Electronics All-in-One For Dummies®

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Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

How to Use This Book

About the Projects

Staying Safe

How This Book Is Organized

Book I: Getting Started in Electronics

Book II: Working with Basic Electronic Components

Book III: Working with Integrated Circuits

Book IV: Getting into Alternating Current

Book V: Working with Radio and Infrared

Book VI: Doing Digital Electronics

Book VII: Working with BASIC Stamp Processors

Book VIII: Special Effects

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Book I: Getting Started in Electronics

Book I: Chapter 1: Welcome to Electronics

What Is Electricity?

But Really, What Is Electricity?

What Is Electronics?

What Can You Do with Electronics?

Making noise

Making light

Transmitting to the world

Computing

Looking inside Electronic Devices

Book I: Chapter 2: Understanding Electricity

Pondering the Wonder of Electricity

Looking for Electricity

Peering Inside of Atoms

Examining the Elements

Minding Your Charges

Conductors and Insulators

Understanding Current

Understanding Voltage

Comparing Direct and Alternating Current

Understanding Power

Book I: Chapter 3: Creating Your Mad-Scientist Lab

Setting Up Your Mad-Scientist Lab

Equipping Your Mad-Scientist Lab

Basic hand tools

Magnifying glasses

Third hands and hobby vises

Soldering iron

Multimeter

Solderless breadboard

Wire

Batteries

Other things to stock up on

Stocking up on Basic Electronic Components

Resistors

Capacitors

Diodes

Light-Emitting Diodes

Transistors

Integrated Circuits

One Last Thing

Book I: Chapter 4: Staying Safe

Facing the Realities of Electrical Dangers

Household electrical current can kill you!

Even relatively small voltages can hurt you

Sometimes voltage hides in unexpected places

Other Ways to Stay Safe

Keeping Safety Equipment on Hand

Protecting Your Stuff from Static Discharges

Book I: Chapter 5: Reading Schematic Diagrams

Introducing a Simple Schematic Diagram

Laying Out a Circuit

To Connect or Not to Connect

Looking at Commonly Used Symbols

Simplifying Ground and Power Connections

Labeling Components in a Schematic Diagram

Representing Integrated Circuits in a Schematic Diagram

Book I: Chapter 6: Building Projects

Looking at the Process of Building an Electronic Project

Envisioning Your Project

Designing Your Circuit

Prototyping Your Circuit on a Solderless Breadboard

Understanding how solderless breadboards work

Laying out your circuit

Assembling the coin-toss circuit on a solderless breadboard

What if it doesn’t work?

Constructing Your Circuit on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

Understanding how printed circuit boards work

Using a preprinted PCB

Building the coin-toss circuit on a PCB

Finding an Enclosure for Your Circuit

Working with a project box

Mounting the coin-toss circuit in a box

Book I: Chapter 7: The Secrets of Successful Soldering

Understanding How Solder Works

Procuring What You Need to Solder

Buying a soldering iron

Stocking up on solder

Other goodies you need

Preparing to Solder

Soldering a Solid Solder Joint

Checking Your Work

Desoldering

Book I: Chapter 8: Measuring Circuits with a Multimeter

Looking at Multimeters

What a Multimeter Measures

Ammeter

Voltmeter

Ohmmeter

Other measurements

Schematic symbols for meter functions

Using Your Multimeter

Measuring current

Measuring voltage

Measuring resistance

Book I: Chapter 9: Catching Waves with an Oscilloscope

Understanding Oscilloscopes

Examining Waveforms

Calibrating an Oscilloscope

Displaying Signals

Book II: Working with Basic Electronic Components

Book II: Chapter 1: Working with Basic Circuits

What Is a Circuit?

