Discussion: Circuit Scribe Update

I've decided to do a little update on our Kickstarter project. Remember when I first blogged about this pen a few weeks back, they only had $17,000? Well, they're rockin' over $500,000 now. It's crazy how fast this project grew. They reached their stretch goal of $250,000 in a matter of days! So, if you'd like to further fund ginormous bank account, click here. 

Gadgets: Gigs 2 Go

We have another Kickstarter project that needs your help. Gigs 2 Go is a pack of disposable USB drives that make sharing music, files, or anything you can think of easier with your friends, coworkers, or clients. It's actually a pretty neat idea. Instead of leaving your friend with your 64 GB thumb drive, you can give them one of these so you don't have to worry about them losing it. If you want to see more and possibly even fund this project, click here. 

Gadgets: T8X Spider

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This little dude is like the holy grail of remote controlled toys. Sure, it may cost $650 dollars for it and its controller, but it is so incredibly realistic in terms of movement. This is probably the most advanced piece of in the remote controlled toys category, simply because Chinese geniuses really put they're mind to it and came out with a motherboard that uses incredibly complex algorithms that allow it for its fluid, biological movement. In fact, its so cool that Adam Savage approves of it. Here's him playing with it and here's their website. 

Gadgets: Biopen

Have you ever broken a bone? If you have, I think we can agree that being stuck in a cast for six weeks is terrible, but what if there was a way out of that healing process? Modern technology is advancing so incredibly fast, it honestly renders me speechless. Researchers at the University of Wollongong, Australia, have created a pen that can heal broken bones much, much faster. All they do is apply the two separate kinds of "ink"that the pen contains. One cartridge of stem cells, and the other of a biodegradable UV-reactant protective gel that, when applied, hardens around the stem cells to allow it to heal undisturbed. This most likely means they'll have to cut you open, but no big deal! Because this stuff works on flesh too. Want more? Click here. 

Components: Transistors

Another component. Fun, right? Well this component is absolutely necessary to circuitry. Without it, almost every circuit out there would become useless if it suddenly disappeared. So, now that you're thinking, you're probably wondering what it does. Well, simple! Transistors are like an automated switch. It's almost like some of the switches we saw a few posts back, except you're essentially having a current of electricity to flip the switch rather than your finger, making it, in my opinion, one of these some of the most useful components out there.

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Transistors are actually categorized into two main categories: NPN and PNP. This stands for "negative positive negative" and PNP stands for "positive negative positive." They're basically opposites. Why is it named that? Well, look at the picture above. If you look at the bottom right picture, you'll see that rectangle is split into three portions: the collector, base, and emitter. The collector is like the first lead in a SPST switch, the base like the toggle, and the emitter like the other lead of the switch. If you were to use one for switching, you would basically have the collector hooked up to a positive source, the emitter to your ground, and the base to some sort of signal or pulse. When you apply power to the collector, practically no current flows through when the base doesn't receive a signal. When the base does receive a signal, the current flows from collector to emitter without a problem. This is where the difference between PNP and NPN comes in. The one above is an NPN transistor because positive voltage flows from collector to emitter and uses a positive voltage to trigger the base. The only difference in a PNP transistor is a polarity swap. Instead of positive voltage going in through the collector, it goes in through the emitter and grounds through the base.

So how do these work? No, there's no black magic going on here, it's actually pretty simple. The transistor is composed of three parts, collector base and emitter, that are sandwiched together. All three of these parts are made of silicon, which is a great semiconductor. What's a semiconductor? It's something that conducts electricity with an efficiency between that of an insulator and metal. But there is a difference between the three sections. In an NPN, the two pieces of bread, collector and emitter, are negatively doped. Yes, negatively doped, meaning the silicon is infused with an element with more electrons making it more negative, like phosphorus. Now the base is the opposite, it's positively doped, meaning it's infused with an element with one less valence electron than silicon, like the element boron.  Because the base is positively charged and the two other pieces are negatively charged, the positive base actually steals electrons from the negative sides to fill equalize everything out. The result of this is actually a little barrier-type deal that forms where the bread meets the meat where the base is actually slightly negative, repelling electrons attempting to flow from one end to the other. This barrier is very small and relatively weak, making it easy to break letting current flow through. How do we do this? This where the small positive current from the base comes in. If you look at the picture, you'll see a small plate hovering above the meat. When the plate is positively charged, it attracts the electrons from the collector and pulls it over to the meat. This process actually widdles the barrier down to practically nothing, giving the electrons a straight, undisturbed path from collector to emitter. It's amazing, right? 

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Now that we know how they work, let's apply them. One very basic NPN transistor that is used almost everywhere is the 2N2222 transistor. This one works like any other NPN transistor. There are a few rules we need to follow when using them. There needs to be a level of voltage applied to each piece of the sandwich relative to the other pins. This means that the collector needs to be the most positive, the emitter the least positive, and the base somewhere in between. So in this circuit, you have nine volts reduced by 560 ohms leading to the collector. Since the collector is reduced by more the 560 ohms for it to work, you'd have to use a resistor more resistive than 560. In this circuit, they actually replaced the resistor with your finger. Your finger is pretty stinking resistant than 560 ohms; depending on how far the two wires are separated. I clocked in about 800 ohms with a half inch of Dylan finger with my multimeter. Since the base has a weaker current being supplied to it, the base's current can flow through; resulting in an even weaker output from the emitter. Every thing checks out! So, when you touch the two wires to your finger, the current from the base can flow through, completing the circuit and in turn, illuminating the LED. 

I've only scraped the surface here. There are so many different types of transistors out there that it'll take you a week to learn the fundamentals to each one. There are MOSFETs, JFETs, IGBT, bipolar, junction, Darlington; it's nuts. Here's a Youtube video that will hopefully make more sense to you. I can only do so much here on a blog! The best way to learn, and it's the way I've learned, is online videos, books, and trial and error. Hopefully here pretty soon I'll provide a list of good sources and books you can look at.

