Re: using breadboards
- From: "Dale Leavens" <dleavens@xxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:25:33 -0500
Our amateur radio club back when I lived in Dawson Creek used the high school
physics lab. The teacher more or less hosted our meetings there in the very
early 80s. We used to make our own printed circuit boards by carefully drawing
on boards which were copper on each side sandwiching a insulating fiber board.
It was a sort of grease pencil drawing including the little dots where the pins
from chips were to penetrate the board and where resisters, capacitors, diodes
and transistors and other components were to be sited and connected. The board
would then be submerged in an acid bath and the copper eaten away except where
the drawing protected it unless of course it was left in too long. There were a
few really little drill presses for drilling out the holes for the chips or the
chip sockets. It took some planning to lay out a board since the only way to
have conductors cross was to either solder in a bridge of wire or to put those
parts of the circuit on the other side of the board but where it wouldn't
interfere with the components mounted on that side.
We even had a sheet metal break and guillotine for making metal boxes to hold
our creations. I created a frequency oscillator to help accurately locate
locations on the Armature bands using the color burst crystal from a television
and what was at the time pretty new technology, the NE 555 timer chip. I had
someone else draw out the circuit board and drill out the mounting
holes.Shortly into its use however something seriously went wrong with the
crystal oscillator and the unit went belly up.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Perry
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 6:51 PM
Subject: RE: using breadboards
Components that are small and when I say small some transistors and resisters
are the size of a Braille dot. A chip might be the size of the size of a
pencil eraser and have 20 leads or one that has 100 leads is still smaller than
a stamp and only a little thicker. You use wax or a sticky stuff to stick it
to the board while you line up the legs. Once you line up the legs you don't'
exactly Sauder like you do normal soldering you kind of heat up the component
and let the Sauder stick to it. Every device you use now has flat packs like
cell phones to even the pac mate and Braille plus. Things just keep getting
smaller
Ken
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bryan Schulz
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 6:22 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: using breadboards
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.
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