Using Batteries

Building a Lamp Circuit

Working with Switches

The many ways to throw the switch

Making connections with poles and throws

Building a Switched Lamp Circuit

Understand Series and Parallel Circuits

Building a Series Lamp Circuit

Building a Parallel Lamp Circuit

Using Switches in Series and Parallel

Building a Series Switch Circuit

Building a Parallel Switch Circuit

Switching between Two Lamps

Building a Three-Way Lamp Switch

Reversing Polarity

Book II: Chapter 2: Working with Resistors

What Is Resistance?

Measuring Resistance

Looking at Ohm’s Law

Introducing Resistors

Reading Resistor Color Codes

Reading a resistor’s value

Understanding resistor tolerance

Understanding Resistor Power Ratings

Limiting Current with a Resistor

Combining Resistors

Combining Resistors in Series

Combining Resistors in Parallel

Mixing Series and Parallel Resistors

Combining Resistors in Series and Parallel

Dividing Voltage

Dividing Voltage with Resistors

Varying Resistance with a Potentiometer

Book II: Chapter 3: Working with Capacitors

What Is a Capacitor?

Counting Capacitance

Reading Capacitor Values

The Many Sizes and Shapes of Capacitors

Calculating Time Constants for Resistor/Capacitor Networks

Combining Capacitors

Combining capacitors in parallel

Connecting capacitors in series

Putting Capacitors to Work

Charging and Discharging a Capacitor

Blocking DC while Passing AC

Book II: Chapter 4: Working with Inductors

What Is Magnetism?

The north and south of magnetism

Pondering permanent magnets

Examining Electromagnets

Inducing Current

Inductance and the art of resisting change

Regarding henry

Calculating RL Time Constants

Calculating Inductive Reactance

Combining Inductors

Putting Inductors to Work

Book II: Chapter 5: Working with Diodes and LEDs

What Is a Semiconductor?

Doping: It’s not just for athletes

Understanding p-n junctions

Introducing Diodes

The Many Types of Diodes

Rectifier diodes

Signal diodes

Zener diodes

Using a Diode to Block Reverse Polarity

Putting Rectifiers to Work

Building Rectifier Circuits

Introducing Light Emitting Diodes

Using LEDs to Detect Polarity

Book II: Chapter 6: Working with Transistors

What’s the Big Deal About Transistors?

Why were transistors invented?

Looking inside a transistor

Examining transistor specifications

Amplifying with a Transistor

Using a Transistor as a Switch

An LED Driver Circuit

Looking at a Simple NOT Gate Circuit

Building a NOT Gate

Oscillating with a Transistor

Building An LED Flasher

Wrapping Up Our Exploration of Discrete Components

Book III: Working with Integrated Circuits

Book III: Chapter 1: Introducing Integrated Circuits

What Exactly Is an Integrated Circuit?

Looking at How Integrated Circuits Are Made

Integrated Circuit Packages

Using ICs in Schematic Diagrams

Powering ICs

Avoiding Static and Heat Damage

Reading IC Data Sheets

Popular Integrated Circuits

555 Timer

741 and LM324 Op-Amp

78xx Voltage Regulator

74xx Logic Family

Book III: Chapter 2: The Fabulous 555 Timer Chip

Looking at How the 555 Works

Understanding 555 Modes

Using the 555 in Monostable (One-Shot) Mode

Looking at a typical 555 monostable circuit

Looking at the resistor-capacitor circuit in a monostable timer

Calculating the time interval for a monostable circuit

Using the 555 in Astable (Oscillator) Mode

Looking at a typical astable circuit

Controlling the time intervals in an astable 555 circuit

Calculating the duty cycle

Using the 555 in Bistable (Flip-Flop) Mode

Using the 555 Timer Output

Doubling Up with the 556 Dual Timer

Making a One-Shot Timer

Making an LED Flasher

Using a Set/Reset Switch

Making a Beeper

Book III: Chapter 3: Working with Op-Amps

Looking at Operational Amplifiers

Understanding Open Loop Amplifiers

Looking at Closed Loop Amplifiers

Using an Op Amp as a Unity Gain Amplifier

Configuring a unity follower

Configuring a Unity Inverter

Using an Op Amp as a Voltage Comparator

Adding Voltages

Working with Op Amp ICs

Book IV: Getting into Alternating Current

Book IV: Chapter 1: Understanding Alternating Current

What Is Alternating Current?

