Welcome Shads!
0. Examples:
Download the talk here (pdf, introtoelectronics-shads-2011July, 4Mb)
- Titanoboa at Stanley Park on july 8-10th, 2011
- Light Integra
- eatART
- Tangible Interaction
- top 40 Arduino Projects
1. Download the Arduino Software
- Follow the “Arduino – Getting Started” setup for your computer (windows, mac, linux) (it’s a ~80 Mb file. We have them on USB sticks if needed)
- the Mac install is relatively straightforward, but the Windows install rqeuires you to install the driver manually as described online.
2. Electronics components
Download the PDF “Super-Quick Intro to Electronics”
3. List of Electronics components
| Component | Pic | Function |
| Breadboard | Connections in a Breadboar »
Correct way to connect components to a breadboard |
|
| 9V Battery Clip | red = positive = 9V black = negative = ground = 0V |
|
| Resistors |  |
Used to control the amount of Electrical Current in the circuit (higher resistance value = lower electrical current). |
| Diode | Allows electricy to flow in only one direction, sort of like an electronic valve | |
| Light-Emitting Diode | Note that the longer-side always goes to the postive terminal, the shorter to the positive terminal.
Always use an LED in-line with a resistor. Avoid connecting directly to the battery without a resistor (too much current, might break the component) |
|
| Capacitor | Holds electrical charges. Acts like a “temporary battery”
Make sure you connect the negative terminal on the capacitor to ground (it is always marked with “- – -” ) , otherwise part may break down and possibly explode (very smelly, not healthy). |
|
| Transistor
Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) |
An electronic switch / amplifier. Many different styles, we use the 3904 NPN BJT. | |
| Transistor
Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) |
 |
An electronic switch /amplifier. Many different styles to use, we will be using an N-Channel enhancement type (HUF-75321) |
| Push-button switches |  |
Push button down to connect the two wires inside the switch, |
3. Arduino Example Software
You can copy and paste these examples into your own Arduino setup:
- Arduino example – analog input through the serial port
- Arduino example – controlling the DC motor through the serial port
- Arduino example – look up under “Sketchbook –> Servo –> Sweep”.
4. Ideas and Components
- McMaster-Carr – they sell just about every mechancial device and component you can think of
- Sparkfun – electronics projets and parts for prototyping. Their forums are incredibly helpful.
- Newark and Digikey – two electronics vendors that sell everything.
5. Sites to see common elec and mech devices
- iFixIt Teardowns – A particularly instructive website for learing about what key elements are in modern electronics (and I mean very modern – they had tear-downs of the recent iPhone 3GS and Nintendo DS XL on the day of release). The tear-down of the Pleo dinosaur is particularly fun:
- Tech Online has a regular feature analysing new electronics products
- For mechanical systems, not surprising that there’s quite the community of people documenting motorcycle rebuilds and repairs
- the most detailed mechanical analys I can find are machinists and others doing repair-work on old mills, lathes and other machine tools. They are particulary detailed if not engineering analysis-heavy.