Experiment 1

Electronic Familiarity

Identification of Electronic Components

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Objective: The object of this lab is to examine and identify several electronic devices.

Applications:

Many individuals work with a variety of electronic components during a typical work day. Scientists, engineers and repair technicians all must be able to recognize a variety of components by sight in order to accomplish their jobs.

Time: One half hour

Introduction:

Electronic devices and components of modern electrical circuits take many appearances. Looking into a radio or calculator to see the working parts will baffle most people. For you to have a better understanding of electronic devices and components, you need to be able to recognize some of the more common parts. Because of their great variety of colors, shape and sizes it is possible to include only a few diagrams in this lab. Catalogues from Radio Shack, Mouser, or Newark are good references for pictures.

Materials and Supplies:

microscope and/or stereoscope

hand held magnifier

electrical meters (voltmeters, ammeters, ohmmeters, or multimeters) AC/DC power source

samples of electronic components from old radios, T.V.'s, calculators including:

samples of wire (10 cm)

coaxial cable

capacitors

choke coils

diodes

fuses

integrated circuits

flashlight bulbs

light emitting diodes (LED)

photocells

transistors

resistors

semiconductor rectifiers

zener diodes

solder

thermistors

transformers

potentiometer

micro-chip

vacuum tube

photoresistors

General Safety Guidelines:

* Students should be careful of sharp edges while handling the small electronic devices.

Procedure:

1. Spread some of the electronic devices on a piece of paper on your table or desk.

2. With the naked eye observe the appearance and shape of the devices.

3. Examine each device with a hand lens magnifier.

4. Use a microscope or stereoscope to look for details, especially on the transparent

devices.

5. In your notebook make a rough sketch of the devices and label each diagram.

Questions:

1. Which devices can be identified as metal/nonmetal conductors?

2. Which devices include semiconductor materials?

3. Which devices will resist the flow of electrons?

4. Which devices will allow the electron flow in one direction only?

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5. Identify the uses for five of the examined devices.

6. Identify five devices used in microelectronics applications.

Teacher Notes:

* Teacher preparation time is about 10 minutes.

* The lab time depends on the number of devices being observed.

* A "junk box" may contain many of these items. Check with a local electronic repair shop for discarded devices or have students bring old broken or discarded parts.

* To help students identify the devices make electronic catalogs available. (Radio Shack, Mouser Electronics, etc.)

* The teacher may want to break open some of the devices with pliers or a hammer to help students see what is inside.

Answers to Questions:

1. Wire, cable, choke coils, solder, flashlight bulbs

2. Diodes, IC chips, LED's, photocells, transistors, thermistors

3. All materials resist the electron flow to some degree. Semiconductors and insulators

have more resistance than metals.

4. Diodes, LED's, rectifiers

5. All solid state radios, TV's, printed circuits, calculators, computers (see glossary for

more help)

6. Integrated circuit (IC chip), diodes, transistors, photocells, LED's

Next Lab

Semiconductor Contents

I would like to build up a basic set of components for Arduino projects. Because I don't want to pay 10x shipping, I'd like to order all (or at least most) of it at once.

What I already have is a set of resistors.

What I'm looking for are

• transistors
• capacitors
• diodes

What I have in mind:

Capacitors:

• Ceramic
• 22pF
• 10nF
• 100nF
• Electrolytic
• 0.1uF
• 1uF
• 10uF
• 100uF
• 220uF
• uF
• uF

Diodes:

• 1N
• 1N
• 1N
• 1N

Transistor:

• NPN
• BC547B
• 2N
• 2N
• TIP120
• PNP
• 2N
• BC557

Does this make sense? What else should I get?

BC547B, 2N, 2N - You do not need it, all these are very similar, usually replacements
2N, BC557 - the same. Buy one of these, except you want to experiment

• Definitely add few Shotky diodes.
• Few headers (male and female, 40-pin)
• Definitely few Zener diodes (3.6v, 5.1V, ...)
• Few fixed (3.3, 5, 12V at least) and variable voltage regulators (LM317T or similar)
• Few small heat sinks (perhaps)
• Few FETs

Etc. The best is to get few dozen projects you have in mind, got all you need and few spare components.

Hi

• 1N
  - 1N 001 and 004 same except for lower reverse voltage rating, 007 work just the same.
  - 1N
• 1N

The electrolytic capacitors get in 16V and 25V voltages.

10K linear pots, good for checking analog inputs, simulating sensors.

Pack or RED and Pack of Green LEDs plus resistors to go with them say 220R.

2N NPN 2N PNP.

4N25 or similar opto-couplers.

Any arduino base stuff on ebay that's on auction with free postage that may look interesting.

Tom....
(I must do an inventory one day)

You would normally use schottky diodes unless there was a reason not to
these days, they are plentiful and perform better for many roles (although not all),
especially for protection and rectifiication in SMPS's.

Zener's are used for simple voltage regulation or giving a fixed voltage drop in
analog circuitry - seldom seen in digital circuits.

Zealot:
Which one would you recommend?

If you are from Europe, you can buy BCxxx (easily available), if USA 2Nxxx.

They have no large difference in characteristic, as they are all general purpose transistors. They only difference is that they have different pinouts.

Question: What are Shotky and Zener diodes usually used for?

Shotky is a fast diode with very low reverse voltage. For instance, if you have 3.7V instead to get 3.0V with 1N, with Shotky you will get 3.5V and protect circuit from reverse polarity (as with ). For instance, take a look datasheet for 1N or similar.

Zener are diodes as well, with the characteristic that provide only up to given voltage. Usually used 5.1V or 3.6V with MCU to protect ADC pin or MCU from frying or to drop USB voltage from 5 to 3.6V (common in Adafruit schematcs ).

Also you could buy some basic electronic book to get familiar with basic components. Usually they have many circuits for testing...

CAUTION!
Better buy first what you planing to work with, then you can make a "storage" if you need!

I have large box full of passive components never used, even sometimes get handy to find few badly needed to complete some project.