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Audio Circuits

Audio Amplifier Circuits

Low Noise Amplifier for Phase Noise Measurements features less input noise
than a 50 ohm resistor.

Induction Receiver for monitoring audio magnetic fields.

Communication Circuits

Telephone Circuits

Computer Circuits

24 Line Parallel Interface for the PC (or just the schematic)

Misc.

Games - the first game show timer was modified for better performance

Oscillators

Two-Transistor Atomic Frequency Standard

Audio Oscillators

Flip-Flop Flashers, Buzzers, Etc.

Flasher Ideas (LED flasher, silent metronome, low battery indicator, high
voltage generator)

Flasher Circuit

Tiny Crystal Oscillator High-stability gate oscillator uses two, 5-pin SOT
packaged devices.

Low Distortion Crystal Oscillator

Power Control

Magic Lamp (Old idea, new twist.)

Line Powered Flashers (Great for Christmas lights, etc.)

Stepper Motor Experiment

Dome Lamp Dimmer

 Emergency Backup Lamp

Battery Saver (Worth the effort!)

Windshield Wiper Delay

Lantern Flasher/Dimmer

Dimmer/ Motor Speed Control

Regulators/ Power Supplies

High Voltage Circuits

Battery Chargers

Power Supplies and Regulators (new low power discrete switcher)

Cockcroft-Walton Diode Voltage Multipliers

Battery Discharge Monitor

RF Circuits

The Amazing All-Band Receiver

Regenerative Receivers

Crystal Radio and Amplifiers (and diode detector info.)

Cellular Phone Helper

 Aircraft Receiver

WWV Converter for the Car

Rush Converter for the Car

FM Band Preamplifier

One Watt Class-C Amplifier

Antennas (Updated! Includes longwire, loading coil, active ferrite antenna,

active short antenna, vertical.)

FM Band Monaural Transmitter

Micropower AM band radio station

Test Equipment

Transistor Spot Checker

V/I Curve Tracer

Measuring RF Voltages with a VOM

Synthetic Isolators - great for checking the SWR of antennas, amplifiers,

mixers, etc.

Curious C-Beeper

Time and Frequency Circuits

Weather Related Circuits

Lightning Detectors

Barometers

Rain Detector

Cloud Charge Monitor

Geiger counters! (weather?)

Misc.

Noisemaking Circuits (police siren)

Kitchen Circuits

Galloping Neons (array of blinking neon lamps)

Deer Repellent (seismic sensor)

Shower Stopper

Gag Circuits: magic lamp, dripper (improved!), remote control jammer (also
improved!)

Construction Ideas
 Safety Information and Disclaimer

The information presented on the Wenzel Associates web site is for reference or entertainment purposes
only. No claims are made regarding the accuracy or reliability of the information. Circuit ideas and
projects are intended for technically trained individuals who are qualified to evaluate their appropriateness
and safety. Home-made devices are not reliable and unforeseen consequences may result from their use.
Check all local, state, and federal laws regarding the use of home-made devices that transmit or connect to
any utility. Do not construct and use illegal wiretaps or recording devices. Do not build bomb triggers or
other illegal weapon components. Many circuits use or generate dangerous voltages even when powered
by low voltage batteries. Many of the materials used to assemble electronic devices contain dangerous
chemicals such as lead. Although the information provided is believed to be original or in the public
domain, the devices and suggested uses may violate existing patents. Although practical jokes and gags
can be entertaining, the involved parties may feel that they were damaged or that their civil rights were
violated. Law enforcement organizations may consider electronic and electro-mechanical components to
be paraphernalia for building illegal devices. Electromagnetic energy may cause disease.

That should cover it!

Remember, in our brave new world, consumer products are covered with warning stickers after hordes of
lawyers and safety engineers review the design! Your home-made gizmo has no such protection and you
are completely responsible for any damage it might cause or be alleged to have caused. Have a nice day ; )

Copyright © 1998 Wenzel Associates, Inc. (including all pages on this server)

Activity:
 Audio Home Page
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Amplifiers Discussion Forum

Modest power audio amplifiers for driving small speakers or other light loads can be constructed in a number of ways. The first
choice is usually an integrated circuit designed for the purpose. A typical assortment can be seen on this National Semiconductor
page. Discrete designs can also be built with readily available transistors or op-amps and many designs are featured in
manufacturers' application notes. Older designs employed audio interstage and output transformers but the cost and size of these
parts has made them all but disappear. (Actually, when the power source is a 9 volt battery, a push-pull output stage using a 500 ohm
to 8 ohm transformer is more efficient than non-transformer designs when providing 100 milliwatts of audio.) As a general rule,
transformerless low power speaker projects will work better with 4.5 or 6 volt battery packs of AA, C, or even D cells than 9 volt
rectangulars.

Here are a few easy-to-build audio amplifier circuits for a variety of hobby applications.

Computer Audio Booster

Here is a simple amplifier for boosting the audio level from low-power sound cards or other audio sources driving small speakers
like toys or small transistor radios. The circuit will deliver about 2 watts as shown. The parts are not critical and substitutions will
usually work.

A lower power version of this circuit is used in the next circuit which also has an additional preamplifier for more gain.
 Audio Amplifiers for Small Speaker Applications

The circuit above shows a 4-transistor utility amplifier suitable for a variety of projects including receivers, intercoms, microphones,
telephone pick-up coils, and general audio monitoring. The amplifier has a power isolation circuit and bandwidth limiting to reduce
oscillations and "motorboating". The values are not particularly critical and modest deviations from the indicated values will not
significantly degrade the performance.

Three cell battery packs giving about 4.5 volts are recommended for most transformerless audio amplifiers driving small 8 ohm
speakers. The battery life will be considerably longer than a 9 volt rectangular battery and the cell resistance will remain lower over
the life of the battery resulting in less distortion and stability problems.

The amplifier may be modified to work with a 9 volt battery if desired by moving the output transistors' bias point. Lowering the
33k resistor connected from the second transistor's base to ground to about 10k will move the voltage on the output electrolytic
capacitor to about 1/2 the supply voltage. This bias change gives more signal swing before clipping occurs and this change is not
necessary if the volume is adequate.
The above circuit is a versatile audio amplifier employing a low cost LM358 op-amp. The differential inputs give the amplifier
excellent immunity to common-mode signals which are a common cause of amplifier instability. The dotted ground connection
represents the wiring in a typical project illustrating how the ground sensing input can be connected to the ground at the source of
the audio instead of at the amplifier where high currents are present. If the source is a power supply referenced signal then one of the
amplifier inputs is connected to the positive supply. For example, an NPN common-emitter preamplifier may be added for very high
gain and by connecting the differential inputs across the collector resistor instead of from collector to ground, destabilizing feedback
via the power supply is greatly reduced.

My utility amplifier was built into an aluminum Bud box and

eventually ended up bolted to the bottom of a shelf as shown.
The well-behaved and ready-to-go amplifier is really handy.

As is often the case, the circuit values are not critical. Other op-amps will usually work but a bit of experience may be necessary if
problems develop.

