Hello, my name is Jiselle G. I am an uprising junior at Strive Prep. I was interested in BlueStamp because I would like to be an engineer some day. In engineering you are able to create something and struggle to finish it. BlueStamp has helped me create this into a reality. My BlueStamp experience was something that I have never been through. I learned many things and struggled a lot. This has given me many problem solving skills and patience. It was really great experience.
This project was inspired by http://hackaweek.com/hacks/?p=43.
Bill Of Materials:
-555 Timer
-Two 220 resistors
-Two 1 uF capacitors
-9V Battery
-9V battery clip
-Container for circuit
-Tiny Speaker
-Micro Switch
-Wire
Schematic:
Main Project
Main project is the Prank Altoid box. To create this project, I had to create a circuit with a 555 timer. The 555 timer was in an astable state. A 555 timer in an astable state sends continous pulses of rectangular pulses with a specified frequency. The oscillator in the 55 timer changes DC (direct current) into AC* (alternating current).
When creating this project, I came across a lot of problems with frequency and period. In the first schematic, the values for the resistors and capacitors was wrong and the speaker would not make any noise. I then came across a website that showed me how to correctly put each component.
At first, we then used a 1 microfarad capacitor. This also made us change the value of the resistors to 22Kohms. Now using the equation F=(1)/[ln(2)(c)(R1+2R2) and the oscilloscope, I found the period and the frequency. When we went to the oscilloscope, we saw a period of 45ms or.045s. This brought us with the frequency of 22hz. This is audible for us to hear, but it was not a loud enough noise.. We then changed the capacitors to 22 ohms. The period was 457ms or .457s. The frequency was 2.2hz. This finally caused the speaker to make the loud noise that we wanted. Another problem that we faced was the the switch was reversed, so that when it was pressed down was when it made noise. However, by opening up the switch, I was able to reverse it so that when the switch was pressed down it didn’t make any noise.
Starter Project
The starter project was the Minty Boost. The Minty Boost is a DC-to-DC* charger for any phone by using a boost converter and two AA batteries. In the boost converter, the inductor and other components to increase the battery’s voltage to 3.3V to 5V. The inductor does this by holding electronics in a magnetic field then releasing it rapidly to increase the voltage. This is constantly happening in the boost converter resulting in a working portable.
*DC- Direct current found in batteries and money everyday electronics.
*AC- Alternating current is electrical charge which can reverse directions.
I remember, back berfoe the internet, this was basically how I learned anything outside of asking people I knew. So it was very important that the article actually tell you, how to do it. Which a lot of articles seem to be a quick over view, some pretty pictures, and short captions, that are basically, insert tab here, and if you’re lucky, the picture is big enough you can see what tab it is, and where it goes.Also its nice, even if you don’t plan on building it, that the article is informative enough to learn something from. When I was just starting with electronics I got a subscription to Nuts and Volts, reading the articles was always helpful, cause, while I might have no plans of building it, I could at least learn a thing or two about some component, or process.The stuff I’ve learned from magazines, everything from race prepping a RC car, to installing car stereos, lowering a truck, 4 4 techniques and a bunch of stuff that I didn’t have, just found fun to read and learn about.