Random numbers are a very useful thing to have. Why else would we have created dice to roll and coins to flip? We use random numbers to make decisions where there would be indecision, or when we need digital security. However, if you have studied random numbers, you may come to the conclusion that truely random numbers are very difficult to produce. In theory, you could calculate which way a group of dice will land based on a certain throw.
Every electronics workbench has several very important tools. A multimeter, a power supply, maybe even an oscilloscope. These tools are all extremely important for electronics work because they allow us to inspect our circuits and determine whether everything is working properly. However, there is still one amazing useful tool that is still missing. And that is the function generator. A function generator may not be one of the most commonly used tools, but it is incredible for testing circuits where we need quickly repeating patterns.
Halloween is quickly approaching, and what better way to prepare than making a decoration of our own? And what better decoration to make than a spider climbing from the its web? So, in this video we will be finding the best way to make this spider, and setting it up to spook up my house for halloween. It will be so scary that no one will dare trick or treat here again.
In a previous video, I made a pre-regulating power supply. And while it works fine, and can handle loads up to one amp, testing it can be a bit tedious. You would need several different power resistors to test a supply like this, not to mention the calculations you need to run to ensure you pick the correct resistor and get the correct results. Isn’t there an easier way to simulate a load so that we can more easily test power supplies?
Microcontrollers are extrememly popular in circuits nowadays, and that is for good reason. They can be programmed to do just about anything and replace otherwise very complicated hardware. Take, for instance, the Arduino and, by extension, the atmega series of microcontrollers. These devices allow us to manipute hardware by writing software. The only problem is that writing code for and understanding these microcontrollers isn’t exactly as straightforward as making a circuit out of transistors.
Data in electronics can be generally divided into two categories: digital and analog. With digital having two electrical states, and analog having infinite states. And it is quite often that we have to run mathematical operations in our circuits. For digital, this is quite easy as we can use a microcontroller or a full adder to accomplish such tasks. However, analog is a bit more tricky to get setup, and that is because of the famous operational amplifier, also known simply as an op-amp.
In power electronics, we use a lot of current. Unfortunately, a lot of power is also dissapated as heat. Depending on how much power you are using, you may find that your system is producing too much heat, and causing the destruction of your ICs. Linear regulators are especially vunerable to overheating, because they dissapte a very large amount of heat while in use. But how can we combat the heat, and allow our ICs to continue functioning even with the heat?
Power supplies provide the backbone for all electronic projects. Without them, none of our circuits would work. These power supplies are all built with different methods, ranging from switching to linear regulation. However, both come with their own disadvantages. So, how can we get around or reduce the effect of said disadavantages? Well, in this video I will show you have to make a compact power supply that will take a 24 volt input and allow you to ajust it down all the way to 1 and a quarter volts, using switiching pre- regulation.
In a previous video, I demonstrated how the LM317 works on the inside. Ultimately, we ended up making a larger version with a mosfet and an op amp. While this was a good introduction to the LM317 and linear regulators in general, there is still a lot of applications that the LM317 can be put into that extend beyond the standard variable power supply that we made, with some being more useful than others.
Our world is largely digital today, comprised of 1s and 0s, and values are represented in binary. And for a lot of purposes, these two options are enough. But what about applications that require an analog output after digital processing? For example, when we play music from our phones or computers, it comes out as an analog signal. My digital function generator creates analog signals as well. But how can we convert two state binary has into the infinite possibilities of analog.