Measuring Alternating Current

Understanding Alternators

Understanding Motors

Understanding Transformers

Book IV: Chapter 2: Working with Line Voltage

Using Line Voltage in Your Projects

Being safe with line voltage

Understanding hot, neutral, and ground

Wires and Connectors for Working with Line Voltage

Using Fuses to Protect Line-Voltage Circuits

Using Relays to Control Line-Voltage Circuits

Book IV: Chapter 3: Building Power Supplies

Using a Power Adapter

Understanding What a Power Supply Does

Transforming Voltage

Turning AC into DC

Half-wave rectifier

Full-wave rectifier

Bridge rectifier

Filtering Rectified Current

Regulating Voltage

Book V: Working with Radio and Infrared

Book V: Chapter 1: Understanding Radio

Understanding Radio Waves

Transmitting and Receiving Radio

Understanding radio transmitters

Understanding radio receivers

Understanding AM Radio

Understanding FM Radio

Book V: Chapter 2: Building a Crystal Radio

Looking at a Simple Crystal Radio Circuit

Gathering Your Parts

Building the Coil

Assembling the Circuit

Stringing Up an Antenna

Connecting to Ground

Using the Crystal Radio

Book V: Chapter 3: Working with Infrared

Introducing Infrared Light

Detecting Infrared Light

Creating Infrared Light

Building a Proximity Detector

Building a Common-Emitter Proximity Detector

Building a Common-Collector Proximity Detector

Book VI: Doing Digital Electronics

Book VI: Chapter 1: Understanding Digital Electronics

Distinguishing Analog and Digital Electronics

Understanding Binary

Knowing your number systems

Counting by ones

Doing the logic thing

Using Switches to Build Gates

Book VI: Chapter 2: Getting Logical

Introducing Boolean Logic and Logic Gates

Looking at NOT Gates

Looking at AND Gates

Looking at OR Gates

Looking at NAND Gates

Looking at NOR Gates

Looking at XOR and XNOR Gates

De Marvelous De Morgan’s Theorem

All You Need Is NAND (Or NOR)

