Reference

Reference Sites, which are like textbooks.

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This site’s purpose is to address the lack of technical information for some of the rarer vintage computers and related peripherals, with a strong focus on SWTPC.

Radio-Electronics and Popular Electronics – SWTPC

More than 600 pages of assembly instructions, schematics, program listings, catalogs, photos and much, much more! – Bill’s Knowledge Base, Michael Holley’s massive SWTPC doc collection.

Radio-Electronics and Popular Electronics

Popular Electronics was created in 1954 by Ziff-Davis Publishing for an audience of  electronics hobbyists and experimenters. It soon became the “World’s Largest-Selling Electronics Magazine”. The circulation was 240,000 by 1957 and exceeded 400,000 by 1963. Rival “Electronics World” was merged into “Popular Electronics” in 1972.

Radio Electronics was the “new” name for Radio Craft magazine.. Hugo Gernsback, sometimes called The Father of Science Fiction, started it as Radio-Craft in July 1929. The title was changed to Radio-Electronics in October 1948. In July of 1992 transitioned to “Electronics Now”.

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This is one IC that is like a E-LEGO, this along with Op-Amps and other components can make many interesting projects. Probably the very first Datasheet and Application Note of 555 t he e-lego.

Signetics made the 555,  On some pins like Control Voltage it responds to analog signals and on Reset and Output the signals are Digital like. The 7555 a CMOS version consumes lower power and oscillates at higher frequencies.

NE555 Applications and Specifications

555 trigger voltage cartoon

This evergreen or perennial chip is the favorite among students and hobbyists who want to learn electronics. Here is an original datasheet from Signetics i found online, it has very nice illustrations which will act as an appetizer for learning this science.

I want students to look into these specs pages as it will make your study more invigorating

555 Timer based Circuits – delabs

Signetics made the 555, This is one IC that is like a E-LEGO, this along with Op-Amps and other components can make…

555 The most Incredible Chip

Create an innovative 555 design today, the 555 should be the heart of the circuit. Here are some pages having 555…

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I saw some photos of products, some images were good, some focus lost, few of them dim. Even i had lot of trouble with photographing objects. So here is a collection of resources to improve this skill of Indoor Macro photography.

Macro photography  is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects. Electronic Product Photography is a Branch of commercial photography and similar in most respects to food photography.

food and product photography

Macro photography

Apart from technical photography and film-based processes, where the size of the image on the negative or image sensor is the subject of discussion, the finished print or on-screen image more commonly lends a photograph its macro status.

“Macro” lenses specifically designed for close-up work, with a long barrel for close focusing and optimized for high reproduction ratios, are one of the most common tools for macro photography. (Unlike most other lens makers,

Plonsky – Macrophotography Article

“….see the bug in more detail than we could in real life. That is what got me started and what I enjoy so much about macros. They let you see what you ordinarily cannot. As a scientist, I am quite curious by nature…”

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Begin With the Basics – Learn about static electricity and how to make magnets and solenoids. Find out about direct current and alternating current. Then learn about electrical circuits that use batteries and lamps.

Getting Started in Electronics – Forrest M Mims III

Getting Started in Electronics - Forrest M Mims III

Other Books –

  • The Forrest Mims engineer’s notebook
  • The Forrest Mims circuit scrapbook

Forrest Mim’s Science Web site

Mims was interested in science at an early age, and he built an analog computer as a high school science fair project in 1960. While memorizing his Latin class vocabulary words, Mims conceived a computer that could translate twenty words from one language to another.

Forrest M. Mims III is an American amateur scientist

The input was six potentiometers (variable resistors) each having a dial with 26 letters. Entering the first six letters of the word on the potentiometers set a total electrical resistance. The memory of known words was a bank of 20 screwdriver-adjustable trimmer resistors.

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Offering free comprehensive basic electronics tutorials in amplifiers, antennas, ham radio, filters, oscillators, power supply, receivers, test equipment, transmitters, radio design and electronics design. Links to data sheets and electronics reference and text books.

Electronics Tutorials – Ian Purdie VK2TIP

Amateur Radio, Amplifiers, Antennas, Basic Electronics, Ham Radio, Oscillators, Test Equipment.

Starting out you need to cover simple electronics which encompasses the topics of ohms law, voltage, current, resistance, capacitance, inductance, reactance, impedance and Q. Further topics in these electronics tutorials are power supply basics as well as digital basics.

Electronics Tutorials - Ian Purdie VK2TIP

What are voltage controlled oscillators

A voltage controlled oscillator or as more commonly known, a vco, is an oscillator where the principal variable or tuning element is a varactor diode.

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Online edition of US print magazine Nuts and Volts. Aimed at the electronics hobbyist, with articles covering amateur radio, cellular communications.

Nuts and Volts DIY Magazine

Nuts & Volts is written for the hands-on hobbyist, design engineer, technician, and experimenter. The diversity of subjects appeals to all levels of experience and spans such topics as amateur robotics, circuit design, lasers, computer control, home automation, microcontrollers, data acquisition, new technology, DIY projects, electronic theory, and more, not to mention the popular BASIC Stamp.

Adding More Digital I/O to your 16-Bit Experimenter Kit

16-Bit Experimenter Kit - Nuts and Volts

If you’ve been following the 16-Bit Micro Experimenter series in Nuts & Volts, you are already familiar with its solderless breadboard environment and the fully programmable 10 line I/O expansion bus that comes with the kit. The 10 lines can be assigned to be digital, analog or even connected to any of the PIC24F Microcontroller’s internal extensive peripheral set (i.e. dual UART, five CCP modules, ADC, Real time Clock Calendar, dual SPI, and dual I2C).

The Mini-Bench Supply

The Mini-Bench Supply

A small power supply with +5V, +12V, and -12V outputs is a handy thing to have around when you’re breadboarding circuits with both op-amps and digital ICs. You would want a switching regulator for efficiency, but linear regulators for low noise. Plus, it should be easy to build and relatively inexpensive.

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“I make things, mostly technological, but don’t hold me to that, consistency is not a human virtue. Electronics and software, cast iron and plastics, microcontrollers in vintage automobiles, faux historical machinery that could (not) have been; finely crafted, rigorously rugged, reliable, most often.”

Tom Jennings – World Power Systems

The Model 01a (aka M01a) is a 3″ x 5.5″ self-contained controller board designed for embedded applications. It’s based around Microchip Inc’s in-circuit-programmable 14-bit PICs, and contains I/O expansion, a power supply and various goodies that I found useful in five years of using my previous controller board design.

WPS Model 01a Control Engine

WPS Model 01a Control Engine

The M01 board contains enough support hardware to pull off a lot of functionality. Before I get to handling common interface problems here’s a function-by-function description of the hardware. There’s some subtlety to some of the design that’s worth paying attention to.

Index of www.wps.com, by subject

Technical reference data; obsolete, obscure, hard to find, and sometimes just plain old; mostly things made or written by others.