These robots come preassembled so more programs than building. Lastly, I hope to work with single board computers, and play with the Microprocessor courses, I have. I wish everyone a very good year, and thank you for following my blog.

"Three Fives" Discrete 555 Timer Kit by Evil Mad Scientist

The Evil Mad Scientist Shop has the "Three Fives" Discrete 555 Timer kit designed by Eric Schlaepfer. The "Three Fives" Discrete 555 Timer kit is a replica of the NE555 timer; more over, a full functional transistor-scale replica. The NE555 Timer was designed in 1971 by Hans Camenzind and is featured in IEEE Spectrum, May 2009 article "25 Microchips That Shook the World". The NE555 chip is so popular because it has three operating modes: Monostable, Astable, and Bistable. These three operating modes allow the NE555 chip to be used in a large variety of electronic products just a few are delay timers, alarms, logic clocks, LED and lamp flashers, and power supplies. I enjoyed assembling the "Three Fives" Discrete 555 Timer kit. I also like the fact that the "Three Fives" Discrete 555 Timer can be dropped into a circuit design that requires a 555 Timer chip. I find that it pulls back the veil on the small black microchip and shows the inner workings. The "Three Fives" Discrete 555 Timer kit took about an hour and is very easy to assemble.    

Assembled

Components

Completed PCB

Wired for testing.

Circuit used for testing (Flashing LED).

Elenco's Surface Mount Technology Kit Model SM-200K

The SM-200K kit is to help one get familiar with working with Surface Mount Technology. The SM-200K Decision Maker will answer any question the user asks. When the asked button is pressed, six LEDs are driven on and off; in addition, a buzzer will sound. After a few seconds one LED will remain lite answering ones question. Over a few minutes this LED will dim and then go out. The Theory of operation of the SM-200K is six LEDs are driven by a decimal counter and two oscillators. The decimal counter is driven by one oscillator and the buzzer is driven by the other oscillator. 

Completed

PCB

Tinning for Resistor Mounting.

Mounted Resistors.

All components mounted.

SMD Happy Face by Velleman

The SMD happy Face is a great kit to practice soldering Surface Mounted Devices (components are mounted onto the surface of printed circuit board).  I soldered these components by tinning one pad with solder, with tweezers applying the component and reheating the solder to mount, lastly, soldering the other pad(s) to connect the component to the PCB. As one can see in the first picture SMD can be very small. The 2 Transistor and 2 LEDs are size SOT-23 (2.9 mm x 1.3 mm/1.75 mm x 1.3 mm). The 4 Resistor are size 2012 (2.0 mm x 1.25 mm). The 2 Capacitor are size 3225 (3.2 mm x 2.5 mm). These components create a Astable Multivibrator Circuit or Oscillator producing a square wave. This makes the LEDs blink on and off. Below the video are a few links that I used as reference and for more information about this fun technology.

Top to bottom Resistor, Capacitor, LED, and Transistor.

One side of the resistor soldered.

Tinned Resistor pad.

Tinning Transistor pads.

Assembled Happy Face.

Surface-mount technology Wiki

Radio Shack SMT/SMD Capacitor Tutorial

Transistor Multivibrator

Transistor package

SMD code book

Bulb Dial Clock by Evil Mad Scientist

The Bulbdial Clock kit was developed by Evil Mad Scientist based on a design concept by David Friedman. The Bulbdial Clock uses 72 LEDs to cast 3 shadows (hours, minutes, seconds) for telling time (indoor sun dial). This kit includes a pre-programmed ATmega328p microcontroller, 20 ppm quartz crystal, power supply, resistors, capacitors, gnomon spike, and mounting hardware. The 72 LEDs are driven using Charlieplexing. In addition to the Bulbdial Clock kit, I purchased a Chronodot to provide battery backup to the clock. The Chronodot is pre-assembled and easily fits into sockets on the Bulbdial blue PCB. This was a fun and simple DIY kit to assemble and the folks at Evil Mad Scientist provide very detail instructions. Below my pictures I will display more links for reference. This clock looks wonderful above my fireplace.

This PCB contains the bulk of components including a ATmega328p microcontroller.

Blue LEDs added to PCB for minute hand and Clock face with Gnomon spike.

Adjusting the LEDs for a Gnomon shadow for second hand. 

LEDs in green Circuit Board before soldering for the minute hand. 

Unmounted red Circuit Board. 

Mounted Red Circuit Board

Adjustment of the hour hand.

Chronodot.

Black case.

Clear case. 

David Friedman's concept

Bulbdial Wiki

On the design of the Bulbdial Clock

MIcroView

http://kck.st/1qPfQee

Motion Detector Kit Model AK-510 by Elenco

The AK-510 is an Infrared Motion Detector. The Infrared Detector detects heat radiation. This detector can detect up to 10' away but Elenco recommends detection at 6'. The AK-510 circuit is made up of Amplifier, High and Low Filters. Sound Generator, Power Supply, and Infrared Detector.

Completed AK-510