Universal NAND Gates

Universal NOR Gates

Using Software to Practice with Gates

Book VI: Chapter 3: Working with Logic Circuits

Creating Logic Gates with Transistors

A transistor NOT gate circuit

A transistor AND gate circuit

A transistor NAND gate circuit

A transistor OR gate circuit

A transistor NOR gate circuit

Introducing Integrated Circuit Logic Gates

Introducing the Versatile 4000-Series Logic Gates

Building Projects with the 4011 Quad Two-Input NAND Gate

Book VI: Chapter 4: Interfacing to Your Computer’s Parallel Port

Understanding the Parallel Port

The makeup of a parallel port

The DB25 connector and its pins

Pinout assignments

Designing a Parallel-Port Circuit

Working with DB25 Connectors

Controlling Parallel-Port Output from an MS-DOS Prompt

Using the RELAY command

Creating a command script

Seeing why timing is everything

Building a Parallel-Port LED Flasher

Introducing Seven-Segment Displays

Building a Seven-Segment Display Countdown Timer

Using Darlington Arrays to Drive High-Current Outputs

Building a Motor Driver

Using a Kit 74 Relay Controller

Book VI: Chapter 5: Working with Flip-Flops

Looking at Latches

Looking at Gated Latches

Introducing Flip-Flops

Debouncing a Clock Input

Book VII: Working with BASIC Stamp Processors

Book VII: Chapter 1: Introducing Microcontrollers and the BASIC Stamp

Introducing Microcontrollers

Introducing the BASIC Stamp

Buying a BASIC Stamp

Working with the BASIC Stamp HomeWork Board

Connecting to BASIC Stamp I/O Pins

Installing the BASIC Stamp Windows Editor

Connecting to a BASIC Stamp

Writing Your First PBASIC Program

Flashing an LED with a BASIC Stamp

Book VII: Chapter 2: Programming in PBASIC

Introducing PBASIC

Building a Test Circuit

Flashing the LEDs

Using Comments

Creating Names

Using Constants

Assigning Names to I/O Pins

Using Variables

Doing Math

Using If Statements

Using DO Loops

Using FOR Loops

Book VII: Chapter 3: More PBASIC Programming Tricks

Using a Pushbutton with a BASIC Stamp

Checking the Status of a Switch in PBASIC

Randomizing Your Programs

Reading a Value from a Potentiometer

Using Subroutines and the GOSUB Command

Book VII: Chapter 4: Adding Sound and Motion to Your BASIC Stamp Projects

Using a Piezo Speaker with a BASIC Stamp

Using the FREQOUT command

Testing the piezo speaker

Playing with sound effects

Using a Servo with a BASIC Stamp

Connecting a servo to a BASIC Stamp

Programming a servo in PBASIC

Building a servo project

Book VIII: Special Effects

Book VIII: Chapter 1: Building a Quiz-O-Matic!

Being Safe with Line Voltage

Looking at the Quiz-O-Matic!

Playing the game

Configuring the controller

What the Quiz-O-Matic! does not do

Looking at the Parts List for the Quiz-O-Matic!

Building the Main Controller Board

Mounting the components

Connecting the Prop-2 controller to the relay board

Completing the line-voltage wiring

Wiring the judge’s console terminal

Wiring the player button terminal

Finishing the main controller board

Building the Judges Console

Building the Player Buttons

Connecting the parts

Testing the Quiz-O-Matic!

Programming the Quiz-O-Matic!

Book VIII: Chapter 2: Building a Color Organ

Examining the Color Organ Project

Understanding How the Color Organ Works

Getting What You Need to Build the Color Organ

Assembling the Color Organ

Using the Color Organ

Book VIII: Chapter 3: Animating Holiday Lights

Introducing the ShowTime PC Controller

Looking at a Basic Light-O-Rama Setup

Understanding Channels and Sequences

Choosing Lights for Your Display

Designing Your Layout

Assembling the ShowTime PC Controller

Connecting the Controller to a Computer

Testing the ShowTime PC Controller

Using the Light-O-Rama Sequence Editor

Understanding Sequences

Creating a Musical Sequence

Visualizing Your Show

Book VIII: Chapter 4: Building an Animatronic Prop Controller

Looking at the Requirements of Animatronic Prop Control

Examining a Typical Animatronic Prop

Building the Prop Controller

Programming the Prop-1 Controller

Sending Commands to the RC-4 or AP-16+ Modules

Programming the RC-4 Relay Control Module

Turning all relays off

Turning an individual relay on or off

Setting all four relays at once

Using symbols to make RC-4 commands more readable

A sample program for controlling all four RC-4 relays

Programming the AP-16+ Audio Player Module

Resetting the AP-16+

Changing the volume

Playing a specific file

Waiting for a file to finish playing

A sample AP-16+ program

Programming the PIR Motion Detector

Looking at Complete Jack-In-The-Box Program

Cheat Sheet

Electronics ALL-IN-ONE For Dummies®

by Doug Lowe

Electronics All-in-One For Dummies®

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the John Wiley & Sons, Inc. logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011945574

ISBN 978-0-470-14704-7 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-15883-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-15928-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-15929-3 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

When Doug Lowe was 10 years old, his father gave him an electronics experimenter’s kit that started a life-long love of all things electronic. As a child, he dreamed of becoming an electrical engineer. But he soon discovered that he loved writing as much as he loved electronics, and his first technical book was published in 1981. Since then, he has written more than 100. All of those books have been about one specific corner of the electronics world: computers. But now he has finally written a book about his first love, the joy of designing and building electronic circuits from scratch.

