what are flat pack parts? Bryan Schulz The BEST Solution www.best-acts.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Ken Perry To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 4:36 PM Subject: RE: using breadboards Well soldering blind can be done with the larger components but just get your first flat pack set and try to line up all those little legs and if you're not using flat pack components now days you're in the dark ages. Ken From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Kennedy Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 4:19 PM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: using breadboards Good points Ken. And the problem with soldering blind? I know it can be done, I do it quite often. But not in such tight places or where heat can destroy something. But I'll never be the one to say it can't be done. If you figure out color coding make sure to share it? Unless it's having someone tell you the colors... ----- Original Message ----- From: Ken Perry To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 4:07 PM Subject: RE: using breadboards Ok Tylor this is what I did in the military before I lost my site. I am going to only say this once and people can jump on me all they want. You are wasting your time. When it comes to coding I was willing to help if your thinking of building your own circuit boards blind you are just plain wasting your time. I am not saying doing it is impossible I am saying doing it is a waste of time. Let me say it one more time. Waste of time. If you want to design some small device that is fine use the single board development kits that are out there that come with everything you need on a single board and just code for it. Then once you have a product developed on that board you pay a large company that does this to pair your device down to what you need. You said you understand polarity that is great do you understand pnp transistors, logic chips, can you look at them and tell which side the positive goes on? Can you look at a resister and tell the color coding without help? Can you read the chips codes and tell what they are can you see which direction has the power pins on it? You will blow up more components than it's worth and when you get right down to it you will be able to do only the most simple circuits blind with a bread board. So you will be able to design almost nothing for a cost of a lot of hours. Sure you will learn something but the question is is it a good expenditure of your time? You could spend $274 on a single board development kit and have something working tomorrow. Something that has already went through the testing for power supplies and electric signal interference. Whereas what you would build on a bread board might just make good smoke the first 90 times. Ken Ken From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tyler Littlefield Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 3:06 PM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: using breadboards Hello, I'm looking to start using breadboards to create some small things. I'd like to start off with something small, possibly a battery charger or something similar. I found a small tutorial on instructables, but not totally sure how to get going. It explained how things work somewhat, but not accurately enough for me. It mainly used pictures to explain, which didn't do me a whole lot of good. Any ideas on how I can set this up? I understand the polarity--hooking one negative end to the positive etc so that the circuit forms a loop, I'm just not sure how to do what I want. So, here's my idea. If I figure out the layout, I can set up a power cable going from the outlet to the breadboard. Then I can place in jumpers to bridge the gap. I can take the 120 volts down to 9 with some resisters (?) and hook a battery pack to the other end that will charge the batteries. I'm thinking I'm way off, but... ideas would be great. If I could, I'd like to set it up so it'd charge like 4 at once, then I could cut down the 120 to 36. Possibly put in a heat sink to keep it from getting really hot.