Hoookay, well yesterday I had running silicon. And this time, it did 
what I was expecting it to do! ;-)




Ironically, the biggest problem was actually *wires*. I bought a box of 

a nice compartmental box and there's quite a lot of wire in it, each 
length in a different colour, with the ends neatly bent to a 
right-angle.) Unfortunately, the wire is so utterly stiff and unbendable 
that I had a lot of trouble using it.

The other expensive item was LEDs. If you want those "high intensity" 


of them in stock. (Again, WTF?) So if you want to buy more than 3 LEDs, 
basically what you have to do is buy a "lucky bag", which just contains 




and a battery holder, both of which were mere pence as you'd expect. So 


And then I walked back into the shop and bought some batteries. Because, 

batteries is pretty much a normal price really.

I have now taken the box of wires back. I was able to buy a 10 m reel of 

However, it's multi-strand (presumably why it's flexible), so now I have 
to go find my soldering iron and some solder so I can tin the ends...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On 23/05/2010 11:41 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>
> And then I walked back into the shop and bought some batteries. Because,

> batteries is pretty much a normal price really.

The next thing you should build is a dual voltage power supply.

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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Am 23.05.2010 12:41, schrieb Orchid XP v8:




No, actually it's not - once you get used to this effect :-P

> Ironically, the biggest problem was actually *wires*. I bought a box of


Pre-cut wires? Gee, you must have too much money to spend ;-) (or 
suffering from an utter lack of time... duh, thinking about it, it 
somehow makes sense after all... >_<)

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> 
> No, actually it's not - once you get used to this effect :-P

Yeah, it's like that time I was on Amazon, and I saw a textbook for, 



actually 20 books...



by a suitably big number, becomes a *big* total. ;-)

> Pre-cut wires? Gee, you must have too much money to spend ;-) (or 
> suffering from an utter lack of time... duh, thinking about it, it 
> somehow makes sense after all... >_<)

Well, I don't know where my soldering iron, solder or wire cutters are. 
And I know from experience that trying to strip wires is approximately 

for a nice set of wires with a box to keep them in wasn't bad.

...and then I discovered that the wires can't be bent, so I went and got 
my money back. :-P



colours...)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> And then I walked back into the shop and bought some batteries. Because,

>> batteries is pretty much a normal price really.
> 
> The next thing you should build is a dual voltage power supply.

Uh, why?

1. If I actually wanted one, I could *buy* one for a very modest price. 
(And that way, it would actually work properly.)

2. I don't know how many amp-hours an AA battery is, but with each IC 
using several micro-watts of power, I don't envisage running them flat 
any time soon.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On 23/05/2010 12:12 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> And then I walked back into the shop and bought some batteries. Because,

>>> batteries is pretty much a normal price really.
>>
>> The next thing you should build is a dual voltage power supply.
>
> Uh, why?
>
> 1. If I actually wanted one, I could *buy* one for a very modest price.
> (And that way, it would actually work properly.)
>

Why not? It is educational, useful, fun and profesional. You will often 
use one supply (5V for TTL Vcc) and another for a signal or maybe a 
relay supply.

> 2. I don't know how many amp-hours an AA battery is, but with each IC
> using several micro-watts of power, I don't envisage running them flat
> any time soon.
>

But you will sometime and there is always the chance of you not noticing 
the battery voltage dropping and your circuts not working properly.
But then I only worked in electronics for 25 years so what do I know ;-)


-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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On 23/05/2010 12:10 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Well, I don't know where my soldering iron, solder or wire cutters are.
> And I know from experience that trying to strip wires is approximately
> impossible, and trying to tin the ends is very tricky.

Using propper snips gently compress the insulation,about a 1/4 to 3/8 of 
an inch (6 to 10 mm) rotate the snips 90 degrees left then right. 
Release the wire and grip it again where you first gripped it with the 
snips and pull. Alternatively using a sharp knife, score the insulation 
to the wire all round the wire and pull the insulation off with your 
fingernails or teeth.
To tin stranded wire twist the strands so that none are sticking out. 
Have either a loop of multicore solder sitting on your bench with a 
couple of inches sticking up or your spool of solder with some solder 
sticking up. Tin the iron with solder so that there is a drip on the 
iron and tin a little bit of the wire. Take the wire to the top of the 
solder and with the iron, gently melt the solder whilst drawing the wire 
through the melted solder.
It is harder to write it than to do it. :-)


-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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>>> The next thing you should build is a dual voltage power supply.
>>
>> Uh, why?
>>
>> 1. If I actually wanted one, I could *buy* one for a very modest price.
>> (And that way, it would actually work properly.)
>
> 
> Why not?

Because when it doesn't work, I will probably end up killing myself, for 
starters... A power supply is far too complicated for me to get right.

>> 2. I don't know how many amp-hours an AA battery is, but with each IC
>> using several micro-watts of power, I don't envisage running them flat
>> any time soon.
> 
> But you will sometime and there is always the chance of you not noticing 
> the battery voltage dropping and your circuts not working properly.

Oh, I'm sure they'll do that anyway. ;-)

> But then I only worked in electronics for 25 years so what do I know ;-)

Heh, where to buy capacitors cheap, I imagine. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> Well, I don't know where my soldering iron, solder or wire cutters are.
>> And I know from experience that trying to strip wires is approximately
>> impossible, and trying to tin the ends is very tricky.
> 
> Using propper snips gently compress the insulation,about a 1/4 to 3/8 of 
> an inch (6 to 10 mm) rotate the snips 90 degrees left then right. 
> Release the wire and grip it again where you first gripped it with the 
> snips and pull. Alternatively using a sharp knife, score the insulation 
> to the wire all round the wire and pull the insulation off with your 
> fingernails or teeth.

With the thickness of wire I'm using, 6 mm would be several times the 
total diammeter of the wire. ;-)

> To tin stranded wire twist the strands so that none are sticking out. 

Oddly, this is significantly harder than you'd think...

> Have either a loop of multicore solder sitting on your bench with a 
> couple of inches sticking up or your spool of solder with some solder 
> sticking up. Tin the iron with solder so that there is a drip on the 
> iron and tin a little bit of the wire. Take the wire to the top of the 
> solder and with the iron, gently melt the solder whilst drawing the wire 
> through the melted solder.
> It is harder to write it than to do it. :-)

The 30-year-old solder I found seems to be quite "bubbly", which makes 
it difficult to do this. It also doesn't seem to want to melt very 
evenly, resulting on lots of blobs, or only one side of the wire tinned.

Now I remember why I wanted to buy wire ready-cut. ;-)

Still, I have just spent about an hour sitting on my driveway with a 
workmate, several bunches of wire and a soldering iron. People probably 
think I'm weird now... Everybody's out mowing the lawn, riding bicycles, 
having a BBQ or sunbathing, and some sad tosser over at number 11 is 
sitting with a bunch of wires and tools.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On 23/05/2010 3:24 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> But then I only worked in electronics for 25 years so what do I know ;-)
>
> Heh, where to buy capacitors cheap, I imagine. ;-)

Buy? ROTFL

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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