Wow, what a journey. From landing in OZ (being given my skills audit), traveling the yellow brick road (filling in the gaps in my knowledge) to escaping the evil flying monkeys (procrastination, confusion and misinformation) I think I’ve finally arrived… My attitude towards the whole of electronics at the start of this process was one […]

Steve has been building this amazing electronics teaching aid for one of his projects this semester and today was his first complete test using all 5 panels together… Each panel interacts with the next to produce a final outcome of a binary to decimal counter that counts from 0-9 then resets. You’ve got the 555 […]

I’ll be breaking this circuit down into its 3 component parts to make the analysis a bit simpler so I’ll be looking at the signals from the astable to the binary counter and from the binary to the decimal converter. So… like the input: the pulse from the astable 55, the process: the binary counter, and the […]

Starting with the visual: Double check your circuit matches your diagram. Is everything pushed in properly? Are all polarised components in the right way round? Are your stripped wire ends the right length? (5-10mm) Have any connections snapped? Are the values of your components correct? (resistors, capacitors etc.) Is your IC in the right way […]

OK, starting with the visual inspection again… Double check your circuit matches your diagram. Is everything pushed in properly? Are all polarised components in the right way round? Are your stripped wire ends the right length? (5-10mm) Have any connections snapped? Are the values of your components correct? (resistors, capacitors etc.) Is your IC in […]

So first I need to start with the visual inspection: Double check your circuit matches your diagram. Is everything pushed in properly? Are all polarised components in the right way round? Are your stripped wire ends the right length? (5-10mm) Have any connections snapped? Are the values of your components correct? (resistors, capacitors etc.) Is […]

My logic circuit is a nice, simple NAND gate to start this off:   The transistor circuit is one that I’ve not tried out before, I’ve simulated it using Circuit Wizard in my previous post so now time to bring it into the real world:  Next is the monostable: And lastly the beast… The binary to decimal […]

Sorry couldn’t resist,  I love the IT Crowd Ok, what am I fixing and what are my procedures? I need to remake some of my circuits from my experimentation posts and give them to one of my lovely colleagues to sabotage. I should start with something relatively simple and work up to the complex stuff […]

The Wizard has spoken! After reviewing my progress to date with Dean I now have a way forward to prove my competence. I stated in one of my first posts what I deem to be competence:  ’To be competent in a subject you need to understand it but also to be able to apply your understanding, […]

In having a nosy at what my fellow students have been doing I’ve come across another digital logic device called a flip flop. The ever helpful Steve has aslo been building a binary counter but he has done it in a very different way to mine, he has used a chain of 4 linked D […]