Gadgets: Bitlock

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I have another gadget for you and it's geared towards the city people. Traffic stinks in the town so riding your bike may seem preferable than driving. Problem is, most bike locks are clanky, hard to lock and unlock; you get my point. Now, what if you could get a lock that would unlock automatically for you when you get within a certain distance from it? What if it's smooth and easy to work with? There are so many unique features implemented into this thing that's it's crazy, like GPS tracking, that they could even produce such a product. Check it out here at their website.

Gadgets: Atlas the Robot

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How would you feel about a six foot tall, 330 pound robot saving your life during a natural disaster? Let's say that a tsunami nails your town. Buildings are collapsed, homes full of water, unaccessible neighborhoods, you name it. Luckily, this robot, Atlas, is designed to save people during this kind of event. He can save you from rubble, drive utility vehicles, any action you would need during an event like this. This dude is like the new, jacked-up version of the Jaws of Life. Click here for more. 

Components: Switches

Okey dokey, we all know what a switch is; I mean we all have them in our house, right? You flick it when your lights are off and they suddenly turn on. Now what you may not know is how stinking complicated they can be and how stinking large the variety of switches is. I'm about to unleash a whole new world on you. 

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Look at that big 'ol switch. Looks simple, right? That's because it is. When it's off, you flip it to turn it on. Well, how does it work? MAGIC!! No... it too is pretty simple. There are two main parts to this rocker switch: the actuator and a set of contacts. The actuator... well, actuates and the two contacts sit next to each like a 2x4 that got a few inches cut out the middle. When the switch is "off", the contacts are "open", meaning they're not connected. When the switch is in the "on" position, the actuator connects the two contacts, "closing" them so a current is able to flow through from one to the other.

Now, it gets more complicated. There are many more kinds out there. What if you want to switch two currents at the same time? What if you want one position to close one connection and the other close another? Man that was a mouthful. I bet you had to read it more than once! Anyway... we have a system for this ordeal. A switch that would simply have an off position and one other that would close a connection would be a SPST switch, or a single pole, single throw switch.

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Take a look at this here knife switch. This is a SPST switch. Do you see the "knife?" Well, that's the pole. There's only one pole, or a single pole. This is where the SP in the abbreviation SPST comes from. There's also only one spot the knife slices into. This spot it called a throw; which explains where the ST comes from. Now... why is that connection called a throw? Well, technically in engineer language, when you flip a switch, you're supposed to say throw instead of switch. Why? No clue. Personally, I think it sounds goofy. "Honey, it's dark in here. Would you find throwing the light switch?" Funky. Anyway, that's why this type of switch is called a SPST switch.

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Now this here is a DPDT switch. You see these switches bolted to crazy scientist's lab walls. Now... why is it called a DPDT switch? Let's start with the poles. If you look very closely, you'll see that there are two knives! Bravo, you got it. What about the DT portion of the name? There are two sets of contacts, so it's a double throw. Simple enough! Now, what do you think it would look like if one knife went bye-bye? Well, it'd be a SPDT switch because there are two connections and one knife. What if it had four knives? Then it'd be a 4PDT switch.








Ok. Now, the thing is, you aren't limited to just one or two poles. If you need a switch that makes 1000 different connections, congrats. It's a 1000P whatever throw switch. You are however limited to the number of throws with this specific type of switch. Now there are switches out there that have multiple throws, like the rotary switch, but with the flip switches you'll probably only see a ST or DT switch. So since there are multiple different states each switch can be in, you know, on or off, how would we indicate that? Well, the only factor that affects the number of states is the throws. If you have a SPST switch, there's the off position and the on position so that leads it to be an ON-OFF switch. If you have a switch with two poles, it'd be an ON-ON position. I know I'm stating the obvious here, but you need to know this. Why? Well some DP switches will actually have a middle position in-between the two on positions called the OFF position. This sucker is a life saver because without it, a DP switch would always be on. Always, no matter what. When the switch is in the off position, no current can flow through, which is brilliant. So, a DP switch with an off position would be an ON-OFF-ON. There's an actual reason for this. Push button switches can be momentary or not and they specify this by using the on/off system. If a momentary button only turns on if you hold it down because if you release it, it turns back off. How would you specify the secondary position is monetary? OFF-(ON). The parenthesis tell you the on position is momentary. Man... aren't switches fun? I made all this sound much more complicated than it really is but once it clicks in your head, it really seems simple.

Now, if you'd like to see a nice, wide variety of switches and buttons out there, click here to check them out!

Gadgets: Amazon Prime Air

Now, you can't just go out and buy this thing like you can with most the other gadgets I've talked about here, but this still deserves some attention. How would you like to order something from Amazon and have it at your house in about a half hour? Yeah. Thirty minutes. So... how would they do it? Drones baby! A little drone will pick up your package from the warehouse and fly it to your house. Pretty cool, right? Click here for more. 

Gadgets: Super Bra

This one's for all you ladies out there. What we have here is exactly what it sounds like! No, they didn't make a bra that's as comfortable as Nike's Dri-Fit gym shorts (and my Lord those things are holy. Seriously, if you don't own a pair, go out and get one or ten; you'll thank me later) but they did completely geek-ify it. They implanted a chip and a sensor that records and guesses your emotions with 75% accuracy by picking up EKG activity (electronic pulses) near your heart. Are you stressed? The bra knows. You joy eating? The bra knows. Now you may be wondering... what's the practical purpose of this? Actually, I have no idea. Since it sends it's readings to a smartphone, maybe us men can use it to make you gals more predictable and easier to understand! *Wink* Here's the link!