Getting started with Intel Galileo is almost like getting started with Arduino. But with a few twists.
I recently got my hands on an Intel Galileo. But it took me quite some time to get it up and running.
So I decided to write a small guide to show you exactly how I got started with my Intel Galileo.
I got this question from Awaji about the light-emitting diode (LED):
[Awaji]: How can I know the LED voltage and the current ratings of an LED? Also, how is the resistor of an LED chosen? Thanks
[Oyvind]:
Here are three different ways to find the LED voltage and current:
I built this Arduino radar project, where I control the brightness of an LED with my breath. In this tutorial, I will show you exactly how to do it.
It was an experiment to get the XeThru radar to work with Arduino. I plan to expand on this later and build more useful applications.
And I will share with you how to connect the hardware, and how to create the Arduino code.
Just to be clear: This is not a sonar pretending to be a radar. This is a radar. With electromagnetic waves.
SexyCyborg is an electronics geek out of the ordinary. And I love to see people being different than the norm, especially in the hobby electronics world.
So, I knew I had to interview her.
I really like the circuit that blinks a light with a relay.
Like this:
If you connect a battery to the electromagnet of a relay, through its normally closed contact, you will get a relay that switches on and off really fast.
If you add a big capacitor (like 1000 µF) over the electromagnet, the electromagnet will stay on longer.
Check out this simple tip that Michael sent me:
[MICHAEL]:
“I was making a small practice audio amplifier and was in need of a 2.5 Ohm resistor. I didn’t
have one and didn’t want to wait for an order to be fulfilled.
I’ve done some research.
A couple of weeks ago Tek.no, a Norwegian tech-magazine, asked me if I could write an article for them.
There are a lot of people online claiming they have fixed broken graphic cards and other hardware, by baking it in an oven.
This is a guest post from Julio Cesar Torres. He sent a balloon to space after learning about electronics! Read his captivating story below:
When I was a kid, I was always eager for Sunday morning, just waiting for the time to watch Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” on TV.
Back then, my couch turned into a spacecraft and I could go to places light-years distant from home. All was discovery and astonishment.
Are you doing this?
Don’t worry, I’ve done all of these mistakes myself.
And sometimes it works.
But by learning the correct soldering technique, you reduce the chances of mistakes in your circuit caused by a bad solder joint.
1. Removing iron before applying solder
When I teach someone how to solder, I usually say that you should first heat the pin and the pad, then apply the solder.
But sometimes my explanation isn’t clear enough. I’ve seen students heating the pad and the pin, then removing the soldering iron before trying to apply the solder.
The right soldering temperature is something many don’t really think about.
But, have you ever used one of those soldering irons with a variable temperature setting?
If you have, you might be wondering the same thing as Jyri. Jyri wrote to me in an email about soldering and asked: “I always wondered – what is the right soldering temperature in various situations?”
This is the easiest mono amplifier circuit to build, as far as I know.
I love it because it is powerful enough to play pretty loud. And it doesn’t need a pre-amp, heat-sink or any weird transistors.
All it requires, is a few standard capacitors, a couple of resistors and a potentiometer.
It will give you 4.7 Watts of power. This should be enough to play music in the park with some friends and a couple of brewskies.
I’ve added the schematics, PCB design and Gerber files a little further down the page.
“What can you build with electronics?”, she asked me…
“Anything!” I said.
She looked at me with a blank stare. Apparently that was not a satisfying reply.
This happened to me a few days ago.
Sometimes I get too deep into electronics that I forget “normal” people don’t necessarily understand what you can do with electronics.
So…
Can you get money for your old circuit boards?
Apparently yes…
Anne Staley wrote to me a while back.
She was very enthusiastic about the environment and recycling. And she asked me if she could write an article on my blog about this.
I answered that it probably wasn’t something for my blog.
But she persisted. And she wrote the article and sent me. And as I read through it, I realized that it could be an interesting thing to learn about. Even as a hobbyist.
It turns out that you can actually earn money on your old circuit boards. Circuit board recycling sounds like a good idea =)
Read the article below:
«It went through the circuit board, like a knife through warm butter.»
This could have been the intro to an incredibly capturing novel about through-hole components. But it’s not. I don’t think anyone has made a novel about such a narrow topic.
Oh, wait! I had to do an Amazon search after writing that. Turns out this one is something close. But something tells me it won’t start like my example-intro.
SMD components are small and kind of scary if you have never used them before. And the first time you want to solder one – you will probably start to doubt if you’re actually able to do it.
Even though I have soldered many SMD components, I still get that “Oh man, that component looks tiny!”-feeling. But usually, it works out fine. As long as it’s not too small.
SMD is short for surface-mount device. I always get a bit confused about the terminology, but I think SMD describes a printed circuit board, with components that are mounted on the surface of the board. So an SMD component is actually a surface-mount device component.