[Swansea Hackspace] Ideas for workshops

[Graham Owens]

I think other ideas that were mentioned were:

Output control, eg. making things happen in the real world, for example
motor control or servo control.

Communicating with a microcontroller from a PC.  I think this is the
technical workshop for a week monday.

I have 2xPickit 3's that I can bring (Mabey a 3rd and a Pickit 2)  So if
anyone needs to use one, they are more than welcome.

Graham


On 31 July 2013 16:29, Tom Lloyd <napalmllama at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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>>
>>
>
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