Burglar Alarm | Project 11/20 | Maxitronix 20in1 | Learning Electronics In The Lab With Jay Jay

Posted on 2024-10-18 [Friday] by Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

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In this video I do the 11th project from the Maxitronix 20in1 (the Sensor Robot 20): Burglar Alarm.

This project uses the reed switch to trigger a bistable multivibrator that controls an alarm. The bistable multivibrator can be reset with the key. An astable multivibrator is used to generate the tone for the audible alarm.

In this project we get some more experience with transistors and how they can be used in various types of multivibrator circuit. Under the thermal camera we can see some of the transistors warming up as they conduct electricity. With the oscilloscope we can see the periodic waveform used to generate the alarm tone.

Note: while I was making this video I needed to make some banana plug to hook clip cables (so that I could test the reed switch). I made a video of my making those cables which you can see here: Electronics Project #9: Making Banana Plug to Hook Clip Cables | In The Lab With Jay Jay.

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)

Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Yum Cha KT-908 Digital Thermometer

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Baker clamp

Posted on 2024-09-24 [Tuesday] by Jay Jay

Today I learned about the Baker clamp. It’s a circuit to help speed up transistor switching time. I learned about it over on Diode-transistor logic § Speed improvement where it said it was developed by Richard H. Baker who described it in his 1956 technical report.

Old Book Teardown #9: Basic Electronics – Volumes 1 through 6 (1955) | In The Lab With Jay Jay

Posted on 2024-08-20 [Tuesday] by Jay Jay

I mostly published this ten hour long video just to exasperate Dave Jones. ;)

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

Silly Job Title: Buzz Boss.

In this video I take a good long hard look at the entirety of this book.

The book is Basic Electronics – Volumes 1 through 6 written by Van Valkenburgh, Nooger and Neville, Inc. and published in 1955.

The book is about the state of electronics at the time it was written. It was commissioned by the United States Navy, who used it to train their technicians. Later, it was released for civilian use.

In the book there is lots of material on vacuum tubes, which were state of the art at the time. The sixth volume adds material on transistors and frequency modulation, which were bleeding edge technology at the time.

I learned heaps from reading this book, particularly about the various types of vacuum tubes (also known as “valves” by the British): diode, triode, tetrode, pentode, and Klystron, among others.

Also I learned that the name “transistor” is a contraction of “transfer resistor”, I didn’t know that!

If you would like to watch this video but don’t have ten hours to spare, you can find out how to increase the playback speed more than 2x on my YouTube hacks page.

The links to archive.org I mention in the video are these:

Also I found PDFs for Volumes 1 through 5 here:

Oh, and the link for Make: magazine is here: https://makezine.com/

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)

RV77 4K HDMI USB 2.0 4-Port HDMI KVM

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Speech Conductor | Project 10/20 | Maxitronix 20in1 | Learning Electronics In The Lab With Jay Jay

Posted on 2024-07-31 [Wednesday] by Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

In this video I do the tenth Maxitronix 20in1 Electronic Project Lab project: Speech Conductor.

In this project we learn a little about transistors, amplifiers, and astable multivibrators.

Note: while I was making this video I took a detour into making a cable, which didn’t work out. You can see the video about that over here: Extra Content #13: Failing to Attach Banana Plugs to Microphone Cables | In The Lab With Jay Jay.

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)

ALKOY Capacitor Discharge Pen

notes

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Why can’t two series-connected diodes act as a BJT?

Posted on 2023-03-10 [Friday] by Jay Jay

I’ve read this before, but I read it again today: Why can’t two series-connected diodes act as a BJT? It has a really good and detailed answer, and also a follow-up.

The first answer above referenced content available for free from here: Modern Semiconductor Devices for Integrated Circuits. The dead tree version is available from Amazon but it costs much more than “free”.