components

DIY Contact Mic – Collin’s Lab

It’s amazing what a little disk can do … when it’s layered with piezoelectric crystals. Piezo disks are impressively sensitive to vibration and can easily be adapted to work as a contact microphones. The trick is the preamp – a basic circuit used to match the piezo’s signal to levels compatible with modern audio gear inputs. The resulting piezo/preamp combo can be used for electrifying an acoustic guitar or simply exploring the lesser-heard world of small sound around us.

Continue Reading December 20th, 2011April 14th, 2015 Collin Cunningham1

Collin’s Lab: Schematics

http://bit.ly/uBjkMR
Schematics are the functional diagram of electronic circuits. With so many designs available on the web, understanding how to read schematics can unlock a world of possibilities for the electronics maker. In fact, if you can read a schematic, you can build a circuit before even understanding how it works!

Continue Reading November 15th, 2011October 14th, 2015 Collin Cunningham2

How-To: Homemade Memristor

Fascinating video from Nyle Steiner, who reports on his experiments with simple homemade memristors made from what are, probably, Al-CuS-Cu and Al-PbS-Pb junctions. He describes the observations that led him to experiment with these systems and the results of his experiments, and then wraps up by drawing out a simple memristor demonstration circuit and demonstrating its operation on-camera.

Continue Reading November 3rd, 2011 Sean Michael Ragan16

Circuit Skills: Infrared Light

http://wp.me/p1CIX9-udv

Infrared light may be invisible to the human eye – but it’s usefulness in the world of electronics is easy to see. IR emitters & detectors can be used in a variety of different ways – most of us use them for wireless communication everyday.

Continue Reading November 1st, 2011October 14th, 2015 Collin Cunningham

Jumbo 7-Segment Display from Glue Sticks, LEDs

More cool original content from Hack a Day, this time by Kevin Dady. He writes: “I was recently commissioned to make a device which uses a pretty large number display, and I went out shopping. The seven segment we liked best was still quite pricey, and would not fit our enclosure correctly anyway…”

Continue Reading August 26th, 2011 Sean Michael Ragan6

How-To: Air-Variable Capacitor From Scrap Aluminum

This lovely hand-made component, built as part of a crystal radio set Instructables user Jezan assembled for his son, started out as a sheet of 1.5 mm aluminum that looks like it may have come from the side of an old file cabinet. Jezan used minimal tools…

Continue Reading August 15th, 2011 Sean Michael Ragan30

Collin’s Lab: Switches

Easily overlooked, but elemental to electronics hardware, the manually operated switch is the simplest of electromechanical devices — and likely the most familiar. While the most basic switch is … well, quite basic — there’s a crazy-huge variety of switch types & sizes available to the electronics maker nowadays. Those new to the soldering & schematics scene will surely benefit from an introduction to some of the terms and formats relevant to various switch species.

Continue Reading June 29th, 2011October 14th, 2015 Collin Cunningham

POPULAR SEARCHES: