I am a complete newbie when it comes to electronics. Now that I have thrown that out there, I was wondering if someone could help point me in the right direction.
I would like to build (what I assume to be) a very simple system. It would basically be a wire with an LED on each end of it. I'd like each LED to be a button (or have a button nearby) that when pressed both LED's would light up. Ideally I would be able to use a very small battery for this.
Could someone recommend a book, website, txt, tutorial, etc. that would get me started on this?
Hi. Buy an electronics experimenter kit. It will provide enough opportunities to learn in different ways; and they usually have well made manuals for beginners. Miguel
You can get LEDs and buttons at electronics stores. You will also need what are called resistors, which are little two-lead devices which limit electrical current.
So, a battery, + side hooked up to the button, other side of the button hooked to the resistor, hooked to the long lead of the LED, then back to the - terminal of the battery through the short lead. LEDs need more than 1.5V, so use a 9V battery. You can get terminals and cases for them at electronics stores.
For a 9V battery, use a 1000 ohm resistor (sometimes they are sold as
1k, where the k means 1000).
Use what is called a "Normally Open" button, or N/O for short. That means the terminals aren't connected until you push the button.
Now, when you push the button, the circuit will be completed, allowing current to flow through the button to the resistor, thorough that, to the LED, and back to the battery. This will light up the LED.
For two LEDs, just hook up another 1000 ohm resistor to the same button terminal, then to the long lead of another LED. The short lead goes to the - terminal of the battery. There should be no connection between the long terminals of the LEDs; they should be independent strings of components.
(view with fixed font, like courier)
1 LED:
+battery --- button --- resistor --- LED --- battery-
2 LEDs:
battery --- button --- resistor --- LED --- battery- | | '- resistor --- LED -'
The long lead of the LED should be on the left. If there isn't a long lead, then there is occasionally a little flat spot in the epoxy case on the - side.
--
Regards,
Robert Monsen
"Your Highness, I have no need of this hypothesis."
- Pierre Laplace (1749-1827), to Napoleon,
on why his works on celestial mechanics make no mention of God.
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