Electronics and machinery controls

 

The course is designed to introduce the student to basic electronics with the goal of designing circuits to control model industrial machinery. 

We are using the Electronics Learning Lab from Radio shack as the basis for the course.  Each student must purchase his own copy of the learning lab.  Also, included in the cost of the course is one Relay that will allow the student to attach a motor to the learning lab.  Some of the topics covered in the learning lab are: relays, potentiometers, photo resistors, diodes, LEDs, transistors, Ohms law, op amps, voltage regulators, comparators, timers, transistor logic, digital logic, flip-flops, counters and many more... 

We will only meet every other week as there are many circuits that students will be building on their own through the learning lab.  Our class time will be used to give students experience in modifying previously built circuits to fit particular applications and control models. 

Solving mathematic equations is necessary for this course, so students must have completed Algebra 1/2 to enroll.  PLEASE NOTE: Students are to complete all projects in the first workbook of the electronics lab before entering the tutorial.  We will move through the second book in the first four weeks of the first semester, so it would be prudent to work through as much of it as possible before the semester starts.  This first workbook covers basic electronics and is easily worked through independently.  Once the tutorial starts, I would like the course to focus on the building of machines, not basic electronics.  When going through the workbook, it is very important to read all of the lessons and do all the experiments.  Once students come to class, I will be quizing them on their ability to build the circuits and their understanding of how they work.  Students will be assigned a grade at the end of the semester on the basis of their performance on these weekly quizs and their homework.

I am hoping that this course will leave the student with the desire to continue building circuits and models to control with them. I recommend Fischer Technik as the best building system for our models.  During class times, the students will be using my own collection of Fischer for building their in-class models.  Due to the lab nature of this course, it is not available to online students, however, with some personal initiative, most students outside of the Escondido area should be able to understand how to build many applications just through the learning lab.  Please see below for detailed pictures and a video of the Fischer Technik packing machine shown at the top of this page.

Though the course will not teach any formal physics, building our machines will give the student practical experience with many physical principles as applied to machines.  You can see a wonderful example of geared machinery at Valley Chain and Gear at 1320 Grand Ave, San Marcos, CA.  Make sure to ask them to run the machine for you.  

Often after the two hour class, we will follow with a two hour lab period to allow the students time to work on their models.  Please make sure the two hours following class would be open in your schedule.

Items that must be purchase for the tutorial.
First semester
Electronics Learning Lab
24'' Jumper leads (8)  2 packs
Small Motor - 3 volt motor
battery clip- holds 2 D size batteries.

Second semester
BASIC Stamp 2 OEM Module (Assembled) (Ask for education discount)

Also, please cut for yourself 20 inch long pieces of paperclip material.

Items that would be nice to have for the tutorial.  These items are not required but a student who would like to study further would find them helpful.
Digital Multi-meter 
Sensors Lab

Class projects
Elevator
Track
Elevator with floor stop
Motor control
Elevator with timed floor stop

Class quizs
quizs

Parts often used in class: Protoboard, snap switch, small tact switch, large tact switch, SPST Relay, SPDT Relay, Flat Gray Cable, 10 Element Bar Graph, Transistor, 4000 Series CMOS ICs,

Electronics section on Ebay

 

Class Times

All class times are Pacific Standard Time

2017/2018 Calendar - Fall in Odd Year

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:00-10:00	Geometry Unconfirmed	Classical Greek II (free)	GBT I Online		GBT I Local
10:00-12:00	GBT I Local		GBT III Local/Online	GBT V Local/Online	GBT III Local
12:15-2:00					Choir / Music Theory

2018/2019 Calendar - Fall in Even Year

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:00-10:00	Geometry	Geometry	GBT II Online	Shakespeare Local/Online (free)	GBT II Local
10:00-12:00	GBT II local	Geometry	GBT IV Local/Online	Classical Greek I (free)	GBT IV Local
12:15-2:00				Folk Music	Choir / Music Theory

 

 

All classes are online only unless marked otherwise.

First semester begins Labor Day and ends January 16th. Second semester begins January 16th and ends the last week of May. Unconfirmed tutorials will be confirmed when sufficient enrollment is received.

To sign up for our tutorials, please see fregform.html

 

To examine the packing machine more closely, click on this thumbnail.  If you would like to download a 3 MB video showing the machine in operation, click here.