Microprocessor boards like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone can do a lot of nifty things with electronic signals. It is sometimes necessary to move some of those tasks outside of the processor itself. Enter the world of custom circuits. There are a lot of components out there that have specialized functions, there are even more that can be used a variety of ways.
In this video, I will show you a few of my most used helpful circuits. They involve using the 555 timer and the Operational Amplifier.
See the full series here.
6 thoughts on “Projects With Ryan Slaugh: Helpful Circuits”
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I enjoyed the video and learned a few things. I don’t have any experience designing custom circuits and am not interested in learning to become an electrical engineer, however, I’d love to know if you have any recommendations for learning simple circuits, like the ones that you demonstrated, that can be used in a building block like fashion to design more advanced circuits? Additionally, what is the purpose of R3 in the Op Amp comparitor circuit?
The resistor R3 is used to limit the current going through the transistor that otherwise would be enough to fry the transistor
For Op Amps I would go to the book “Op Amps for Everybody”. Its a nice start. For the 555 there are a lot of online sources. For simple circuits in general I would start with the Forest M Mims library available online or at Radio Shack.
Both pots in the circuit change voltage levels on the pins they connect to on the Op Amp. One is a reference voltage, the other is a measured voltage. If measured goes above reference the LED turns on. In a useful circuit environment, you connect one pin to a sensor and look for that level to go above your reference voltage.