Doug lives in sunny Fresno, California, where the motto is “Fres-YES!,” (unfortunately, I’m not making that up). The fruits of his electronic passions can often be seen around the Halloween season, in the form of animated computer-controlled Halloween decorations that rival Disney’s Haunted Mansion.

Dedication

My grandpa had a wonderful workshop behind his home. It was cramped and cold in the winter, and smelled of machine oil, stale coffee, aged rubber, and damp wood — like an ancient hardware store clinging to life down the road from a giant Big Box store. It was there that I began a lifelong love of electronics, as my grandpa tried to explain the mystery of electricity and taught me how to use a soldering iron, read a voltmeter, and test a questionable vacuum tube.

In the spring of 1970, he showed up at my house with a trailer full of everything an 11-year-old boy could possibly need to create his own electronics lab. The trailer was stacked high with broken radios and box after box filled with tools and spare parts: vacuum tubes, soldering irons, condensers, volt meters, resistors, tube testers, and tuning capacitors.

I can still remember the look on my dad’s face when he saw that trailer full of junk pull up in front of our house, hitched to the back of grandpa’s old Buick.

I was in heaven. I think my dad may have been somewhere else.

But he helped unload the trailer, and then he built me an amazing workbench with enough shelves and drawers to store everything and more.

This book is dedicated to the memory of my grandpa, Kenneth D. Lowe Sr., and to my dad, Kenneth D. Lowe, Jr.

To my grandfather, for giving me an amazing gift buried in a trailer full of junk. And to my dad, for letting me keep it.

Author’s’ Acknowledgments

First, I’d like to thank Katie Feltman for giving me the opportunity to write this book. We’ve talked about doing something like this for years, and I was so delighted when she called me to discuss this project. I am especially grateful for her patience as deadlines came and went.

Next, I’d like to thank Christopher Morris, not only for doing such an incredible job as project editor on this long project, but also giving me the encouragement and support I needed along the way.

Thanks also to Kirk Kleinschmidt, who gave the book a great technical review and offered many excellent suggestions not only on purely technical considerations but also on the presentation of complex material. And thanks to Heidi Unger, who as usual did a great job whipping my prose into shape, crossing all the i’s and dotting all the t’s, or something like that. And, of course, thanks to all the behind-the-scenes people who chipped in with help I’m not even aware of.

I’d also like to thank my niece, Miranda Chapman, for allowing me to jumpstart her modeling career by using her beautiful image to illustrate the internal structure of the atom.

Finally, I’d like to thank a few others who made important contributions: Jon Williams and John Barrowman of EFX-TEK for providing the prop controllers used in several of the chapters; Light-O-Rama for providing the lighting controller used in Chapter 3 of Book VIII; and my good friend Dave Youngs, who parted with a very fine 100mm macro lens for the duration of the project.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites

Senior Project Editor: Christopher Morris

Senior Acquisitions Editor: Katie Feltman

Copy Editors: Heidi Unger, Kathy Simpson

Technical Editor: Kirk Kleinschmidt

Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner

Vertical Websites Project Manager: Laura Moss-Hollister

Vertical Websites Assistant Project Manager: Jenny Swisher

Vertical Websites Associate Producers: Josh Frank, Marilyn Hummel, Douglas Kuhn, Shawn Patrick

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Graham

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cover Photos: © istockphoto.com / Rudyanto Wijaya

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Katherine Crocker

Layout and Graphics: Carrie A. Cesavice, Cheryl Grubbs, Joyce Haughey, Mark Pinto, Corrie Socolovitch

Proofreaders: Lauren Mandelbaum, Evelyn Wellborn

Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Kathy Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

Welcome to the amazing world of electronics!

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated with electronics. When I was about 10 years old, my dad bought me an electronic experimenter’s kit from the local RadioShack store. I still have it; it’s pictured in Figure IN-1. I have incredible memories of evenings spent with my dad, wiring together the sample circuits to make squawking police sirens, flashing lights, a radio receiver, and even a telegraph machine.

