[Swansea Hackspace] Ideas for workshops

[Tom Lloyd]

That sounds like a great idea.  I for one could do with some more basic
electronics knowledge.

What else did we come up with at the social?
I suggested an introduction to the operating principles of transistors, by
building a very basic headphone amplifier.  What was the other idea?

Tom


On 31 July 2013 13:56, Graham Owens <grahamowensuk at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Hi people,
>
> Additional ideas for the technical workshops.
>
> I was thinking that - if it has not already been covered, a potential
> future workshop could build on the PIC workshops that have been done.
>
> The idea is basically to learn the basic input/output blocks.
>
> examples,
>
> many new people to microcontrollers, connect a switch between +5v to the
> pic input pin, then get frustrated that the switch is unreliable due to
> floating when the switch is open.  The block would be a switch, with the
> the pull-up or down as required.  Explanation of why the pull-up/down
> resistor is required.
>
> a simple relay output from the pic, using an easily obtainable mostfet to
> drive the relay, and include the protection diode.  Again explain how it
> works, and why we need the mosfet, and what the purpose of the protection
> diode is.
>
> a simple piezo buzzer, including any protection resistors.
>
> a simple potential divider, explain how to calulate the drop between the
> input and output.
>
> how to correctly connect an led, and calculate the current limiting
> resistor.
>
> It would be my hope that these building blocks were universal, and could
> be applied to any other controller type such as AVR, arduino etc. as well
> as non uP controlled projects.  For example using the switch module
> connected directly to the relay module would still produce a nicer circuit
> than running the coil voltage through the switch directly.
>
> The basic idea is to build a small library of very simple circuits that
> can be combined with the existing pic workshops so that people can go away
> and build circuits of their own, that will hopefully be reliable, and can
> be combined into larger projects by just duplicating these small blocks.
>
> This is probably a horrible description, but I hope that people understand
> what I mean.
>
> Additionally, would there be any interest in TTL LOGIC as a workshop?
>
> Graham
>
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