Getting Started on a Breadboard

Hi Karen,

There are lots of simple circuits to blink, buzz, move and even sense on a breadboard as you point out. I think the key with kids is to get results quickly, at least at first, and tie it to something they understand and interests them. In the past I have started with a LED and battery, then progreesed to motors and buzzers.  Inexpensive transistors can be used as switches for all sorts of circuits - say with an IR beam that buzzes when interrupted (burglar alarm).  All without a microcontroller. 

But microcontrollers can be done inexpensively on a breadboard also.  I use a MSP430 in most of my projects and it is easily breadboarded and a single Launchpad can be used to program multiple microcontrollers.  The same with an Atmel/Arduino.  It is surprising how needs to be added to a modern microcontroller to get it working.  See for example:  Use Your Launchpad as a Programmer | Four-Three-Oh!

I have enjoyed putting together theres type of classes and know how much effort it can take. Good luck and thanks for what you do to educate!

I agree, that kids really need results quickly. At least at first. And keeping projects relevant is always key to keeping them interested. All very good points. Hmmm. I'll have to look into using an MSP430. Thanks for the input!

Hi Karen,

I would start with the venerable 555 timer chip.

It would let you explore both analog and digital circuits so you can start with simple logic, clocks, PWM, and then look at analog issues like variable triggers, and wave shaping.

DAB

For me starting with a 555 timer helped me the most back in the day I enjoyed making projects and trying new things with the 555 timer, this brought me into other projects with IR as well for projects also making a aruidno on a breadboard is fun as well. only thing that isn't cheap is a FT232RL break out board but I am sure  a alternative could be in place I suggest the 555 and the ATmega328 because both can be used from beginner to advanced and help with the ability to prototype a lot quicker and being able to implement them into future projects.

I say these two would be great choices as its accessible to everyone and lots of information for research and ideas.

These are my two favorites to play with and tinker with ever now I find uses for both in projects. 

Some children need 'real world context' applied to their education and yet schools often appear to totally overlook this aspect. Also you often need an element of progression rather than just repetition to keep the interest going.

Pico Technology have a list of educational experiments (mainly centred around data acquisition) which may give some ideas of how to interact with the real world:

https://www.picotech.com/library/experiments 

Looking at the school curriculum and trying to spot areas where real world context could be applied via the maker type scene would probably be beneficial as well. The sciences should be a good bet, however I suspect that maths needs it more than anything.

As already has been mentioned, visual and audible stimulus can help maintain interest at the start however there is a limit to the wonder of a flashing LED. Sooner or later you are perhaps going to need to turn that flashing LED into a DIY 7-segment display that can count from 0 - 9 at which point you can progress to ready- made 7- segment displays at which point you can progress to counters at which point you can start counting real world events, and then timers to time real world events...

Hi Karen,

If a budget was an issue I would look at some of the cheap kits that are available from Chinese sources. For example:

https://www.banggood.com/5Pcs-NE555-CD4017-LED-Flash-DIY-Kit-3-5V-Light-LED-Module-p-1020006.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN

Here are 5 Kits for $5.00.  I would start by prepping the kits so that you could bread board them and talk about the components and the circuit as you go. After the circuit is understood and bread boarded the students will have the option to move the parts to the circuit board and make a more permanent trophy for their class as well as learning some valuable soldering skills.

John

Here's a simple circuit for producing a sound from a piezo disc. Normally, beginners get introduced to the astable multivibrator as their first oscillator (I think that was the first true electronic circuit I ever built), but I've gone in a different direction here. This is a current-mode astable. I've simplified it a bit - resistors rather than current sources, and the bias arrangement holding the base of the first transistor is a bit useless but seems to work anyway [on the evidence of this, don't give me a job as an engineer anyone].

Here is the circuit

Here it is on a breadboard - the red and black leads go to a power supply set to 9V. The current consumption is a few milliamps, so it would be fine on a small 9V battery.

And here is a waveform, because waveforms always look cool when you're blogging about electronics (this is the voltage across the piezo disc). With the 100n capacitor, the frequency is just over 2kHz.

As it stands it's a bit boring - just a single, monotonous (literally, a mono tone) sound - but it could be extended to do other things. With a latch it could be an alarm. With a selection of different resistor values it could be an electronic organ (try experimenting with different value resistors from the emitter of the lefthand transistor to ground - from 1k to 10k gives about an octave range in sound). Anyway, just an idea - it's certainly cheap and all the bits can be reused in other circuits.

Was going to suggest that. My first circuit was an astable multivibrator and I had lots of fun with it. Particularly, I was using it to mess up the TV reception when my grandparents were watching the news and I couldn't follow my favorite cartoons. Fun times.

I'd also suggest a couple of off the shelf voltage regulators to show how you can get different voltages and also explain power and power dissipation.

I was being a bit optimistic when I suggested that the circuit above could be used as an electronic organ. I've just tried it with a potentiometer to vary the value of the emitter resistor of the leftmost transistor and, instead of the tone varying smoothly, it jumped in steps - the circuit was evidently being pulled to the different physical resonances of the piezo disc. It's interesting to play with - I've just spent a while getting all manner of weird sounds out of it - but for a beginner the astable multivibrator or a 555 timer would probably be a safer bet.

Other problems, if anyone feels inclined to experiment with it, are that the right transistor will sometimes oscillate at a few megahertz (superimposed on the wanted  waveform; emitter followers are prone to that kind of thing; adding a small-value resistor to the base will stop it) and it doesn't always start up, depending on the components used and the frequency you're trying to achieve.

Some ideas can be found here:

Tis The Season For Arduino

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