Components from Aliexpress

I received 50 TEA2025B amplifiers over the mail today. I ordered these IC’s about two weeks ago at Aliexpress.com. Aliexpress is an affiliate of Alibaba. I have never ordered components from Aliexpress before and I was curious to see how they would perform. Eager to get my hands on these OpAmps I quickly unpacked but […]

Self-inductance, Experiment 28 of Make: Electronics

After making an improvised coil (experiment 25) and cutting a coil out of a speaker (experiment 27) in this experiment the self-inductance of a coil is demonstrated. As a coil in this experiment I used 44 meters of coated copper wire on a spool.  In parallel with the coil two low current LED’s are connected. […]

How a speaker works, Experiment 27 of Make: Electronics

I couldn’t get the cylindrical neodymium magnet of the required size so I skipped experiment 26. Next experiment 27: Loudspeaker Destruction of Make: Electronics is a very simple and very short experiment but worthwhile nevertheless. It demonstrates how a loudspeaker works by literally cut it to pieces. Luckily I had an old 2 inch speaker […]

Making a Darth Vader voice changer, part 2

About a week ago I wrote about a Darth Vader voice changer that I am making. I finally have finished a prototype but not without problem. I soldered all the external components to the Velleman MK171 kit. When I tested the circuit I discovered that three red push-buttons (see images below) weren’t functioning. I disconnected […]

Make: Electronics Experiment 25

I skipped experiment 24 of Make: Electronics. The reason is that I’m not really interested (at least not right now) in completing the Intrusion Alarm. I do appreciate what the author of the book, Charles Platt, is trying to achieve. He gives a couple of good hints for upgrades of the Alarm without presenting the […]

Making a Darth Vader voice changer, part 1

First part in a series how to make a Darth Vader voice changer with the HT8950 chip.

iCircuit, create and simulate electronic circuits

I recently bought a copy of iCircuit for OSX (9,99 in the App Store. I believe the Windows and Android versions are cheaper). It’s an app to easily create electronic circuit and simulate them. iCircuit is a great addition to my electronics hobby. It’s simple, easy to use and yet very insightful. A started very […]

Make: Electronics Experiment 23 part 2

In this part of experiment 23 of Make: Electronics the binary counter from part 1 is upgraded to a dice simulator (figure 4-109 on page 219). A 74LS27 chip is added. This chip has three NOR gates of which one is used for this experiment. Also an LED display is added. The configuration of this […]

Make: Electronics Experiment 23 part 1

Experiment 23 of Make: Electronics uses 74LSxx chips (TTL chips) instead of the 74HCxx (CMOS) that has been used in previous experiments. In the first part of this experiment a simple binary counter in made (figure 4-102). I ordered some low current LED’s especially for this experiment to be able to see the output of […]

Create a simple Audio Amplifier (LM386) part 2

Begin this week I created a simple Audio Amplifier with the LM386 (see previous entry). I noted that there was some noise coming from the speakers. I already had a 100uF capacitor on the breadboard to smoothen the power fluctuations. I searched the internet for solutions to further reduce the noise. I found three possible […]