Boredom and fun

Project #1, LED flasher!

Hello world,

This is my first blog post on this blog, so I think I shall start with something simple.

The 555 timer: What it generally does is this:

The output is from pin three. Hopefully this picture will show you how it is wired:

A little background: I learned about electricity in 6th grade at school. I was incredibly intrigued by LEDs and switches. This was my first project for the 6th grade science fair:

Sadly I had to get rid of it, so this is all I have.

Basically, there is a car that is solar powered. The car is dragging a piece of wire.

What does that wire do?

If you look at the track, you will notice that I have tin foil on the surface. The inner side of the tin foil is grounded, while the outside tin foils are connected to the cathodes  of many LEDs connected in parallel.

When the car passes an LED, it will connect the cathode of the LED to ground, and that LED will light up.

As the car passes that LED, it will turn off, and turn the other one on in succession.

So, my first official projects with electronics started in 8th grade. It was February, I had a fever from my allergies, and I was bored and stuck at home. My brother recently came home from college with a bunch of gifts: 555 timers, 741 op-amps, logic chips, lasers, etc.

So, I googled what a 555 timer was. I found a cool project, and did it.

A 555 time bomb.

It was fun. Then, I made a blinking LED, then a fading LED, then a 555 piano... 

I had to get rid of those too, so, sorry, no photos.

However I do have a recording of a simple 12v led flasher, when I learned about the Esaki effect:

I learned it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0A2gnlNe64

Then I had to try this popular mouse modification: rapid fire.

It's really useful when playing CS:GO.

Then I moved on to 741 circuits, such as an audio amplifier, a heat activated fan (show in later blog), and some other failures.

Then I did some LM386 audio amplifiers (show in later blog), and some TDA amplifiers.

While all these projects were being completed, please note that I used these skills to help me repair broken speakers, broken electronics, etc.

So what's the point?

Last week I was at Cornell, with my family, helping my sister move into her dorm.

They were giving out free things that day: an LED flasher, for example.

I got bored, so I took it apart. Look how much fun this is:

This is the start of this blog, so I hope you find some projects that you like!

You can comment if you have any questions.