Electronic Components

Dc motor

A DC motor is any of a class of rotary electrical machines that converts direct current electrical energy into mechanical energy. The most common types rely on the forces produced by magnetic fields.

Servo

A Servo is a small device that has an output shaft. ... In practice, servos are used in radio controlled airplanes to position control surfaces like the elevators and rudders. They are also used in radio controlled cars, puppets, and of course, robots. A Futaba S-148 Servo. Servos are extremely useful in robotics.

Usb port

A USB port is a standard cable connection interface for personal computers and consumer electronics devices. USB stands for Universal Serial Bus, an industry standard for short-distance digital data communications. USB ports allow USB devices to be connected to each other with and transfer digital data over USB cables.

Monolithic capacitors

A capacitor that consists of thin dielectric layers interleaved with staggered metal-film electrodes; after leads are connected to alternate projecting ends of the electrodes, the assembly is compressed and sintered to form a solid monolithic block.

Ceramic capacitors

A ceramic capacitor is a fixed-value capacitor in which ceramic material acts as the dielectric. It is constructed of two or more alternating layers of ceramic and a metal layer acting as the electrodes. The composition of the ceramic material defines the electrical behavior and therefore applications.

Diode

A diode is a specialized electronic component with two electrodes called the anode and the cathode. Most diodes are made with semiconductor materials such as silicon, germanium, or selenium. ... The fundamental property of a diode is its tendency to conduct electric current in only one direction.

knife switch

A knife switch is a type of switch used to control the flow of electricity in a circuit. It is composed of a hinge which allows a metal lever, or knife, to be lifted from or inserted into a slot or jaw. The hinge and jaw are both fixed to an insulated base, and the knife has an insulated handle to grip at one end.

Led

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits visible light when an electric current passes through it. The light is not particularly bright, but in most LEDs it is monochromatic, occurring at a single wavelength.

Photo resistor

A photoresistor (or light-dependent resistor, LDR, or photo-conductive cell) is a light-controlled variable resistor. The resistance of a photoresistor decreases with increasing incident light intensity; in other words, it exhibits photoconductivity. ... A photoresistor is made of a high resistance semiconductor.

Resistor

A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active elements, and terminate transmission lines, among other uses.

Microcontroller board

A single-board microcontroller is a microcontroller built onto a single printed circuit board. This board provides all of the circuitry necessary for a useful control task: a microprocessor, I/O circuits, a clock generator, RAM, stored program memory and any necessary support ICs.

Temperature sensor

A temperature sensor is a device, typically, a thermocouple or RTD, that provides for temperature measurement through an electrical signal. A thermocouple (T/C) is made from two dissimilar metals that generate electrical voltage in direct proportion to changes in temperature.

Transistor

A transistor is a device that regulates current or voltage flow and acts as a switch or gate for electronic signals. Transistors consist of three layers of a semiconductor material, each capable of carrying a current. ... The semiconductor material is given special properties by a chemical process called doping.

AVR

AVR is a family of microcontrollers developed by Atmel beginning in 1996. ... AVR was one of the first microcontroller families to use on-chip flash memory for program storage, as opposed to one-time programmable ROM, EPROM, or EEPROM used by other microcontrollers at the time.

Switches SPST SPDT DPST DPDT

Adding another pole to the SPDT creates a double-pole, double-throw (DPDT) switch. Basically two SPDT switches, which can control two separate circuits, but are always switched together by a single actuator. DPDTs should have six terminals. A DPDT circuit symbol, and a 6-terminal DPDT rocker switch.

Light dependent resistor

An LDR is a component that has a (variable) resistance that changes with the light intensity that falls upon it. This allows them to be used in light sensing circuits.

Ultrasonic sensor

An Ultrasonic sensor is a device that can measure the distance to an object by using sound waves. It measures distance by sending out a sound wave at a specific frequency and listening for that sound wave to bounce back. ... It is important to understand that some objects might not be detected by ultrasonic sensors.

Variable resistor

An electronic component that is used to vary the amount of current that flows through a circuit. It works by sliding a wiper terminal across a resistive material, typically a thin film or chunk of carbon or a resistive wire made of nickel chromium or tungsten alloys.