Crystal Radio (and other purpose) Audio Amplifier

Here is a simple audio amplifier using a TL431 shunt regulator. The amplifier will provide room-filling volume from an ordinary
crystal radio outfitted with a long-wire antenna and good ground. The circuitry is similar in complexity to a simple one-transistor
radio but the performance is far superior. The TL431 is available in a TO-92 package and it looks like an ordinary transistor so your
hobbyist friends will be impressed by the volume you are getting with only one transistor! The amplifier may be used for other
projects, too. Higher impedance headphones and speakers may also be used. An earphone from an old telephone will give ear-
splitting volume and great sensitivity! The 68 ohm resistor may be increased to several hundred ohms when using high impedance
earphones to save battery power.

Here is the amplifier used to boost the output from a simple

crystal radio. The volume control is at the bottom left and the
other components are on the terminal strip at the bottom of the
picture. This is a really quick and easy audio amplifier!
 Induction Receivers

The induction receiver shown below is very sensitive and can serve a variety of purposes. It is excellent
for tracing wiring behind walls, receiving audio from an induction transmitter, hearing lightning and
other electric discharges, and monitoring a telephone or other device that produces an audio magnetic
field ("telephone pickup coil").

The receiving coil could be a "telephone pickup coil" if available or a suitable coil from some other
device. The coil in the prototype was salvaged from a surplus 24 volt relay. Actually, two relays were
needed since the first was destroyed in the attempt to remove the surrounding metal so that a single
solenoid remained. Epoxy putty was used to secure the thin wires and the whole operation was a bit of a
challenge. A reed relay coil will give reduced sensitivity but would be much easier to use. The
experimentally inclined might try increasing the inductance of a reed relay by replacing the reed switch
with soft iron. Avoid shielded inductors or inductors with iron pole pieces designed to concentrate the
magnetic field in a small area or confine it completely (as in a relay or transformer) unless you can
remove the iron. The resulting coil should be a simple solenoid like wire wrapped around a nail. Don't try
to wind your own - it takes too many turns. Evaluate several coils simply by listening. Coils with too
little inductance will sound "tinny" with poor low frequency response and other coils will sound muffled,
especially larger iron core coils. This prototype was tested with a large 100 mH air core coil with superb
results but the 2 inch diameter was just too big for this application.

The other components are not particularly critical. The 2N4401 can be just about any NPN general
purpose small-signal transistor. The TL431 is a shunt voltage regulator but it is being used as an audio
amplifier in this circuit. In fact, the whole device is nothing more than a low noise, high gain audio
amplifier with a pickup coil connected to the input and other amplifiers will work equally well.
The circuit is built into a 8 mm cassette box with the power switch and earphone jack in the back. The
circuit board is a piece of pink countertop laminate which looks good against the violet hue of the
cassette box. The battery fits nicely into the box and a piece of foam fills in the remaining space. These
video cassette boxes make nice project boxes, unlike audio cassette boxes which are too flimsy.
When you first turn on the unit you will probably hear a lot of buzzing from the wiring in the room.
Rotate the receiver in a horizontal plane to find a "null" where the hum is minimal. If you can get a
reasonable null, you should be able to hear distant lightning crackles or other magnetic noises. If you
cannot get a null then go outside away from the building. Try holding the coil near electronic devices like
your computer monitor, telephone (when in use), cell phone readout, etc. You can trace power wires
behind a wall or ceiling by listening for a sharp increase in hum as the coil passes near the wire. Make
sure that current is flowing in the wires to be traced by turning on a lamp or other appliance. (Here is an
experiment to try: Build a line voltage lamp flasher that can be connected to the circuit to be traced. The
desired wire will now have an on and off buzz - buzz sound that will be easy to distinguish. I wonder if
you could even identify a specific breaker or fuse?)

Other wires can be traced if they are carrying alternating current in the audio range or a signal generator
can be connected to produce the current. Connect the generator to the wire to be traced and connect the
generator's "ground" to the house wiring ground. Also ground the far end of the wire you are tracing so
that current flows in the wire. This ground connection can also just be a temporary wire laying on the
floor running from the generator ground to the far end of the wire you wish to trace.

For the ambitious: try wrapping one or two turns of wire around the whole house and connect the loop to
the output of an audio power amplifier (one channel of a stereo should work). Add a 4 ohm, high wattage
resistor in series to protect the amplifier. You should be able to pick up the magnetic field fairly easily
anywhere within the loop with the power amplifier supplying just a few watts of power.
 Telephone Circuits

Telephone In-Use Indicator

When a new computer modem enters the household, the demands on the home phone line skyrockets. The
Internet surfer can use phone time on a par with the most talkative teenager. And the computer modem user
can be quite sensitive about his privacy: simply lifting another receiver can knock him off-line causing
emotional stress. The phone wiring may be modified so that the modem is always in control by connecting
the phone line directly to the modem and connecting the rest of the phones to the modem's "phone" jack. But
this solution gives the computer user too much power over the phone line and it doesn't solve the problem if
two computers share a single line. Here is a simple blinking LED circuit which will alert users when the line
is in use before the receiver is lifted. The circuit loads the phone line so lightly that it meets the on-hook
telephone equipment leakage specification and the short lamp flashes draw very little current from the nine-
volt battery. One of these devices may be placed at each extension without significantly loading the phone
line. The circuit is connected to the red and green wires for a single-line system or the yellow and black wires
for the second line in a two-line system. Polarity doesn't matter, thanks to the full-wave rectifier. In order to
preserve your phone line balance, do not power this device from a line-powered power supply. Only use a
battery as shown and insulate the battery and circuitry by building the device into a plastic case. Do not
ground the circuitry. The circuit will work with other batteries and battery voltage. Four AA, C, or even D
cells (6 volts) will last considerably longer if you have teenagers burning up your batteries. A small 9-volt
rectangular battery will be fine for most users.

Notes:
The diode bridge eliminates polarity concerns. It may be left out but the wires to the phone line may
need to be reversed if the circuit doesn't work properly.
The 22 megohm resistors are sufficiently high to meet phone circuit leakage specifications.
A 2N4401 will usually work in place of the MPSA-18 but if the transistor gain is too low the flashing
will not stop.

Telephone Ringer

Caution: The circuit generates a high voltage which can shock.

The Phone Ringer circuit will work with any ordinary phone including older bell ringer types. The
circuit rings the phone in a completely realistic manner until someone answers. When the receiver is
lifted the user hears the audio of your choice. It might be another telephone, a tape recording, a
favorite talk radio show, a fake busy-signal, a scanner tuned to weather or police, cues for the actor
who forgot his next line, or whatever audio source strikes your fancy. DC current is passed through
the phone to activate the phone’s electronics.
Provisions for experimenters include a ring inhibit control and an additional transistor will activate devices
when the phone is answered. The ring inhibit control is used to start the ringing when a signal goes low and
the activate-on-answer control can start a tape recording or other device when the phone is answered. For
example, the ringer could be triggered by an alarm clock to make an artificial but realistic wake-up call.
When you answer, your own voice instructs you about the importance of getting up. This wake-up caller is
quite persistent, calling back the instant you hang up!
Do not connect this circuit or the phones used with this circuit to the phone lines.

The phone cable will have red and green wires which are simply connected to the points indicated by the
schematic. Polarity should not matter. Other devices may be connected as described but no connection to a
"real" phone line is intended.

