Hey there sportsfans and welcome to my stockpile of electronical 'how to's and other interesting electronics
related articles. Stuff about PIC micro-controllers, LCD, LEDs ,7 Segment displays, pic16f84a, pic18f452, CB Radio,
PMR446, MITEX radios, RC aeronautics, 35 MHZ, IC engines etc... the good stuff basically..
BASIC ELECTRONICS
Electronics is simple when looking at individual components. They all serve a function and are all relatively easy
to understand. Some of the most common things are batteries, wires, bulbs, resistors, diodes, LEDs, transistors,
intergrated circuits (IC's) etc.
One of the simplest ways to understand the basics is to get one of those educational kits
with springs and jump wires '50 in one electronics lab' from maplin. It may look like a £10 christmas present but belive me its a
tenner well spent as you can use it to learn about the basics. When you have wired a few things up and they work, then
its time to go to maplin again and get 'breadboards' and jump wires, LEDs etc, the GCSE component kit is ideal for beginners
but its a rip off so be wary you only need a few things to get started. The breadboard is not like one in a kitchen, its a plastic block with rows of 'plugs' that
fit the jump wires and components so you can build the circuit up on them. They are amazing and I wish they had been available
earlier.
PIC-MICRO
PIC Microcontrollers are a simple and easy way to control things using electronics. They are cheap and simple to use. The basic circuit
uses minimal components and some can be used with very minimal circuitry eg no crystal.
An example basic circuit is shown in the diagram. The microchip is
programmed using a PC and interface board or development board which allows you to test your program without swapping the chip into a circuit board.
The development board allows you to repeatedly test programs quickly and has things built into it like LEDS, buttons, 7 Segment LEDs, an LCD display etc.
This makes developing programs relatively simple. A breadboard can be used to recreate the circuit from the development board so you have a seperate circuit
that will act in the same way when a PIC chip is placed in it
