/tech/ - Technology★

maybe try reddit

>>988338

I'm not OP but what kind of an answer is that? If you don't know anything about electricity then just don't bother man.

>>988335 (OP)

get an arduino my dude

>>988335 (OP)

I'm not familiar with "Black out", is this anything like "mastermind"?

What components can you use?

>>988388

make a led music visualizer with it

>>988335 (OP)

first grow some pubes

Can you post course summary or something so that we can get a better idea of things that we can do? Does "basic electricity" include electrostatics and magnetism? Who will visit this event? What age group?

>>988452

We already have a Jacob's ladder, but the instructor wants something interactive so that people walking by will not just stop and look at the booth and walk away, but stop, interact, and talk with us so that we can upsell the school and the program.

>>988388

>>988482

I'd go this route but it's for an Electrician's program instead of an Electronics course. If I was in the Automated Control Technology course I would do this, but since it's basically just the entry level into being an Electrician, I wanted to try to have something where we could 'flip it' or open it in a way to show that all of the 'computing' was done only with the switches and wire connections to the lights.

>>988416

I think that blackout is the name of the game. It's one of those puzzle games where you have to match all of the colors and it unlocks something, usually they're in video games where you press a button, and it turns the tiles next to it on or off, based on what they were before hand, and the goal is to either illuminate all the tiles, or turn them all off. In this case, I'm trying to have four lights be the lights you're shutting on and off, with the fifth light only being an indicator of when you've done it. I feel like by its nature, it might be something I can't do, to where it only has a single solution, but I wasn't sure because my math skills are at the level where i'm training to be an electrician.

>>988509

It's hairy.

>>988521

>>988456

Sure.

"AC/DC Circuits I addresses the basics of direct and alternating current. This course addresses more complex theory such as Thevenin's and Norton's Theorems, inductive and capacitive reactance, impedance, and resonance, power factor, vectors, true power "

"An introductory course on residential wiring methods that includes practical applications and hands-on experience in implementing code requirements."

Components we've handled, and that I really have a firm grasp on go up to diodes but that's really it, we stopped before we discussed transistors, so from the basics we've covered what electricity is and its generation, so we can use, with relative ease

>Resistors

>Capacitors

>Diodes

>Inductors (Chokes and transformers)

>Switches

>Relays

>Motors / Generators

The class really covered the math of calculating the resistances for parallel and series circuits, how the relay works, the way power is transmitted from where it is generated to where it's needed, and things like that. Really it's just a step up from a highschool physics class but focused on electricity.

The event is targeting Juniors and Seniors, and it will be Junior and Senior classes [groups of 20-30 students from each school, broken into teams of 4 or 5] from around the region [within 60-90 miles]. The switch thing was just my idea, but I wasn't sure if it was feasible. I know that there could be a way to do it with resistors and LEDs to make it so that when you've successfully flipped all the switches so the RED are all off the path gives enough current to light GREEN, but I'd been trying to do the math for it, and kept getting lost. I was thinking a way to help me would be to write down all of the possible combination of switches and lights and try and solve from that

>example: Switch 1 and 4 turn light 3 on. Switch 7 Turns light 3 on. So that either switches 1 and 4 both being on, or switch 7 being on, makes light three stay on.

Something like that, to describe all the possible states of the lights, with the only solution for light 5 being something like "when switch 1 3 6 8 9 11 are ON, Light 5 is On " with 11 being the main power switch, like in the original pictures.

>>988532

Also, now that i'm sitting here thinking of it, i'm realizing i might be able to have it so that my inputs and outputs are represented with 1's and 0's just to make it easy to mentally keep track, so like.

0000000000 > 11110

1010010110 > 00001

I'm not sure if that really makes it better for me, or worse.

>>988540

Are you saying I might be able to figure out how to do my switch mechanism if I work through an easier problem like that first? I'll give that a try, thanks anon! I know that a lot of the time, solving harder problems IS easier, if you just break it down into pieces and tackle them one at a time. I'll try it today, and give some feed back in a few hours if I've figured anything out.

Make a puzzle game using switches light bulbs and relays. Look to the book of projects for the amateur scientist from scientific american magazine, published late 1960's Here is the pdf. Start reading on page 377.

http://www.sciencemadness.org/library/books/projects_for_the_amateur_scientist.pdf

debounce some switches in hardware to demonstrate capacitors.

>>988532

>I wanna do something with just switches

>but the program has relays and we've already learned about diodes, too!!

So which is it, OP? Something you're describing is very possible using relays, but you need to decide on what your materials are going to be first, and you're going back and forth, here.

If you want a schematic for something like this, unironically look up minecraft calculators and things - wiring something like this physically with light switches will be a FUCKING. NIGHTMARE. and you will need DOZENS and DOZENS of switches if you want to make even a simple 4x4 LED grid.

NO you will not be able to use only light switches to control the color temperature of LEDs unless you have analog I/O i.e. "get so many volts at the input, make them red, now make them blue," etc. but that will be so far detached from your audience that it will make no sense.

>>988536

>Also, now that i'm sitting here thinking of it, i'm realizing i might be able to have it so that my inputs and outputs are represented with 1's and 0's just to make it easy to mentally keep track, so like.