The circuitry is simple and not particularly critical. The first two inverters form a slow pulse generator which
controls the ringing rate. Change the 0.22 uf capacitor to change the ringing rate and change the 22 Meg.
resistor in series with the diode to change the length of the ring. The second two inverters generate the 20 Hz
ringing signal. This frequency can be changed by changing the .033uf capacitor. Mechanical bell ringers have
a resonant clapper and should be driven with a frequency near 20 Hz but a slight variation may give a better
ring. The last two inverters buffer the ringing signal and drive the two output transistors. Practically any
transistors can be used for the output including 2N4401 and 2N4403 but power transistors in a TO-220
package might be more desirable if a lot of ringing is anticipated. The transistors should be capable of
handling several hundred milliamperes. Any low-leakage signal diodes will work for the 1N914s.

The power transformer must handle 20 Hz with at least some efficiency so it is best to use larger units.
Molded transformers will work fine but of course they cannot be DC types which have built-in rectifiers.
Choose a transformer with a low voltage winding rated for an output voltage well below the DC power
supply used. The circuit as shown runs on 12 volts with a 9 volt transformer. Some transformers have 220
volt windings which can give a stronger ring if necessary. A 6 volt filament transformer powered by the
circuit as shown will give a quite strong ring. Reduce the 10 ohm emitter resistors to 4.7 ohms to get more
ring power if power transistors are used . (Don't leave them out entirely since they help prevent high
frequency oscillations.)

Ringing is inhibited by applying a voltage near VCC to the 1N914 diode. A simple transistor inverter can
change the sense and increase the sensitivity so that a couple of volts will start the ringing (fig. 2). If the
phone is to ring when the squelch of a modern scanner breaks try looking in the scanner for an analog switch
integrated circuit. One of its pins will jump between 0 and 5 volts when the squelch breaks and this signal is
fine for driving the inverter circuit. Fig. 2 also shows how to connect a photocell so that the phone rings only
when the lights are off. (Record a dial tone so the victim concludes that the caller keeps hanging up just as he
turns on the light.) The ringer control can also be used in a variety of other ways to automate the ringing. For
example, a 470k pull-up resistor combined with a large electrolytic capacitor connected to ground makes an
interesting doorbell. Just connect the doorbell switch across the capacitor and the phone will ring for a few
seconds when the switch is pushed. (The capacitor discharges quickly but charges slowly.)

Fig. 3 shows how to add an answer activated control. The 1k resistor may be replaced with a relay for
controlling a tape recorder. Put a diode across the winding to protect the transistor from inductive kick-back.

The phone ringer may be used to construct a pretend cellular phone system for the kids using an ordinary
cordless phone and a regular phone wired in series. Keep the wiring neat and insulated so that the ring
voltage doesn't "bite" anyone. Connect the ringer, ordinary phone and the base unit of the cordless phone in
series. Wire a switch which enables the ringer and shorts the ordinary phone (two-pole switch). When the
cordless phone is answered, flip the switch to talk. Shorting the ordinary phone is probably not necessary but
be prepaired for a rather loud buzzing in the earpiece when the other phone rings! The advanced
experimenter may wish to build an artificial phone system by adding a on-hook high voltage supply, dial tone
oscillators, and appropriate switching circuitry. Quite a challange!

The Surfer’s Preserver

The Surfer’s Preserver is a simple device that prevents other phones in the house from disrupting your critical
Internet session by disconnecting them from the line while you surf! The circuit is also useful in preventing
eavesdropping from other extensions since other phones are "dead" until you hang up. The circuit wires in
series with either of the offending phone’s wires (red or green) and it is small enough to tuck behind the wall
cover plate.

Circuit Description: Due to the resistor divider, the SCR will not fire unless there is at least 17 volts across
the bridge. When the receiver is lifted, the full line voltage appears across the circuit and the SCR triggers.
The SCR will remain triggered since the DC phone current is about 25 mA and the SCR holding current is
only about 5 mA. If the phone line is in use when the receiver is lifted, the line voltage is insufficient to
trigger the SCR and the phone remains disconnected. When the phone rings, the 17 volt threshold is quickly
passed and the SCR triggers early in the ring voltage cycle, supplying a nearly full amplitude ring voltage to
the phone.

A momentary push-button switch may be added across the 33k resistor to manually trigger the SCR so that
the phone can connect when another phone is off-hook. This push-button could be mounted in the wall plate
if the plate is in a convenient location or the circuit could be built into the telephone itself with a small switch
added on the side. This push-button is handy if more than one telephone is on the line.

Other SCRs may be substituted as long as their working voltage is above 150 volts and their holding current
is well below your phone’s current. Connect a current meter in series with your phone to determine your
current - expect about 25 to 30 mA.

The circuit requires that the modem or other phones pull the line voltage below 17 volts when off-hook. A
simple voltage check will determine if the voltage is dropping low enough. It will typically drop to 5 volts. If
you must raise the trigger voltage, increase the 33k resistor. A very high resistor value may reduce the ringing
volume on older phones or prevent normal phone use.

A separate circuit may be constructed for each phone or one circuit may be used to disconnect several
phones. To use one circuit for several phones, make sure that they share a common wire not shared with the
modem. Place the circuit in series with the common wire. The advantage of this connection is that the push-
button is not needed to transfer a call from one phone to another but some custom wiring may be necessary.
 Electronic ●

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Game Show Timer

The game show timer determines which contestant presses their button first by lighting a lamp and ringing a
bell and the slower contestants are locked out. The circuit is convenient in that only two wires are needed to
interconnect the stations and the wires may all go back to the base unit or they may be "daisy-chained"
between stations. There is no electronic limit on the number of stations. The circuit uses a 24 volt power
source and 12 volt lamps when built as shown but the experienced experimenter may scale these voltages
along with the zener voltages if desired. If the SCR triggers when the power is applied or when the reset
button is pressed, add a 0.1uF capacitor from anode to cathode. (A sudden increase in voltage across some
SCRs can trigger them, especially if the gate impedance is high.)
Circuit Operation

When the unit is first turned on, or after the reset button is pressed, all of the SCRs are in the off state. The
full 24 volts is present on the two interconnecting wires and when any station button is pressed, the voltage is
sufficiently high to trigger the SCR in that station. When the SCR triggers, the contestant’s lamp and the base
station lamp light and the voltage on the two interconnecting wires drops to 12 volts. Other stations are
locked out at this time since 12 volts is not sufficient to trigger the SCRs.

The buzzer is controlled by a relay and is electrically isolated from the rest of the circuit. When a contestant
presses a button, the 680 uF capacitor charges through the relay coil, holding the relay closed for about a
second. The length of the buzz may be changed by changing the value of the 680 uF capacitor. Use a
capacitor with a voltage rating above 24 volts.
Note: This circuit was modified to isolate the buzzer circuit for better performance by the addition of the
relay. If your relay does not have a built-in diode then add a 1N4001 or other general-purpose rectifier
across the coil as shown.
 View a version built by reader, Steve Putz.

The Scavenger Hunt Game

The game is started by selecting an item to find from a list or deck of cards and the first person to see the item
on the TV wins the point. The game winner is the first contestant to reach 10 points. The list should include
unambiguous items which are commonly seen on TV programs and the channel may be randomly changed if
needed. A contestant that presses the button when the item is not visible on TV looses a point.