The best part was dreaming that when I grew up, I’d have a job in the field of electronics, that someday I’d understand exactly how those resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors, and integrated circuits actually worked and I’d use that knowledge to design televisions or computers or communication satellites.

Well, that dream didn’t come true. Instead, I went into a closely related field: computer programming. But my love of electronics never died, and I’ve spent the last 40 years or so experimenting with electronics as a hobbyist.

This book is an introduction to electronics for people who have always been fascinated by electronics but didn’t make a career out of it. In these pages, you’ll find clear and concise explanations of the most important concepts that form the basis of all electronic devices, concepts such as the nature of electricity (if you think you really know what it is, you’re kidding yourself); the difference between voltage, amperage, and wattage; and how basic components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, and transistors work.

Not only will you gain an appreciation for the electronic devices that are a part of everyday life, you’ll also learn how to build simple circuits that will not only impress your friends but may actually be useful!

Figure IN-1: My first electronics kit.

About This Book

Electronics All-in-One For Dummies is intended to be a reference for the most important topics you need to know when you dabble in building your own electronic circuits. It’s a big book made up of eight smaller books, which we at the home office like to call minibooks. Each of these minibooks covers the basics of one key topic for working with electronics, such as circuit building techniques, how electronic components like diodes and transistors work, or using integrated circuits.

This book doesn’t pretend to be a comprehensive reference for every detail on every possible topic related to electronics. Instead, it shows you how to get up and running fast so that you have more time to do the things you really want to do. Designed using the easy-to-follow For Dummies format, this book helps you get the information you need without laboring to find it.

Whenever one big thing is made up of several smaller things, confusion is always a possibility. That’s why this book is designed with multiple access points to help you find what you want. At the beginning of the book is a detailed table of contents that covers the entire book. Then each minibook begins with a minitable of contents that shows you at a miniglance what chapters are included in that minibook. Useful running heads appear at the top of each page to point out the topic discussed on that page, and handy thumbtabs run down the side of the pages to help you find each minibook quickly. Finally, a comprehensive index lets you find information anywhere in the entire book.

This isn’t the kind of book you pick up and read from start to finish, as if it were a cheap novel. If I ever see you reading it at the beach, I’ll kick sand in your face. Beaches are for reading romance novels or murder mysteries, not electronics books. Although you could read this book straight through from start to finish, this book is designed like a reference book, the kind of book you can pick up, open to just about any page, and start reading.

You don’t have to memorize anything in this book. It’s a “need-to-know” book: You pick it up when you need to know something. Need a reminder on how to calculate the correct load resistor for an LED circuit? Pick up the book. Can’t remember the pinouts for a 555 timer IC? Pick up the book. After you find what you need, put the book down and get on with your life.

How to Use This Book

This book works like a reference. Start with the topic you want to find out about, and look for it in the table of contents or index to get going. The table of contents is detailed enough that you can find most of the topics you’re looking for. If not, turn to the index, where you can find even more detail.

Of course, the book is loaded with information — so if you want to take a brief excursion into your topic, you’re more than welcome. If you want to know the big picture on digital electronics, for instance, read all of Book VI. If you just want to learn about logic gates, just read Chapter 2 in Book VI. On the other hand, if you just want a refresher on what an XOR gate is, look in the index to find the section on XOR gates.

About the Projects

You can find dozens of projects strewn throughout this book’s chapters. You’ll find a plethora of simple projects you can build to demonstrate the operation of typical circuits. For example, in the chapter on transistors, you’ll find several simple projects that demonstrate common uses for transistors, such as driving an LED, creating an oscillator, or inverting an input.

I suggest you build each of the projects as you read the chapters. Reading about electronics circuits is one thing, but to understand how a circuit works, you really need to build it and see it in operation. Most of the projects are simple enough that you can build them in 20–30 minutes, assuming you have the parts on hand.

