PART 2

Electronics

Charles Platt, who provided advice on workshop setup earlier in this collection, returns to offer guidance on getting started with your electronics workbench, including what to buy and how to troubleshoot your breadboard and circuits. If you decide to go deeper into electronics, Charles has authored a multivolume Encyclopedia of Electronic Components that explains all you need to know about almost every kind of electronic component. Later in this section, he gives you skill-building tips for working with one of those components—the electret microphone. The tiny, inexpensive electret uses very little power and is great for adding an audio component to your electronics projects, such as using sound to trigger an action.

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If you want to add motion to your electronics project, Tod Kurt gives you the complete low-down on servomotors and how to put them to work for you. You’ll learn how to hack a servo for continuous motion and how to build a simple draw-bot. Linear actuators are another type of motor—they push and pull in a straight line. Computer scientist and fan of vintage technology, Andrew Lewis, demonstrates how to make inexpensive linear actuators out of sewing bobbins.

William Gurstelle also appreciates vintage technology, as regular readers of Make: magazine will know. Never a fan of programmable microcontroller and development boards, William prefers the simpler method of using prop controllers, or keybanging, to bring his projects to life. He’ll show you how to set up your own animatronic show and coordinate it to music.

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Diana Eng is not just a brilliant fashion designer who appeared on season two of Bravo’s Project Runway, but she’s also an innovative electronics enthusiast and cofounder of Brooklyn’s NYC Resistor maker space. Here, Diana shows you how to fabricate a homemade Yagi beam antenna to listen to satellites and even the International Space Station.

John Iovine’s “Desktop Digital Geiger Counter” is a challenging electronics project with many subassemblies that come together to form a whole. If you’re up for the challenge, you’ll find clear steps that walk you through every procedure, and John even offers boards and other components on his website to help smooth the way. Along the way, you’ll also learn a lot about the physics of radioactivity and how scientists measure it.

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Taking your skills to yet another level is Scott Driscoll’s guide to surface-mount soldering. You may be comfortable soldering components to a breadboard, but soldering a surface-mount device to a printed circuit board can be a bit tricky, especially when it’s an integrated circuit with no leads. In his overview, Scott provides thorough guidance to three approaches to surface-mount soldering.

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