What you are describing is a truth table.

If you want something mildly fun and more accessible, grab you some small mag starters, some time-delay relays, and make either a sequential logic circuit, or a circuit where the relays pull in back and forth, and put lights on it everywhere you can.

>>988540

Three and four way switching.

>>988729

Thanks! I guess I wasn't being clear in my typing there, but I will use all the avalible materials which includes the relays and things. I'm going to use the resources

>>988693

Provides, and proceed with the project from here. Now that I sort of 'realize' how I can use relays to accomplish what I want, I think I'm going to have a much easier time moving forward. It sort of clicked and I understand how to tackle the problem I was having. I appreciate the feedback and these are good tips for tackling problems I have in the future. The people that have replied to the thread have been incredibly helpful.

>>988717

I think my teacher would like this too, and it's something I already know how to do! I'll do this too, to try and get people interested, even though the schools Electronics Program was canceled [Lack of interest]

>>988532

You'll want to build up your own logic gates by using relays and it would be probably be better / easier to make this using buttons instead of switches I'm not sure how the game would even work using light switches. Look into flip flops for holding the state of whether a certain cell should be on or off.

A simple way of thinking of the implementation is having four buttons. There are the four display lights which are driven by a T flip flop. The output of these T flip flops are all ANDed together for the "winner light." You then wire up each of the buttons to three out of the four T fliop flops. The three a button is wired to are the three cells which should toggle when you select a location to flip.

I do want to note that you will need a clock for the T flip flop. Also if a button is pressed and the clock is fired twice the cell will be toggled twice. You can fix that by using a monostable multivibrator. This design will take something like 44 relays to make so make sure you have enough of them.

>>988811

Other tips that can be useful are stealing motors from old appliances or even drill motors (or just mount a plug-in drill to something secure) so you can alternate between motors or whatever - if you have sensors available to you - photocells, inductive proximity switches, etc. using those can also be enticing.

[can't attach pics, because /tor/not-pedo, my glorious tzar country blocks 8ch]

to (OP):

man, i see you're using some shitty mobile "electronics simulator" thing, drop that! Pick a real man's NI MultiSim (better grab some 500MB "multisim portable 10.1"). From there go Ctrl+W>Search>SPDT or SPST or LED or RESISTOR_RATED. Shit is cash and helps A LOT in my analog circuitry design times. Also, what's time limit?

Back to topic question: as everyone already has pointed out:

0) use multisim for simulation [define button names for different switches to control them from your keyboard], pick 12V 1A power supply, auto light bulbs (1..2W max) or big ass visible d10mm leds (0.1W), lots of bulky ass switches;

1) a game of blackout;

2) a different variation of previous one, like only light up 1, 4 and 5th lamps (think of switches as logical "AND", "OR");

3) maybe coil power storage capabilities to create colorful sparks, protect with diodes;

4) also showcase RC-circuitry working, different times to switch on/off lamps;

5) since we're talking about circuitry calculus: EASY resistor divider for lamp (led power drop is much less visible for voltage drops, but you may go for some variables like constant current source f.e.);

6) may be showcase effects of electro-magnetic noise in uncoupled lines (like cell phone connection causing disturbances for nearby speakers or lamp spike change of intensity), grab oscilloscope;

7) showcase wires only transferring limited amount of current and heating like crazy (switches add wires to transfer more current, thus negating the effect), bring thermocouple reader or heat visor;

8) may be bring powerful wireless phone charger for those modern day cunts to stay longer?

9) ALSO! bring an "wi-fi signal amplifier", just a halved spam can, located around wi-fi router antenna and directed towards the crowd (be warned, its transmitting angle becomes less smaller, but instead power signal becomes much more powerful (about sqrt(2)).

10) from thread readings: grab a 3-pin 2-color leds (green, red, yellow if both) and go for another blackout game.

11) imagine something with general appliance mechanical timers (those found in "simple" microwave ovens or small-sized wash machines).

Generally it's almost impossible to grab attention of fags who already know about this topic, aren't curious enough or just too "badass" for such "bullshit". The only way is if you speak "their language" or are generally knowledgeable enough to speak one-on-one with a interested geek (one-on-ones are generally not advised if you wish to grab more people's attention).

>>988908

Project has a 'due by' date of Nov 5, but earlier is better.

>>989093

You're not, but I haven't gotten to plan reading yet, and this is so I can have it spread out and see it enough to follow my tracks a lot easier. If I was doing a more professional design instead of a quick and dirty "How can I make this work" I would have it tightened up, but you're right. There is too much open space, the amount should be minimized.

>>989093

You would honestly be amazed at how much empty space there was on some old diagrams. Bell has hundreds of pages of schematics which are just a set of vertical lines with the names of the two pins the connect at the top and bottom. Generally it depends on what the purpose of the schematic is, and how much the company wanted to spend on printing.

>>989100

I'm always amazed by the hand drawn digrams that fit their page so perfectly. I screw things up so much using computing tools, I can't imagine the pain of getting everything right and finally drawing out the 'master copy', only to find a mistake and need to do it again.