Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Web Stroll 1

I have strolled around the web and found this 3 site or should I say locations, that may help you. Here it goes:

1. Do you want to know what is your IP Adrress, ISP, location and stuff like that?
try http://whatismyipaddress.com and you will find the information you'll need.

2. How about fashion for girls at very affordable price? try http://gargets.multiply.com
a collection of dresses, accessories and other stuff for girls. they cater local and international clients.

3. Are you a radio listener? check this one: http://www.eradioportal.com
Radio listening online. Wherever you are as long as you have internet connection, you can listen to your favorite radio station. AM/FM or pure internet.

That's it for now. Continue to follow us and enjoy techlife. I'm Techguru.. peaceout.
Happy new year everyone ♫

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

FREE TIPS

I'm techguru, as a part of this team-up blog, i'll be giving away tips, links or any other instructions that may help you to enjoy techlife. just follow us and always watch out for our new post every now and then.

♫♪♫ techguru

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Basics II


Now that we’re done with the basic terminologies, and basically, the “soft” part of electronics, we go to the “hard” part (hard doesn’t necessarily mean difficult… it means something tangible like resistors etc). Make sure you’re in a comfortable seat `coz this will be a long one.
We’ll start with the humble resistor.
3D Visualization








Diagrammatic Symbol





A resistor contains resistance and therefore, is used to limit the current in devices, IC’s, wires, and components.
Usually, a resistor contains 4 color bands and is read from the opposite side of the gold or silver band (for a beginner, it is less likely that you will use resistors other than the common one as shown in the picture).
The first two bands indicate the first two significant digits, the third band indicates how many zeros are there and the fourth band indicates the tolerance level (yep, a 470 ohm resistor doesn’t mean you get an exact 470 ohms, as it could be 472, 468 etc. depending on the tolerance level)
Now you might be asking, what the heck does red stand for? Patience... lol
Here is a table of what each color stands for:
Color
Digit (1st and 2nd Band)
Multiplier (3rd band)
Tolerance
Black
0
1

Brown
1
10

Red
2
100

Orange
3
1000

Yellow
4
10000

Green
5
100000

Blue
6
1000000

Violet
7
10000000

Gray
8
100000000

White
9
1000000000

Gold


5%
Silver


10%

That means the resistor in the picture above has a value of 220 ohms with 10% tolerance.
Everything’s messed up? Don’t worry as you’ll get a better understanding of resistors once we get to the actual circuit-building stuff.

Next in line is the Diode.
3D Visualization






Diagrammatic Symbol




A diode permits current to flow in only one direction. Actually, if I would explain the whole operation of the diode, you would be probably looking for funny videos at YouTube now because of boredom, so let’s just stick with that “nutshell” definition. Oh, and I think I should mention this now, the current flows towards the direction the arrow is pointing in the diagrammatic symbol and towards the white line in the real thing. Like what I’ve said with the resistors, you’ll have a better understanding of the diode once we get to the actual circuit-building stuff.

Since we already talked about the diode, let’s move on to it bigger brother, the transistor.
3D Visualization











Diagrammatic Symbol







A transistor is basically a pair of diodes which function like a switch. It has three pins, the collector, base, and emitter.
Like the diode, a little complex science is behind the operation of the transistor and involves terms like holes, electrons, doping, depletion region, etc. and I don’t want to make a long explanation regarding those stuff. For now, let’s just say that the transistor functions like a faucet where the collector is the supply tank, the base is the knob, and the outlet is the emitter. When you apply no force to the knob (base) and it remains unturned, no water flows from the supply tank (collector) to the outlet (emitter), but as you turn the knob, water starts to flow relative to how much you turn it.
The transistor allows current to flow from the collector to the emitter when current is supplied to the base, and how much current flows from collector to emitter depends on how much current the base receives.

Lastly, we go to the Capacitor.

3D Visualization












Diagrammatic Symbol









Yep those mini barrels are called capacitors, and we all know barrels store a lot of things.
Capacitors have the ability to store electrical charges and discharge them later on.
In a diagrammatic perspective, there are two types of capacitors, the polarized (electrolytic) and the non-polarized. Basically, electrolytic capacitors have a negative and a positive pin and this should be forgotten on circuit assembly. Trust me when I tell you, when you place electrolytic capacitors in a way that the negative end is connected to the positive supply and the positive end is connected to the negative (or ground) supply, BAD THINGS HAPPEN. Usually, tiny orange glowing stuff go flying up with a bang and when you look at your circuit, you’ll see only the pin of the capacitor is left.

When we start our first project, the universal power supply, you’ll learn more about these four basic components. (Actually, there should be five, the inductor being the last but I figured, this post is too long for that, and I’m feeling lazy right now to add more stuff lol)

The 3D visualizations are from eagle3D and the schematic symbols are from eagle 5.6

Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Basics

Since I’ll be talking about electronics here, I might as well start with the basics.

Voltage, Current and Resistance

These three things are the basic of all basics in electronics. I won’t be explaining technical stuff here like joules and coulombs, and instead, explain them in a “nutshell” perspective. That way, it’ll be easier to understand. If you want to know the actual science behind electronics, buy a book or go to college! LOL!

Current is the amount of electrons that flows through a conductor. What is an electron? Let’s just say that it’s the energy needed for the circuits to work, and a conductor is a material that lets electrons flow (ex. Copper wires)

Voltage is the force that pushes the electrons. Yeah, it’s a common misperception that voltage is the actual electricity, but it’s just the force that makes electricity move. FYI, current is the one that causes death from electrocution (if I remember correctly, 4mA causes severe discomfort, 5mA causes paralysis and 6mA to the heart is enough to kill), but voltage and current are usually proportional so high voltage can still mean high current. So don’t you dare touch those high voltage wires yet, saying someone in the internet says voltage doesn’t kill!

Resistance is the force that prevents the flow of electrons. In electronics, resistance is provided by resistors. Well, actually, everything has resistance, it’s just that some are have too small of it, it’s negligible.

Everything sounded weird? I’ll give visualization…

Imagine a faucet with running water. Current is like the water flowing through it, Voltage is the pressure that pushes the water out, and resistance is the blockade made by turning the knob. (It would’ve been better if I had a picture with arrows and captions… too bad! Lol)
Well, that’s the basics and all you need to know before you fall into severe boredom where everything you read turns weird and blah blah blah yip yap yip yip yap yap…

Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Rise of Electrohub

Welcome to the Electrohub! We are a group of Electronics and Computer enthusiasts who created this blog to share to everyone what we know and hear what we have to know. We'll be posting circuits, concepts, and assembly programs so look out for them in the near future.

Any comments, suggestions, corrections, and reactions will all be welcomed