Because just about every home in America is within 15 minutes of a RadioShack, these projects are designed (whenever possible) to use components that RadioShack stores keep in stock. Thus, if you want to build one of the projects on a Saturday afternoon, you can buzz over to your local RadioShack store, pick up the parts you’ll need, take them home, and build the circuit.

Of course, you can also purchase the components you need at any other store that stocks electronic hobbyist components, and you can find many sources for purchasing the parts online.

Staying Safe

Most of the electronic circuits described in this book are perfectly safe: They run from common AAA or 9 V batteries and therefore don’t work with voltages large enough to hurt you.

However, you’ll occasionally come across circuits that work with higher voltages, which can be dangerous. Any project that involves line voltage (that is, that you plug into an electrical outlet) should be considered potentially dangerous and handled with the utmost care. In addition, even battery-powered circuits that use large capacitors can build up charges that can deliver a potentially painful shock.

When you work with electronics, you’ll also encounter dangers other than those posed by electricity. Soldering irons are hot and can burn you. Wire cutters are sharp and can cut you. And there are plenty of small parts that can fall on the floor and find themselves in the mouths of kids or pets.

Safety is an important enough topic that I’ve devoted a chapter to it in Book I. I strongly urge you to read Book I, Chapter 4 before you build anything.

Please be careful! The projects that are presented in Book VIII all work directly with line-level voltage and should be considered dangerous. You must exercise great care if you decide to build any of those projects, as a single mistake could kill you or someone else. In particular, the projects described in Chapters 1 and 3 of Book VIII are offered as educational prototypes that are designed to be operated only within the safe confines of your workbench, where you can control the power connections so that no one is exposed to dangerous voltages.

How This Book Is Organized

Each of the eight minibooks contained in Electronics All-in-One For Dummies can stand alone. Here is a brief description of what you find in each minibook.

Book I: Getting Started in Electronics

This minibook contains the information you need to get started with electronics. Here, you’ll learn some of the fascinating concepts of what exactly electricity is, how to set up a workbench so you can build circuits, how to read schematic diagrams, how to solder, and other skills you need.

Book II: Working with Basic Electronic Components

This minibook covers what you need to know to work with the most common building blocks of electronic circuits: conductors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes, and transistors. You’ll learn the concepts behind how these devices work and how to incorporate these little beasties into your own circuits. Along the way, you’ll learn about some of the most important concepts of electronics, such as Ohm’s law, and simple math formulas for calculating important electrical quantities such as resistance or capacitance.

Book III: Working with Integrated Circuits

This minibook introduces you to integrated circuits, which are complete electronic circuits all in one small component. First, you’ll learn what integrated circuits are and how to properly handle them. Then, you’ll learn how to use two of the most commonly encountered integrated circuits: the 555 timer chip and operational amplifiers.

Book IV: Getting into Alternating Current

This minibook focuses on circuits that use alternating current (also known as AC). You’ll learn how to safely work with circuits that use line current (current you obtain from an electrical outlet), as well as how to build power-supply circuits that enable you to build circuits that run on household current rather than on batteries.

Book V: Working with Radio and Infrared

In this minibook, you discover the fascinating field of wireless communications. First, you’ll learn what radio is and how it works. Then, you’ll learn how to build one of the oldest yet still one of the most interesting of all electronic circuits: A crystal radio, which allows you to listen to local radio stations using only a few simple parts. The most interesting thing about crystal radios is that they have no external power source at all — no batteries, no power cord that plugs into an electrical outlet. Instead, they derive all of their power from the radio waves themselves.

After tinkering with radio, you can look at wireless communication using infrared light.

Book VI: Doing Digital Electronics

This minibook introduces you to the field of digital electronics, which deal with zeros and ones in the form of voltages that are either on or off. You’ll learn how digital circuits work and how just a few simple circuits can be combined to form modern-day computers, and you’ll gain experience building logic circuits using one of the oldest and most widely used families of integrated circuits.