Game Show Timers

Using only two CMOS IC packages, this game show buzzer performs well enough to be on TV! The first
contestant to press his button locks out the other two contestants. The design is completely asynchronous and
"fair". Other logic families will also work and any appropriate power supply is fine. For simplicity, a single-
chime doorbell is used for the aural indicator. If a buzzer is preferred, use double pole pushbuttons with the
second poles connected to activate the buzzer. Simply connecting a buzzer in place of the doorbell will work
but the buzzer will sound until the reset switch is pushed.

Copyright, 1999
 Two-Transistor Atomic Frequency Standard

Pretty ambitious title, wouldn't you say? Well, follow the reasoning: If you lower the voltage on the two-transistor flasher to 1.5 volts, the loop gain drops too low for sustained flashing. (See the
circuit below.) But, the circuit is highly regenerative and only needs a very tiny push to get it going. By adding a short wire, only a few inches, to the PNP base, the circuit will be triggered into
oscillation by the AC electric field from the electrical power (50 or 60 Hz in most places). If the resistor and capacitor timing values are selected for oscillation near the line frequency, the circuit
will flash at that rate in perfect synchrony. Now the "Atomic Frequency Standard" part: The line frequency is only fairly accurate at any given instant - perhaps within a few hundred PPM - but
the long term error is kept very low by comparing the frequency with national time standards which are, of course, based on an array of atomic standards! So, if you rip the oscillator out of a
battery-powered wall clock and replace it with this circuit, the clock will exhibit little or no long-term error! Most wall clock oscillators generate pulses at one or two hertz to drive a little solenoid
and this circuit may be adjusted to run at this lower frequency by increasing the timing resistor. The low frequency oscillations will be synchronized to the line frequency. Adjustment can be
tricky and should be done with the circuit installed in its final location. The circuit will have a tendency to jump to different divide ratios if it isn't adjusted perfectly. Once it is running, nothing
can be changed, including the antenna length or the circuit will jump divisors. (Divide by 59 instead of 60, for example.) It would be more reliable to add a CMOS frequency divider chip to get
the lower frequency but an experienced hobbyist can make it work and it is pretty fun to play with. Adjusting the circuit to produce the line frequency without division is much less critical and
more forgiving of antenna changes, etc. The circuit can even be used to generate odd-order multiples of the line frequency but the adjustment is quite sensitive.

Approximate R Values:

500k for 1 PPS

28k for 10 PPS

4k for 60 PPS

Use a potentiometer for

experimentation or easy
final adjustment. This ckt.
might be too advanced
for the beginner since it
requires a bit of "tweaking"
experience.

The circuit shown uses a 4 uF film capacitor but other values will work if the timing resistor is changed in inverse proportion. For example, a 1 uF capacitor would require a resistor about 4 times
larger. If you wish to simulate this circuit with a Spice program, connect a 50 or 60 Hz voltage source set to about 100mv, a 100 megohm resistor and a 100 pF capacitor all in series between
ground and the base of the PNP to simulate the electric field. For "real-world" testing, a period counter is hard to beat but an oscilloscope with line trigger will also do the trick.

An optional booster circuit is shown if high current pulses are required as when driving a solenoid. If the pulse is too short, add a 10k resistor in the base of the NPN. Some frequency retrimming
will be required.
 Audio Home Page
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Oscillators Discussion Forum

Here is a phase-shift audio oscillator with excellent distortion characteristics thanks to "softened" diode limiting
provided by the 1N914 and resistor divider and degenerated gain provided by the 68 ohm emitter resistor. For
minimum distortion, increase the 68 ohm resistor to a point just below where oscillation stops. A simple buffer may
be added for driving lower impedance loads. The output amplitude will be about 5 volts p-p but one of the 1N914's
10k divider resistors may be changed for a different output amplitude. The circuit will work well with a power
supply voltage other than 9 volts but the 68 ohm resistor may need adjustment.
 The circuit can be built in the "blobular cluster"
style and potted with epoxy mixed with a little
model airplane paint. Use quick-setting epoxy and,
holding the circuit by the legs, keep rotating the
blob near the end of the cure cycle to get an even
coat - quite an art form! The finished module looks
quite professional, not unlike many dipped caps.

Here is a two-transistor Wien bridge oscillator using an ordinary night-light bulb for stabilization. The output is
about 6 volts p-p and can drive fixed loads as low as 2 or 3 thousand ohms without additional buffering. A 10 k
amplitude potentiometer with the wiper going to a high input impedance output amplifier would make an excellent
load.
Excellent distortion is achieved by adjusting the 1 k feedback potentiometer until the output amplitude is about a
volt less than the maximum level (with the pot set to the highest resistance). Wait a few seconds between
adjustments to give the bulb time to stabilize; the audio signal actually heats the bulb's filament causing the
resistance to go up which controls the loop gain. You will see the signal bounce a little as the bulb gains control.
This simple version of the popular Wien bridge oscillator uses feedback to hold the junction of the two RC
networks (base of first transistor) near zero volts (100 mV p-p) and the ends of the RC networks move in opposite
directions like a see-saw.

With the resistor values shown, the frequency may be varied from a few Hz to over 60 kHz by selecting a value for
C between 1 uF and 47 pF. The frequency will be reasonably close to 1/ (6.28 x RC). R may be varied also for
additional range but values too low or high may cause problems. The 7-watt bulb may be replaced by a smaller type
with similar resistance (more than 50 ohms) but the long time constant of the larger filament is helpful when
generating very low frequencies.

The 100 uF output capacitor may be smaller if very low frequencies are not generated.
The 22 pF is added for stability and may be eliminated depending on the transistor types and circuit layout.
A larger value may be needed in some cases.
The output is ground referenced with no DC offset.
A load change may require readjustment of the feedback potentiometer.
The series RC may be switched if it is desired to have the resistors connected together.
A high gain transistor like the MPSA-18 for the first transistor will allow a much larger value for R, up to 1
Megohm.

The circuit should draw between 18 and 45 mA, a value determined by the transistor gain and the value of R.
Current outside of this range may cause distortion. The 1.2 k emitter resistor may be varied slightly to adjust the
current consumption; shoot for 25 to 30 mA.

It should be noted that op-amps make great Wien bridge oscillators without significant impedance and bias
concerns! There are dozens on the web and in manufacturers' application notes. But sometimes a couple of friendly
transistors fit the bill perfectly.
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Discussion Forum

The familiar astable flip-flop circuit is a handy configuration for making flashers or
generating squarewaves. Here is a typical alternating LED flasher with the LEDs in the
emitters instead of collectors as is normally done. The bias resistors are directly connected to
the supply and are chosen to have a value about 100 times the collector resistor for ordinary
gain transistors. The flashing period is approximately the product of this resistance and the
capacitance which is about 1 second for the circuit as shown. The 470 ohm resistors set the
LED current and may be reduced for lower battery voltage but remember to also reduce the
bias resistors. If no LEDs are desired, the emitters may be directly connected to ground and
two out-of-phase voltage squarewaves are available on the collectors.