IR Sensor

An infrared sensor is an electronic instrument which is used to sense certain characteristics of its surroundings by either emitting and/or detecting infrared radiation. Infrared sensors are also capable of measuring the heat being emitted by an object and detecting motion.

Logic ICs

Digital Logic IC Basics. An IC can be described as a complete electronic circuit or "electronic building block," integrated into one or more semiconductor slices (or "chips") and encapsulated in a small, multi-pin package. ... ICs come in both "linear" and "digital" forms.

Electrolytic capacitors

Like other conventional capacitors, electrolytic capacitors store the electric energy statically by charge separation in an electric field in the dielectric oxide layer between two electrodes. The non-solid or solid electrolyte in principle is the cathode, which thus forms the second electrode of the capacitor.

NPN transistor

NPN is one of the two types of bipolar transistors, consisting of a layer of P-doped semiconductor (the "base") between two N-doped layers. A small current entering the base is amplified to produce a large collector and emitter current.

PIC microcontrollers

PIC microcontrollers are a family of specialized microcontroller chips produced by Microchip Technology in Chandler, Arizona. The acronym PIC stands for "peripheral interface controller," although that term is rarely used nowadays. ... A typical microcontroller includes a processor, memory, and peripherals.

Piezo element

Piezo elements come in handy when you need to detect vibration or a knock. You can use these for tap or knock sensors pretty easily by reading the voltage on the output. They can also be used for a very small audio transducer such as a buzzer.

Rj 45 port

RJ45, which incidentally stands for registered jack 45, is the ubiquitous Ethernet style data port found on switches, routers and network cards. The RJ45 style connectors and ports are also commonly found on Ethernet, serial and ATM IMA cards and interfaces. ... These are commonly referred to as Ethernet cables

Relay

Relays are switches that open and close circuits electromechanically or electronically. Relays control one electrical circuit by opening and closing contacts in another circuit. As relay diagrams show, when a relay contact is normally open (NO), there is an open contact when the relay is not energized.

555 Timer IC

The 555 timer IC is an integrated circuit (chip) used in a variety of timer, pulse generation, and oscillator applications. The 555 can be used to provide time delays, as an oscillator, and as a flip-flop element. Derivatives provide two (556) or four (558) timing circuits in one package.

ATmega328 microcontroller

The Atmega328 is a very popular microcontroller chip produced by Atmel. It is an 8-bit microcontroller that has 32K of flash memory, 1K of EEPROM, and 2K of internal SRAM. The Atmega328 is one of the microcontroller chips that are used with the popular Arduino Duemilanove boards.

PNP transistor

The other type of BJT is the PNP, consisting of a layer of N-doped semiconductor between two layers of P-doped material. A small current leaving the base is amplified in the collector output. That is, a PNP transistor is "on" when its base is pulled low relative to the emitter.

voltage regulator

The voltage regulator will allow the alternator to make enough power to maintain proper voltage level, but not allow system voltage to rise to a harmful level. With regulators for the alternator system, voltage limiting is the means of controlling output.

RISC

a computer based on a processor or processors designed to perform a limited set of operations extremely quickly

Multimeter

also known as a VOM (volt-ohm-milliammeter), is an electronic measuring instrument that combines several measurement functions in one unit. A typical multimeter can measure voltage, current, and resistance. Analog multimeters use a microammeter with a moving pointer to display readings.

ATmega 16 u2

is a microcontroller in which firmware can be written and CH340G is an USB to TTL converter which only serves purpose of communicating the board with computer. So effectively CH340G board works like Duemilanove and not UNO R3.

H-bridge

is an electronic circuit that enables a voltage to be applied across a load in opposite direction. These circuits are often used in robotics and other applications to allow DC motors to run forwards or backwards.

Integrated circuit

sometimes called a chip or microchip, is a semiconductor wafer on which thousands or millions of tiny resistors, capacitors, and transistors are fabricated. An IC can function as an amplifier, oscillator, timer, counter, computer memory, or microprocessor.