Bowden's Hobby Circuits

Re:Bowden's Hobby Circuits by _Microft on Saturday April 30, 2022 @05:19PM (#31219472)

You can easily build some of these circuits with very low investment. The ICs (555; 4017; ...) for circuits like the "LED sequencers" are very cheap (less than $1/1€ each). With ICs in DIP packages [0], the circuits can be built on breadboards [1] since the pins can be inserted directly into the holes of the breadboards. If you are new to this then you can find an overview of electronic symbols in Wikipedia [2] for example - this is helpful because it gives you names and terms to search for.

Having even a cheap multimeter to measure voltages, resistances or the polarity of diodes is better than nothing btw (but better don't use these to measure line/mains power - even if they claim to be able to do that).

Have fun!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_in-line_package

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_symbol

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bowden's Hobby Circuits by kragen on Saturday April 30, 2022 @09:07PM (#31221106)

According to https://yaqwsx.github.io/jlcparts/ the NE555DR costs 11.98¢ but of course not in a DIP. That's about as much as four Padauk microcontrollers these days—if you can find those in stock somewhere. JLCPCB doesn't include the CD4017 in their "basic parts" list; Digi-Key has them for 52¢ but doesn't have a DIP version in stock, just an SOIC.

The other night I took apart my cheap multimeter which claims "1000 V" and found no creepage clearance between the traces on the board. So far I haven't died measuring mains power with it but I don't think I'll do that anymore...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bowden's Hobby Circuits by buescher on Saturday April 30, 2022 @10:22PM (#31221539)

555 timer is a sub-10-cent part in quantity. Digi-key even has the NE555P in stock for 40 cents onesies and 11 cents in 2500 unit orders. And there's a parts shortage on, if you haven't looked lately.

Yeah, don't use cheap tools when your life is on the line.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bowden's Hobby Circuits by kragen on Sunday May 01, 2022 @12:57AM (#31222313)

Yeah, it's 8.87¢ in quantity 50. That's still the cost of two Padauk microcontrollers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bowden's Hobby Circuits by asddubs on Sunday May 01, 2022 @07:15AM (#31224035)

so what's your point? people should be buying a reel of one time programmable microcontrollers that you'll have to program in an esoteric language in a proprietary toolchain and a programmer that costs more than 8 cents? Or put together one of those open hardware programmers themselves?

I mean the padauk stuff is not really a very beginner friendly environment, and it's not as cheap to get going once you consider the accessories needed. just buying and re-using an arduino or a knockoff for a couple dollars would probably be better if you wanted to make the case that a microcontroller is a better place to start.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bowden's Hobby Circuits by kragen on Sunday May 01, 2022 @07:04PM (#31229596)

I had several points:

1. For jellybean ICs "less than [US]$1" understates the case by about an order of magnitude; it's less than [US]$⅒.

2. Other ICs mentioned like the CD4017 have ceased to be jellybean parts and have become esoteric specialty parts, but they're still less than US$1, if you can find them.

3. The reason for this is that, as microcontrollers have gotten cheaper and more capable, the range of circuits for which they are a good fit has grown enormously, and in particular covers just about every circuit where you'd use a CD4017. And once you have a microcontroller in your circuit you probably don't need a 4017 or a 555 because you can usually replace them with 1–5 lines of code.

4. Probing line power with a questionable-quality multimeter really is dangerous.

Does that clarify?

I agree that Arduino is a much more beginner-friendly environment, even more so than quasi-analog DIPs in a breadboard, and also that the programmer hardware for the Padauk μCs is a significant obstacle.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bowden's Hobby Circuits by buescher on Sunday May 01, 2022 @11:25AM (#31225768)

Sorry, for some reason I saw $11, not 11 cents and thought you were looking at a broker site at a very particular part.

The biggest reason I wouldn't use Padauk microcontrollers is that they're not available in north american distribution.

I personally really don't get the 555 timer love - almost anything people would do with one for a small design with no firmware, I would use an lm339 type quad comparator. They are great for detecting the presence/absence of pulses though.

[ Parent | on HN ]