This is another version of the circuit that uses negative feedback for the bias. This technique
is generally more desirable because the feedback ensures that both transistors are in a high-
gain, linear mode when power is applied. In actual practice the first circuit will often work
"better" with ordinary bipolar transistors since there is no negative feedback slowing the
switching. The feedback makes the circuit more immune to parameter variations due to
temperature changes, gain variations, or even component substitution.
This version will work with just about any NPN darlington transistor. The bias resistor may
be much larger due to the high gain of the darlington so much lower value, non-polar
capacitors will give a suitable flash rate. Of coures, other applications may require different
oscillation rates which are easily achieved by changing the capacitor value. Other voltages
and currents may be accommodated by changing the collector resistor value. PNP versions of
all of these circuits may be built by reversing the polarity of the battery and polarized
capacitors. The high gain of the darlingtons makes it feasible to handle heavy loads either in
the emitters as shown or in place of the collector resistors as is commonly done. Lower value
bias resistors may be necessary depending upon the load current and the gain of the
transistors.

Here is an unusual way to get more power out of the astable flip-flop without resorting to
huge capacitors. The emitter current flows through the base-emitter junction much like the
LEDs above saturating the output transistors. The 2N4401 can handle up to 600mA in this
circuit but a higher current transistor may be substituted. The base current of the output
transistor may be adjusted by changing the 470 ohm resistor, as needed.

Adding another power transistor on each side brings this

flasher into the 10 amp range using ordinary bipolar
transistors. Only one side needs the extra transistors if only one
flashing lamp is required. Just ground the emitter of the low
power side.
The loads may be placed in the collector circuits as this darlington flasher illustrates. The
lamps should be rated near the voltage of the power supply.

Mosfet power transistors will work in most of these circuits as long as the negative feedback
biasing is used. A capacitor is needed across the mosfet circuit and is generally a good idea
in all of the circuits. Some mosfets will exhibit RF oscillations in this circuit (the VN67, for
example). Transistors that worked well were: VN10KM, VN88, SK3165, and IRF531. Most
power mosfets that require only a couple of volts to turn them on will work up to their
current and power ratings.

Here is a way to use the circuit at high voltages. The voltage divider resistors in the gate
circuit limit the gate voltage to safe levels. The circuit shown flashes two ordinary 7 watt
nightlights but the input voltage must be only 90 VRMS. If the flasher is to be operated
directly of off the rectified line voltage, add an 820 ohm, 2 watt resistor in series with each
lamp. One lamp may be replaced with a 10k resistor if only one flashing lamp is required.

Warning: This circuit uses potentially deadly voltages and should be constructed only by
qualified persons.
These circuits are useful for purposes other than flashing lamps. Here is a simple tone
generator driving a 16 ohm speaker at about 2.5 kHz with plenty of volume (set by the 22
ohm). Note the non-symmetrical values. There is no need to waste power in the transistor
that isn't driving the load. To get a 50/50 squarewave the product of the bias resistor and
capacitor values connecting to one base should be close to the product of the others. (47k X
0.01 is close to 2.2k X 0.22.)

Since the circuit uses non-symmetrical values, the total current drain will be a squarewave,
too. This circuit for a code-practice oscillator oscillates near 1kHz. Notice that the speaker,
key, battery, and circuit are all connected in series. This "two-wire" feature can be handy in
some situations. A fairly large capacitor is connected across the circuit to make it work
properly and this capacitor has a low-pass effect on the squarewave the speaker sees and its
value will depend upon the desired frequency.

These circuits shown so far are basically a two-stage AC-coupled amplifier with the output
fed back to the input through another capacitor. Redrawing the circuit and using DC-
coupling between the stages gives this circuit. Emitter degeneration was added to one stage
and the resistor values were modified to get both transistors into the active region. The
problem with DC-coupled amplifiers is that the high gain can result in the last transistor
being fully on or off unless care is taken.
Here is the standard flasher circuit seen in many hobby books with the exception that the bias
resistor is connected from collector to base for better reliability. Note that it is also a two-
stage amplifier with DC coupling but by switching to a PNP, the biasing is a little simpler.
Most engineers looking at this circuit want to add a resistor from base to emitter on the PNP
or from the collector to plus on the NPN but the circuit works OK without either.

Have fun designing your own flasher. The circuit will need sufficient non-inverting gain to achieve oscillation which probably means at least two transistors.
Make sure that the two or more stages are "alive" by biasing them away from ground or the power supply voltage. Then apply the feedback and try to figure
out what happens when the circuit switches from being a linear amplifier into a switching, non-linear flip-flop. If the gain is sufficient and non inverting,
something will happen!
 Flasher Circuits

Two Transistor Flasher Ideas

The basic two-transistor flasher shown below has found its way into dozens of applications due to its
simplicity and versatility. Applications have included such diverse circuits as a micropower low battery
indicator, a lightning detector, a off-line switching power supply, a micropower high voltage supply, an
unusual beeping capacitance probe, a windshield wiper controller, a lamp dimmer, a police siren, and
several others. The simple circuit can be used at very low frequencies, RF frequencies, low voltages, or
even very high voltages with careful selection of transistors. The power handling capability and power
consumption are also easily modified to suit the requirement.

This circuit is great for beginners! If you build it, it will flash. And you can easily change the on-time and
flash rate.

The basic flasher is shown below. Notice that it is a "two-wire" circuit and simply connects in series with
the load and battery. The two resistors on the base of the PNP set a threshold voltage and when power is
applied the capacitor begins charging toward this voltage. When the capacitor voltage is high enough the
two transistors begin to conduct. The current flow causes the voltage across the circuit to drop slightly
and this drop causes a drop in the threshold voltage. The lower threshold voltage causes even more
current and this positive feedback causes the circuit to rapidly turn on. It stays on until the capacitor
discharges at which point a reverse process causes the circuit to suddenly switch off.

Power transistors may be added for handling higher current loads. The two circuits below are typical
connections. In the first circuit a flasher circuit in series with a 220 ohm resistor turns on a power
transistor. In the second circuit, a power FET is used in place of the NPN. A pull-down resistor is added
to pull the gate low when the circuit turns off.

Don't hesitate to modify this basic circuit to meet your specific requirements. It is easy to troubleshoot
and almost always works! Here are a few more ideas for the experimenter to try:

A diode may be inserted in series with the capacitor charging resistor so that discharge current is
blocked which gives a longer "on" time for a given flash rate. The NPN base resistor determines
how fast the capacitor discharges.
A signal can be coupled into the base of the PNP to modulate the flashing rate for FM
applications.
The PNP base divider resistors can be adjusted so that the voltage is just a little too high for a
flash to occur when the capacitor fully charges. Then, a very tiny AC signal applied to the base
will cause the circuit to "trigger". The frequency response of this detector can be surprisingly
high.
The capacitor charging current may come from any source making a simple current to frequency
converter.
You can reverse the polarity of everything and switch the transistor types.

The circuit below is a "silent" metronome that keeps the beat without becoming a member of the band.
The circuit flashes the 6 volt lamp at a rate set by the 20k potentiometer which can have a dial for setting
the desired tempo. Alternately, the potentiometer could be replaced with a rotary switch and selected
resistors. The lamp is an ordinary #47 bulb which will give good omnidirectional brightness but an LED
and resistor could be used instead - try a 100 ohm in series with a high-intensity LED. The batteries
could be three C or D cells for good life. This circuit could be used to generate "clicks" in a speaker but
such metronomes are not particularly pleasing. The ambitious might replace the lamp with a solenoid
which taps on the wall of a hardwood box or wooden chime for a "professional" sound.

