TECHNO TE (A) CH

INTRODUCTION:

Welcome to this training manual to start a small scale lab at your own premises. This
manual is completely for the technical use of all electronic hobbyists and enthusiasts. This
manual is designed so as to guide you through the process of assembling and analyzing your own
electronics projects in a cheap and efficient manner. This text document includes methods of
constructing (modeling) your own workshop (LAB that’s what I call my place) and start
debugging some simple logic circuits to designing complex microcontroller based projects. Let’s
get down to work now shall we!

WHAT IS THIS ‘LAB’?

Usually a place where you always sit and think is your workplace. It can be your
bedroom, dining table, even bathroom. But we can’t expect our housemates for agreeing with us
to establish a lab in these places. So where are we supposed to put this place? The answer is very
simple; just choose a table that you use for your studies and other general activities. Get your self
a shelf or rack to keep things arranged. And voila! You have your setup all ready to start
inventing something. Cheap but quite effective (trust me I know). Look after the illumination
factor and it should be weather proof. Search for a plug point (5A sockets will do).

WHAT APPARATUS TO START WITH:

The above mentioned space is not the limit if you have a big wallet you can also go for
the one shown in movies, but I aim at completing the task easy and cheap. An engineer is a
person who knows his tools and meddles with them quite often. So to start a lab, analyze which
kind of job you are starting. Since this manual aims electronics hobbyists I will tell all about
electronics instruments. The initial list is here as follows please don’t avoid these as they are
very useful in every aspect of life.

Screw driver set (with tester)

Wire stripper/cutter

Cutting player

Multi meter

Bread board

Plug point ( with separate fuse)

Single strand wire

Soldering iron and accessories

I suggest you get all of these with out fail if you don’t have one. The multi meter can be
an analog one or digital (analog is robust and cheap; digital is costly and easy to work
with). Then this plug point is something where you have 3 or 4 independent plug points
 with separate switch for each plug and fuse for the entire setup (I strongly recommend
this set up) so if there is any electrical short circuit the fuse in your board saves the fuse
in your house. It also saves your circuit and apparatus.

The bread board has several holes and these holes are vertically interconnected. All initial trial
circuits SHOULD be given in multi meter to test and analyze its performance before constructing
it into a PCB (Printed Circuit Boards) and finishing process (I’ll tell about these in later
editions). The single strand wires are meant to connect with the bread board.

The soldering iron is the one used to make firm bond between wires and components
lead. The accessory includes soldering lead (a metal made of alloy of tin and lead) and soldering
flux. The process is quite dangerous as it can give you burns up to third degree (I have had the
honors). Please be very careful in this process and try reading some articles in internet about this
topic. (I shall write a detailed article later). Though you read many books experience will make
you better in this ‘art’ (watch out for the word art). All your work depends upon this soldering
once your circuit functions well in bread board level. A 35W general purpose soldering iron is
just what you need. Try getting some variety of “soldering tips”. The tips size varies for putting
it use under various components such as (diode needs bigger tips and ICs need a smaller one).

More on this later.

All these essentials can be obtained from your local electronics shop/ market. Try getting
it in shops at wholesale prices to save money.

WHAT ARE THESE PROJECTS?

Usually in books, magazines, internet e- books the word ‘project’ pops up. Its nothing but
any dedicated work started using research activities. If you cook for the day then the cooking
recipe is your project. If some one tells to install a fan in your house it is also a project. But here
projects refer to electronic gadgets construction such as “automatic heater\ cooler using micro
controller” is a project. In order to gain knowledge in building your own projects go through
some electronics magazine to gain initial access. If its too hard for you all ( over your heads)
start to search the net for small logic circuits and simpler circuits such as “running lights using
IC NE555” , “simple power supply”, “sound generator” etc. don’t worry if you don’t know these
we can manage. Thus projects are circuits that perform desirable operations for the designer (as
far as I am concerned). This manual will cover some basic projects later.

WHAT ABOUT MY COMPUTER?

In the list above I may missed the computer. But frankly speaking your computer is your
best buddy in doing any research activities. Some of the general purpose “simulating software” is
available in our blog spot example: PINNACLE is an IDE (Integrated Development
Environment) that simulates microcontroller (virtually) using your com. A simulator is a
computer software program written to create a device virtually and to make you use the device.
There are many simulators to even construct your own logic circuits. (Search the net and inform
us if you find some). Most of the latest projects now ‘interface’ your computer with the circuits
that you build. All automation is carried by SBC (Single Board Computers such as PIC, AVR,
TINY, ARM micro processors\ controllers) use your computer to burn the datas into them. So be
aware of all these facts. If you don’t have a system then you will be lagging behind so try to avail
one with basic facilities.

ONE MORE BASIC NEED:

One more basic need is your own DC power supply. Hope you have the knowledge that
all electronics circuit works on DC (Direct Current) and the available mains power is of 230V
AC (Alternating Current). So the mains cannot be directly interfaced with your circuits in bread
board. So you need a special device to reduce the 230V into a suitable range (for our purpose)
and that device happens to be a TRANSFORMER. A transformer is a device that manipulates
with the voltage levels. It can boost the voltage or vice- versa. We will be using the latter. Each
transformer has got its capacity. The higher the capacity the thicker the turns in windings and
higher the cost! We shall use the conventional 230\ (9-0-9) V transformer. The specification
specifies that the primary side voltage is 230V and the secondary has three wires the center one
is the neutral (black in color) and the corner ones are phase (yellow or red in color). The
combination decides the potential levels. If the extreme ones with the neutral is used the output
that you get is 9v. If the two extreme ends are used together the output that you get is 18V. Thus
the connections can be made. The output voltage thus obtained is still Ac and we need a rectifier
to convert this AC to DC. The capacity can be 1A or higher.

THE FIRST PROJECT:

And here is the time to construct our first project. It’s nothing too big it was my first
working project too. It’s the DC power supply. I designed this power supply initially in the
corner of my bread board itself, later to make it professional I designed a PCB and made the
circuit. All relevant materials for construction of this power supply is available in our blog spot.
Any quires and doubts are most welcome. Please visit the blog spot for detailed downloadable
files. Since this is your first project do take some time and work it out well all the very best.

I will catch you in the next month’s issue!