25 DIY Hobbyist Electronic Circuits to Build - From Bright Hub Engineering

25 DIY Hobbyist Electronic Circuits to Build - From Bright Hub Engineering

Before you actually start making the various interesting gadgets listed in the following sections, you may want to read “What You Need to Know to Make Our Electronic Circuits at Bright Hub Engineering.” It will give you a basic grounding in the theory and hardware aspects of the common electronic components used … and their pin-out specs. The information will greatly help you to proceed in a systematic way when making any of the following projects.

Getting a Running Start - Fascinating DIY LED Projects

In electronics, an LED circuit is probably the easiest of all to configure, yet still interesting to build and use. When these devices were first invented, the results were not so impressive. However, they advanced quickly and today we have them in all shapes, sizes and specs.

The main feature of LEDs is their ability to produce significant illumination using trivial amounts of power. A mere 4 volts and 20 mA is all that you need to light them up, no matter the type or color being used.

The articles presented below provide you with complete tutorials regarding the safe handling of LEDs and configuring them into many different fascinating circuits. We start with an overview that tells you everything you need to know about the rules and formulas required for implementing correct and safe LED wiring set ups. The subsequent articles taks you on a tour where you will be able to witness a variety of interesting LEDs circuits that can be used for decorating your house, toys, photo frames, Christmas trees, vehicles, etc. More serious LED projects, which are listed at the later part, help you build useful circuits like emergency lights, electronic tube lights, car roof lights, etc.

How Many Circuits can you Build Using a Couple of Ordinary Transistors?

Transistor Working, Image

Transistors can be considered the key component of electronics. They are basic building blocks without which even the most sophisticated chips cannot be built. For the budding electronic hobbyist, it’ll be encouraging to know that it’s indeed possible to make many interesting circuits using just a couple of transistors and a few other passive electronic parts. Transistors work as signal amplifiers, signal processors, voltage comparators, voltage indicators, monitors, signal generators, oscillators, relay drivers, precision rectifiers, timers, voltage boosters, voltage sensors, heat sensors, and a host of other useful functions in valuable circuit designs.

How these can be made? Learn the construction of the above mentioned electronic circuits in an easy, step-wise manner in the following articles.

Simple IC 555 and IC 741 Circuits Just for You

The IC 555 and IC 741 are members of the electronic family that are truly popular with electronic hobbyists of all ages. This is because the devices are versatile, cheap, easily available, robust, and support virtually all sorts of circuit applications. The articles given below provide many interesting hobby circuits that have been especially developed and compiled keeping the needs of hobbyists and school students in mind.

Useful Water Level Controller/ Indicator Circuits

Water Level Indicator, Image

Today, most houses and buildings in many countries incorporate a water supply as one of their main utilities. When it comes to water, storage tanks are heavily involved, as without them it’s impossible to get a 24/7 supply of water in our residences.

However, the water tanks that are installed in our residences have the bad habit of frequently overflowing, causing either some damage to the surrounding materials or simply wasting precious drinking water. In some countries, acquiring fresh water is costly and therefore one can certainly ill-afford wasting them unnecessarily.

A water level controller is a device that directly helps to eliminate this problem. It can be used for automatically sensing and switching ON a water pump when the water level of the tank falls below a certain minimum level, and switch OFF the pump when the level reaches near the brim of the tank, thus inhibiting the tank from over filling and over flowing.

Another important version does not incorporate switching of the pump; rather it provides the user with visual or audio indications regarding the water levels of the tank and thus keeps the user well informed regarding critical situations. Though the units may look complex, making them at home is absolutely easy. The circuit ideas of some useful water level monitoring devices are listed below:

Generating Electricity through Renewable Methods - Some Learning Experiments

Homemade Dynamo, Image

In the scenario where fossil fuel is becoming “extinct” with passing time, renewable methods of generating electricity have shown to be rays of hope for tackling the situation.

A casual glance around can show us the bounteous and free energy that Mother Nature freely gives us. Yet only recently have scientists and engineers started taking the issue seriously and designing equipment and systems to receive of this bounty. Though the methods used may appear too technical and massive, small prototypes can be actually built at home for experimenting. Since these could become the sole source of energy in the coming years, the circuits provided here can well become the stepping stones for making the methods more efficient and also for nurturing the young scientist.

In the following articles we learn about some innovative ways of generating electricity through solar cells, wind mills, sea water tides, heat etc.

Battery Charger Circuit Compilation

Though the methods of generating electricity explained above may look promising, the generated power is instantaneous and therefore must be used as it is generated. The only practical and efficient method of storing them is by coupling the source to a chargeable battery.

Batteries are probably the best known method to date as far storing electricity is concerned. The stored energy can be used at will whenever desired; moreover they are portable and reasonably efficient. However, these outstanding devices have their own drawbacks: if not charged to the specified parameters, they tend to become sluggish, inefficient, and costly in the long run.

To counter this, good battery chargers incorporate sophisticated electronics for carrying out the charging process as per the recommended guidelines for the particular type of battery. But for our young enthusiasts, there’s nothing to worry about as the circuits involved with these restrictions in mind are quite simple to build and install.

What Does Flip Flop Mean in Electronics?

One of the important applications of electronics is switching and control. The procedures require toggling the output of a particular circuit alternately in response to manual or automatic input triggers. This toggling or switching of the output commands to the various loads must be precise and foolproof. Flip flop circuits or chips are designed to implement these sequencing or switching functions and are commonly integrated with the output stages of the relevant digital circuits. How do they work? Learn more in these articles.

SCR Based Electronic Projects

A few other interesting elctronic hobby circuits based on SCRs and Triacs are listed below. You may find them intriguing, too.

References

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