Here is a low battery indicator that flashes a lamp when the battery voltage falls below about 5 volts. The
circuit draws about 25 microamps when not flashing so battery life is not significantly shortened by the
circuit. The two 1 megohm resistors set the switching point at V/2 (plus a little due to the emitter-base
diode drop) and when this voltage is above the zener voltage the circuit cannot turn on. When the battery
voltage drops below 5 volts, the base voltage drops to 2.5 volts and the emitter can reach a voltage
sufficient to turn on the PNP (2N4403 or similar). When the PNP conducts, the NPN also conducts
dropping the voltage across the circuit even more and the circuit snaps on. When the 4.7 uF capacitor has
discharged, the circuit turns off and the capacitor begins charging again.
The zener is a "4.7 volt" type but in this circuit it is operating at a very low current and is limiting the
emitter voltage to about 2.5 volts. Some experimentation may be necessary if another zener series is used.

The following circuit uses the flasher circuit to drive a complementary output stage and step-up audio
transformer. This circuit is used in a high voltage breakdown tester but it would be useful for a variety of
applications.
The transformer may be an audio type connected for step-up or step-down depending upon the desired
output voltage. An old tube radio output transformer with the speaker winding connected to the circuit
gave about 250 VRMS.

Warning! This thing can produce lethal shocks when used to generate high voltages! Don't build it unless
you are experienced and qualified to work with dangerous voltages.

Power transformers will also work but some experimentation may be necessary. The output transistors
are shown as small-signal types but power transistors may be necessary if the load current is high. The
duty cycle is not exactly 50/50 and other circuits would probably be better for high power inverters. This
circuit is easily controlled, however. Pulling the 0.02 uF capacitor low is a good way to stop or reduce the
output of the circuit. See the Geiger counter supply for an example that produces a regulated output
voltage.

The AC out frequency is several hundred Hz which may be changed by changing the 0.02 uF cap or the
6.8k resistor. The high frequency is useful for driving diode voltage multipliers or D.C. rectifiers since
smaller capacitors are needed then when using 50 or 60 Hz.
 Magic Lamp

You have probably seen "magic lamp" circuits in which an ordinary incandescent bulb is lit by a match.
These circuits rely on a hidden temperature or light sensor and are not particularly interesting. I decided to
make a magic lamp, too! But, to make it more interesting, I decided to just use plain old magic for this
circuit instead of resorting to any hidden components.

Warning: This circuit should be constructed only by persons with the qualifications to work on and
design high voltage circuitry. Necessary safety considerations are not indicated. All parts of the
circuit should be considered "hot". The use of magic is frowned upon in higher places.

The components are not critical and substitutions are possible. The SCR is an ordinary sensitive-gate type
like the 2N5064 or other type designed for 200 volts or more, the PNP transistor is a high-voltage type like
a MPSA-92 or a 2N6520, the 1N4003 diode is an ordinary rectifier with a breakdown voltage of 200 volts
or more. The 1uF capacitor is any low voltage type and the resistors are ordinary 1/4 watt types. The 200k
potentiometer could be a trimmer type but a panel-mount type may be more desirable since this circuit
does require a lot of tweaking. Use an insulated shaft, however. All points in the circuit can shock. The
lamp is a clear 7-watt bulb typically used in night lights. White or frosted bulbs will not work as well.

Note: If the lamp ever lights during the following adjustment process remove the power for several
minutes before starting over and wait a couple of minutes after applying power before making
adjustments. This is an "expert tweaker" level circuit and might drive the beginner crazy. A beginner
shouldn't build line-powered devices anyway!

The DC voltmeter is an ordinary digital VOM set to the 2 volt scale and is used for adjusting the
potentiometer. Set the pot to the highest resistance and then apply power to the circuit. If the bulb lights
immediately, you will need to increase the 100k resistor in parallel with the pot. If it doesn't light
immediately, slowly reduce the resistance on the pot until the voltmeter starts to show a voltage. The SCR
will trigger and the lamp will light when the voltage reaches about 250mV. Remember the exact voltage.
Turn off the circuit, wait 5 minutes, reapply power with the pot set to the high end and begin approaching
this trigger voltage again. Stop when the voltage is about 50mV below the triggering point. Hold a big
flame near (or shine a flashlight at) the bulb and the voltage should begin to climb toward the trigger point.
After a few seconds the lamp will light. Magic!

Unfortunately, this "magic" isn't particularly stable and frequent adjustment may be required. Some bulbs
may require a larger or smaller resistance across the SCR than can be obtained with the values shown. If
the bulb will not light at any pot setting, reduce the 100k in parallel with the pot to 47k. If it won't stay
out, increase the 100k and possibly the 47k. After a little experience you will be able to make the
adjustments without the meter. The bulb in the prototype measures 150 ohms at room temperature.
Another identical looking bulb measured 300 ohms.

By now you probably get how it works! The tungsten in the bulb has a pretty steep temperature coefficient
and since it is in the good thermal insulation of a vacuum, it is easy to heat with moderate light levels. In
fact, a small flashlight can heat the filament to 85 C and a nearby 60 watt bulb can raise the temperature to
over 400 C! A tiny penlight will raise the temperature of the prototype's bulb over 1/2 degree from across
the room! These temperature increases result in significant resistance changes as the chart below indicates:
 Tungsten Filament 7-watt Lamp

The resistors and potentiometer across the SCR cause a couple of mA to flow in the dark lamp and when
the value is set just right, the transistor is on the verge of conducting at the peaks of the line voltage. A
bright light heats the filament and, as the bulb's resistance increases, the voltage across the bulb goes up.
The transistor starts passing pulses at the peaks of the line voltage that charge the 1uF triggering the SCR.
Once the SCR triggers the lamp lights and shoots up in resistance, and the circuit latches on. Power must
be removed for several minutes to reset the circuit because it takes quite a while for the filament to cool to
room temperature. The 1uF capacitor prevents the SCR from triggering due to the turn-on transient.

This fun demonstration of some properties of the ordinary incandescent bulb suggest other projects. The
filament is a low resistance and will exhibit little noise so it should be possible to place a couple of bulbs
in a bridge to achieve an extremely sensitive radiometer (one bulb shielded from light). Some other ideas
include a light meter, optical isolator, beam-break detector, solar radiometer (Just how hot does the sun get
a filament?), flame monitor, and solar panel positioner. Or an unusual gain control; many years ago
Hewlett Packard used a similar bulb to stabilize their audio oscillator but the energy to heat the filament
came from current flow, not light. One bulb illuminating another for gain control would be unique, if not
practical. Many photoelectric projects will seem amazing with a light bulb as a sensor in place of a
photocell! Other type bulbs may be worth investigating, too. Choose a high voltage, low wattage bulb to
get a high resistance filament. For example, a tiny #387 type (28 volts at 40 mA) has about 1/2 the
resistance of the larger night light bulb and it makes an excellent detector. For most light sensing
applications, apply only a volt or two across the bulb to keep self-heating down.