Book VII: Working with BASIC Stamp Processors

In this minibook, you learn how about microcontrollers, which are essentially self-contained computers on a single chip. Microcontrollers let you build circuits that are programmable. You’ll learn how to build circuits utilizing one of the most popular types of microcontrollers, called a BASIC Stamp. And you’ll learn how to write simple programs that you can easily download to the BASIC Stamp.

Book VIII: Special Effects

The chapters in this minibook show you how to build actual projects that put the concepts covered in the other minibooks into actual practice. The chapters present four complete projects. The first is a game show buzzer for question-answer game shows such as Jeopardy!. If you’re a teacher, you may find this project useful for your classroom.

The second project is a lighting project that lets you fill your yard with lightning on Halloween. If your lightning is scary enough, you’ll easily pay for the project with the money you save on candy, since you won’t have to pass out candy to kids who are too scared to knock on your door.

The third project is another lighting project, but this time for creating spectacular lighting displays that are sequenced with music. Such displays are often seen on houses around the holidays, but are also used in retail stores or malls, in museums, or for theatrical productions.

The final project is a general-purpose controller board for animatronic props similar to what you’d see in a haunted house or museum exhibit featuring dinosaurs that move. The controller isn’t nearly as complicated as the devices that control the animatronic pirates on Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but it will let you synchronize simple movements provided by motors, servos, or compressed air with light and sound effects.

Icons Used in This Book

Like any For Dummies book, this one is chock-full of helpful icons that draw your attention to items of particular importance. You find the following icons throughout this book:

Pay special attention to this icon; it lets you know that some particularly useful tidbit is at hand.

Hold it — overly technical stuff is just around the corner. Obviously, because this is an electronics book, almost every paragraph of the entire book could get this icon. So I reserve it for those paragraphs that go into greater depth, down into explaining how something works under the covers — probably deeper than you really need to know to use a feature, but often enlightening.

You also sometimes find this icon when I want to illustrate a point with an example that uses some electronics gadget that hasn’t been covered so far in the book, but that is covered later. In those cases, the icon is just a reminder that you shouldn’t get bogged down in the details of the illustration and should instead focus on the larger point.

Danger, Will Robinson! This icon highlights information that may help you avert disaster. You should definitely pay attention to the warning icons because they will let you know about potential safety hazards.

Did I tell you about the memory course I took?

Where to Go from Here

You can obtain source code files for the code listings in Book VIII on this book’s companion website at www.dummies.com/go/electronicsaiofd.

Yes, you can get there from here. With this book in hand, you’re ready to plow right into the exciting hobby of electronics. Browse through the table of contents and decide where you want to start. Be bold! Be courageous! Be adventurous! And above all, have fun!

Occasionally we have updates to our technology books. If this book does have any such updates, they will be posted at www.dummies.com/go/electronicsaiofdupdates.

Please note that some special symbols used in this eBook may not display properly on all eReader devices. If you have trouble determining any symbol, please call Wiley Product Technical Support at 800-762-2974. Outside of the United States, please call 317-572-3993. You can also contact Wiley Product Technical Support at www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Book I

Getting Started in Electronics

Chapter 1: Welcome to Electronics

In This Chapter

Understanding electricity

Defining the difference between electrical and electronic circuits

Perusing the most common uses for electronics

Looking at a typical electronic circuit board

I thought it would be fun to start this book with a story, so please bear with me. In January of 1880, Thomas Edison filed a patent for a new type of device that created light by passing an electric current through a carbon-coated filament contained in a sealed glass tube. In other words, Edison invented the light bulb. (Students of history will tell you that Edison didn’t really invent the light bulb; he just improved on previous ideas. But that’s not the point of the story.)

Edison’s light bulb patent was approved, but he still had a lot of work to do before he could begin manufacturing a commercially viable light bulb. The biggest problem with his design was that the lamps dimmed the more you used them. This was because when the carbon-coated filament inside the bulb got hot, it shed little particles of carbon, which stuck to the inside of the glass. These particles resulted in a black coating on the inside of the bulb, which obstructed the light.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!