Components

On every page of my blog, you might notice a chat window. If I’m not busy, we can chat in real-time. If not, the messages come to me by email. Here’s one I got from Matt the other …

To save time, breadboard pins or just lack of knowledge people try to skip adding even one decoupling capacitor to a circuit. Either on IRC or in Forums you can almost always see …

One of the best ways to describe a transistor is as an “electronic switch.” They are solid state devices that make up almost everything in our world. This video by Veritasium, …

When your project needs a transistor, there are tons of choices. Which makes answering the question “Which transistor should I use or buy?” a daunting task. Fear not, before wading …

The idea for AddOhms #8 has been around for quite some time. I’m always trying to find ways to explain why current limiting resistors are necessary. So while working in the shop …

Soldering every circuit you build probably isn’t practical. At some point you are probably going to want to use some type of temporary method to connect different components …

Tantalum is a really misunderstood capacitor. Well, all capacitors are misunderstood, but that’s a subject for another post. I ran across this post on the Arduino forums on the …

Regulator Types Fundamentally there are two types of voltage regulators: linear and switching. The names come from how they operate and how they achieve voltage regulation. Linear …

Nearly every consumer device makes use of the Light Emitting Diode (LED). This highly versatile device offers an easy way to add an indicator to any project while drawing a …