More experimental results:

Using two #387s in the bridge configuration described above and feeding a differential amplifier with a
gain of 500, a radiometer with surprising stability and sensitivity was realized. It drifts around a little but
this detector can easily detect the infrared from an IR LED and a soldering iron and the sensitivity to light
is also excellent. (It is fascinating to see.)

A 100uA meter was connected across the bridge in place of the differential amplifier and a 60 watt lamp
held near one bulb gave a near full-scale reading. (Exposure meter!) The bridge voltage was increased to 9
volts for this experiment. The bridge circuit is nothing more than the two lamps in series across 9 volts for
one leg and a 100 ohm potentiometer connected across the 9 volts for the other leg. The diff amp or meter
connect between the wiper of the pot and the point where the two bulbs connect together. The pot is
adjusted for a zero reading.

Here is a somewhat impractical but interesting idea:

Car taillights have two filaments in one bulb. How about a circuit that watches the turn signal filament to
determine if the taillight is functioning properly? It would only work when the brakes and turn signals
were not in use but it would still be handy and could be done remotely without running additional wires or
fibers as done in some cars. A bad brake/turn signal filament is already easy to spot since the rate of
flashing changes when one is bad.
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Sequential Flasher

Here is a simple circuit for sequentially flashing Christmas light strings or other similar low-power lamps.
The socket symbols may be single bulbs or sockets for lamp strings. The load must be capable of operating
from DC since the SCRs rectify the line voltage. The SCRs must be sensitive-gate types and must be able to
handle the load current and line voltage. The 1uF capacitors are non-polar film types. A fuse is indicated and
a GFI type of outlet is recommended.

Warning: This circuit should be constructed only by persons with the qualifications to work on and design high voltage
circuitry. Necessary safety considerations are not indicated. All parts of the circuit should be considered "hot".
The circuit may be extended by repeating the pattern with the last neon lamp connecting back to the first
through a capacitor. Although a quick breadboard was tested, this circuit is "experimental" and may require
some tweaking for best performance. The flashing speed may be controlled by connecting a 100k ohm (or
larger) potentiometer across the 10 uF capacitor and connecting the 1 meg resistors to the wiper. Make sure
that the shaft is an insulated type. The 1 meg resistors may be lowered in value for faster flashing.

Here is an unusual flasher circuit for 120VAC loads. The circuit is similar to the two-transistor flasher seen
in several circuits in techlib.com except that an SCR is used.

Warning: This circuit should be constructed only by persons with the qualifications to work on and design high voltage
circuitry. Necessary safety considerations are not indicated. All parts of the circuit should be considered "hot".
A little circuit trick is hiding in the selection of the 0.1uF capacitor in series with the 1k resistor. When the
SCR is off, this capacitor smoothes the ripple from the bridge sufficiently for the transistor flasher circuitry
to work properly but when the SCR turns on, the capacitor immediately discharges and will not provide
enough current to keep the SCR on. Also,the capacity is low enough to leave quite a bit of ripple voltage
causing the circuit to trigger near zero volts - a desirable feature!

Parts are not particularly critical:

The 0.1uf capacitor should be a non-polar type with a voltage rating of at least 200 volts. The value is
not critical but stay below about 1uF.
The power handling device is a sensitive-gate SCR with a rated voltage of at least 200 volts and with
a current rating sufficient to handle the expected load. Sensitive-gate SCRs typically have a gate
trigger current near 200uA.
The full-wave bridge may be made from four rectifier diodes rated for 200 volts or more and with a
current rating well above the load current.
The resistors all dissipate low power and ordinary carbon-film 1/4 watt types are fine.
The PNP transistor may be just about any general-purpose type or a high voltage type may be
selected to reduce the chances of zapping it while experimenting! Ordinarily, the transistor sees about
35 volts.
The 22uF capacitor is a 50 volt or greater aluminum electrolytic or similar.
The load sees AC voltage so most line-powered devices may be "flashed" with this circuit.
Not shown are necessary fuses and line filtering. A power input module with everything built in is
hard to beat. Low power loads will not generate much line noise but a fuse is always recommended.

Here is how it works:

When power is first applied, the SCR is off and the 0.1uF capacitor charges to about 160 volts with several
volts of ripple. The base voltage sees a divided-down version of this rippling voltage, near 35 volts. The
22uF capacitor begins charging through the 1meg resistor and the emitter voltage begins to rise towards the
base voltage. When the capacitor voltage reaches about 35 volts and exceeds the base voltage (typically a
low point in the ripple voltage), the transistor conducts causing the SCR to trigger. The triggering pulls the
voltage on the base low and the transistor turns on hard because of the now-higher voltage on the emitter.
The transistor stays on until the capacitor is discharged to the point that the gate current cannot keep the SCR
triggered. The SCR turns off at the next voltage zero-crossing and the process repeats. Notice how the circuit
tends to turn on and off near zero-crossings! The 1k in series with the 0.1uF capacitor protects the SCR from
high discharge currents. (Most SCRs can handle the current surge without the resistor.)

The 1meg resistor connected to the 22uF may be varied to change the flash rate or the 22uF capacitor value
may be changed. Do not drop the resistance much below 330k or the transistor may be susceptible to
overvoltage damage in the event the SCR doesn't trigger. The length of the flash is set by the 27k resistor; a
higher value gives longer on-time. The 2.2k is included to ensure that the SCR turns off and this value may
be higher or eliminated if the SCR doesn't show a tendency to stay on. Some sensitive-gate SCRs become too
sensitive for this circuit when they become warm, they actually require that current be pulled out of the gate
to prevent triggering. A typical TO-92 type SCR will handle up to about 25 watt loads without a heating
problem but for heavier loads choose a TO-202 or other power package. Heat-sinking may be required for
heavy loads. If the circuit stays on after a few flashes, the SCR is self-triggering due to heating.

A GFI breaker is recommended and always turn off power before making modifications. A double-insulated or
grounded housing is required for safety. If you don't understand, don't build!
 Stepper Motor Experiments

Stepper motors are most commonly controlled by microprocessors or custom controller ICs and the current is often switched by
stepper motor driver ICs or power transistors. Precise motion is possible but the complexity usually lands the hobbyist's stepper
motors in the "maybe someday" parts bin. But steppers may be used for a variety of applications without complex circuitry or
programming. At first glance the stepper motor looks a bit intimidating since there are at least four wires and often there are six.
Most steppers have two independent windings and some are center-tapped, hence the four or six wires. A quick ohmmeter check
will determine which wires belong together and the center-tap may be identified by measuring the resistance between the wires;
the center-tap will measure 1/2 the total winding resistance to either end of the coil. Tie the wires that belong together in a knot
and tie another knot in the center-tap wire for easy identification later. Stepper motors have become quite abundant and are
available in all shapes and sizes from many surplus dealers. Experimenters can also salvage excellent steppers from old office and
computer equipment.

