Basic electrical circuits
A basic electrical circuit consists of a source of power,
connecting wire, some kind of resistance such as an
LED and perhaps a switch to close or open a circuit for
the flow of electricity. It all becomes much more
interesting when you can add into the circuit a micro
controller that can respond to highs and lows on a
circuit and then send a signal depending on the
information it receives. There are a number of different
makes such as the BX-24, PIC and Arduino based on
the ATMEL ATmega8 chip.
These micro controllers have a very small amount of
available memory. But this is programmable from the
computer so that once these instructions have been
uploaded to the chip, it is independent and can be
hidden inside a sculpture, a robot or on your person.
The power required is 5V, and this could come from a
power adaptor that in some applications will need to
come from an on-board battery.
Your essential kit will include:
A soldering iron and stand with solder
A 0.2 awg solid core wire
A selection of resistors
Helping hands (clamps) with magnifying glass