Electronics Measurements: How to Measure Alternating Current
With direct current, it’s easy to determine the voltage that’s present between two points in an electronic circuit: You simply measure the voltage with a voltmeter. With alternating current, however, measuring [more…]
Electronics Basics: The History of AC/DC Current Wars
Alternating current (AC) isn’t only used in electronic devices, it is the worldwide standard for power distribution. This wasn’t always the case, however. Back in the days when electricity was first being [more…]
Electronics Basics: Alternators and Alternating Current
If you want to free your electronic circuits from the tyranny of batteries, which eventually die, you’ll need to learn how to make your circuits work from an alternating current [more…]
Electronics Basics: What You Need to Know about Alternators
You’ll need to learn a bit about alternating current (AC), if you want to use an AC power supply in your electronic circuits. One good way to get your mind around how AC works is to look at the device [more…]
Electronics Basics: What You Need to Know about Transformers
A transformer combines the two basic principles of magnetism and inductance by placing two coils of wire in close proximity to one another. Here are the principles that the transformer exploits: [more…]
Line Voltage Can Supply Power to Electronic Circuits
Line voltage refers to the voltage that's available in standard residential or commercial wall outlets. many — if not most — real-world electronics projects do require that you use line voltage. [more…]
Electronics Safety Lesson: How to Stay Safe with Line Voltage
Whenever you build an electronics project that uses line voltage, you must take extra precautions to ensure your safety and the safety of anyone who may come in contact with your project. Line voltage [more…]
Alternating Current in Electronics: Hot, Neutral, and Ground Wires
Before you start working with line voltage in your electronic circuits, you need to understand a few details about how most residential and commercial buildings are wired. The following description applies [more…]
Alternating Current in Electronics: Wires and Connectors
When working with line voltage (the power that comes from a wall outlet) in your electronic circuits, you must always use wire that's designed specifically to handle line-voltage currents. Depending on [more…]
How to Use Fuses to Protect Electronic Line-Voltage Circuits
A fuse is an inexpensive device that can carry only a certain amount of current. When a fuse is in an electronic circuit and the current exceeds the rated level, the fuse melts [more…]
How to Use Relays to Control Electronic Line-Voltage Circuits
In many electronics projects, you need to turn line-voltage powered circuits on and off using circuits that use low-voltage DC power supplies. For example, suppose you want to flash a 120 VAC flood lamp [more…]
Electronic Power Supply: Build or Buy?
You can probably purchase a preassembled power adapterthat will provide the voltage you need for your electronics project for just a few dollars more than you could build the circuit yourself. A power [more…]
How Power Supplies Transform Voltage in Electronic Circuits
In most electronic power supplies, the transformer reduces the voltage. A transformer is a device that uses the principal of electromagnetic induction to transfer voltage and current from one circuit to [more…]
How Power Supplies Filter Rectified Current in Electronic Circuits
Although the output from an electronic rectifier circuit is technically direct current because all of the current flows in the same direction, it isn't stable enough for most purposes. Even full-wave and [more…]
How Power Supplies Turn AC into DC in Electronic Circuits
The task of turning alternating current into direct current is called rectification, and the electronic circuit that does the job is called a rectifier [more…]
Electronics Projects: How to Use Your Crystal Radio
Once your crystal radio circuit is built, your antenna is up, and your ground wire is connected, your electronic device is ready to go. It’s time to put your crystal radio to the test. Follow these steps [more…]
The Difference between Analog and Digital Electronics
All of electronics can be divided into two broad categories: analog and digital. One of the most common examples of the difference between analog and digital devices is a clock. On the analog clock, the [more…]
Digital Electronics: Numbering Systems
Most digital electronic circuits work with the binary number system. But what is a number system? A number system is simply a way of representing numeric values. Number systems use symbols called [more…]
Digital Electronics: Binary Basics
Digital electronic circuits rely on the binary number system. Thus, before you can understand the details of how digital circuits work, you need to understand how the binary numbering system works. [more…]
Digital Electronics: Logical Operations
One of the things that makes binary so useful in electronics is that it’s very efficient at handling special operations called logical operations. Logical operations [more…]
Digital Electronics: How to Use Windows Calculator for Binary Conversions
In the course of working digital electronics projects, it’s unlikely that you will have to convert a number between binary and decimal. If you do find that you need to convert binary numbers to decimal [more…]
Digital Electronics Projects: How to Use Switches to Build Gates
To give you an idea of how basic gates work, these electronics projects show you how to assemble an AND gate, an OR gate, and an XOR gate using simple DPDT knife switches. In actual practice, gate circuits [more…]
Electronics Components: Introducing Microcontrollers
A microcontroller is a complete computer on a single electronic chip. They can be purchased for $50 or less. Like all computer systems, microcomputers consist of several basic subsystems: [more…]
Electronics Components: Introducing the BASIC Stamp
The BASIC Stamp is an electronic microcontroller made by Parallax, a company started by two kids fresh out of high school in 1986. A BASIC Stamp is an essentially complete, self-contained computer system [more…]
Electronics Components: Buying a BASIC Stamp
A BASIC Stamp is an essentially complete, self-contained computer system for use in electronic circuits. Although you can purchase a BASIC Stamp microcontroller by itself, the easiest way to get into BASIC [more…]