Steppers move in small increments usually indicated on the label in degrees. To make a stepper motor spin in one direction
current is passed through one winding, then the other, then through the first winding with the opposite polarity, then the second
with flipped polarity, too. This sequence is repeated for continuous rotation. The direction of rotation depends upon which
winding is the "leader" and which is the "follower". The rotation will reverse if either winding is reversed. The center-tapped
versions simplify the reversal of current since the center-tap may be tied to Vcc and each end of the coil may be alternately pulled
to ground. Non-tapped motors require a bipolar drive voltage or a bit more switching circuitry. If current is applied to both
windings, the stepper will settle between two steps (this is often called a "half-step"). Taking the half-step idea to the extreme, one
could apply two quadrature sinewaves to the windings and get very smooth rotation. This technique would not be particularly
efficient since the controller would be dissipating at least as much power as the motor but, if smooth motion is required, it might
be worth a try! Or, for those who don't mind complexity, the sinewaves could be efficiently approximated by using variable duty-
cycle pulses. But the purpose here is to get those motors out of the junk box, not to think of more reasons to leave them alone! So
here are some simple things to try.

Steppers make excellent low power generators and surprisingly efficient low power motors for low RPM applications. As a
starting point, try connecting the windings of two steppers together. Pick steppers that turn freely so that internal friction doesn't
spoil the experiment. When you spin one motor shaft, the other will follow. Admittedly, there is little torque. But it does illustrate
that steppers may be used to generate electricity. Here are a couple of sketches showing how to connect stepper motors as
generators:

The AC windings are not directly connected since the voltages are 90 degrees out of phase and the resulting voltage would be
somewhat lower. Dual isolated outputs are possible if the grounds for each winding are not connected together. Here are a few
application ideas:
 Add a hand crank and bulb for kids' science demonstration. A 24 volt stepper will light a 120 volt nightlight or Christmas
tree light.
Make a wind-powered anemometer.
Generate a higher voltage by turning a high voltage stepper with a low voltage motor.
Run various gadgets including radios, calculators, multimeters, flashers, garage door openers, remote controls, LED
flashlights, bike flashers.
Achieve extreme isolation - use a long plastic shaft to turn the generator for high voltage isolation or use a line-powered
motor to spin a stepper for very high line isolation.

A large capacitor may be charged to run low current devices for some time after a few quick spins of the crank. A voltage
regulator may be required for some devices but use an efficient series regulator to conserve power if the affair is hand-powered.

Many steppers make excellent low power motors despite the markings on the label. For example, a stepper rated at 16.8 volts, 280
mA consumed only 20 mA when unloaded and driven with bipolar 5 volt squarewaves. Such low currents may be directly
extracted from many op-amps and logic devices without any additional drivers! Obviously the mechanical load must be light and
the speed will be low or the motor will stall but many useful applications exhibit little load. Here are some examples:

Use vanes to mechanically chop light, electrostatic fields or other radiation.

Spin a sign or attention-getting symbol on an advertising display.
Spin a toy radar antenna or make a highly efficient electric toy car or train.
Make a spinning Christmas tree ornament.
Make a laborator stirrer.

The following circuit is commonly called a quadrature oscillator or a sine - cosine oscillator and may be built using almost any op-
amp with reasonably high output current. An LM358 actually worked in this circuit, but only barely! A better choice would be an
LM833 or any one of many higher current op-amps.

The two transistors generate Vcc/2 so that the current in the windings will reverse when the op-amps go high and low. They are
not needed if a dual polarity power supply is used. Simply ground the windings that go to the emitters. A motor rated at 16.8 volts
and 280 mA consumed only 30mA in the above circuit when unloaded. Try whatever stepper motor is available and adjust the
power supply voltage for proper operation. Don't expect to get much torque from this circuit! For more drive capability connect
two transistors to the op-amp outputs in the same manner as the Vcc/2 circuit above. Leave out the resistors and simply connect
the two bases to the op-amp output. The two emitters connect together and to the motor winding.

The above circuit is all that is needed for many applications but the following circuit has a bit more flexibility.

In this circuit the 74HC74 directly drives the stepper motor for low power applications. The two flip-flops are alternately clocked
to give the desired "follow-the-leader" pulse train. The 16.8 volt motor (1.8 degree step size) described above draws only 20 mA
in this circuit and a tiny 15 degree step size, 12 volt motor only draws 30 mA. The unused inverters are wired to form a slow pulse
generator which may be used to randomly change the direction of rotation. Actually, the change of direction will often
synchronize with the spin oscillator giving a back-and-forth action unless the oscillator frequency is just right. This change of
direction will add interest to moving displays.

The circuit generates four control signals and adding circuitry for high power operation is fairly easy. If a center-tapped motor is
used then the following connection will work:
You will need one of these circuits for each motor winding. If the motor doesn't have a center-tap then try the circuit below. The
values are only representative and may vary depending upon the motor and transistor gain. No provisions are shown to protect
against inductive kickback but small motors don't seem to generate much. However, some care may be required if larger motors
and higher currents are used. Consider adding diodes from each motor winding to Vcc (the cathode goes to Vcc). Also, the
2N440Xs are only good for a few hundred milliamps so choose heftier transistors and use lower value resistors if higher motor
currents are expected.

The flip-flop shown is an HC device and its power supply should be limited to 5 or 6 volts but the flip-flop could be a 4000 series
device if driver transistors are added. The 4000 series devices cannot supply much current but they will run on +15 volts. Increase
the resistors to 10k and use darlington transistors (or mosfets such as the VN10KM) in place of the NPNs shown.

Here is a note sent in by Garin :

I appreciate your experimenters internet home site for new electronics nuts. A good
source of a ready made "robot" stepper motor system is an old dot matrix computer
printer. Not only does it contain several motors, but it also has in it the electronics to
drive them which can be interfaced to your control computer via the parallel port. Old
manuals list control codes which can be translated into your application much faster
and cheaper than designing your own system. In fact with the advent of color inkjet
printers, many old dot matrix PC computer printer can be had for free. Hopefully this
note will be of help.
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Basic Lamp Dimmer

Lamp dimmers using traics can be quite simple, nothing more than a potentiometer, resistor, capacitor
and triac with a built-in diac. (See Teccor's application note for examples.) The circuit below is similar to
designs using unijunction transistors to generate the triggering pulse. The unijunction is replaced by a
two-transistor "flasher" circuit that drives a pulse transformer. This type of circuit gives a wide range of
control while exhibiting little hysteresis or line voltage sensitivity. The two diodes rectify the line voltage
such that the flasher sees a positive voltage pulse on each half-cycle and, after a delay set by R and the
0.1uF capacitor, the flasher circuit triggers the triac. The capacitor discharge is deep so the dimmer starts
fresh on the next half-cycle. Note that the triac always gets the same polarity of trigger pulse.
The dimmer may be controlled in a number of ways. The first option for R shows a typical mechanical
control and the second option shows the use of an opto-isolator for electrically controlling the dimmer.
The electronic control would be useful in applications like computer control, color organs, power
flashers, heaters, speed controllers, and other feedback systems. The base of the PNP is another sensitive
spot to add control but the designer must remember that the whole circuit must be floating and large
voltage swings are present.

Remember, the entire circuit is "hot" and dangerous! Line power circuitry
should be constructed only by qualified persons. GFI breakers are always a
good idea!

The flasher could be powered from a full-wave rectified transformer secondary if line isolation is desired.
Do not filter the rectified voltage or the circuit will not work properly. Use a fairly high voltage
secondary, perhaps 50 VRMS to get full power control. (Lower if using a 2N4401.)

The circuit will generate significant RF noise and a line filter is recommended. (It is usually pretty easy
to find potted line filters in surplus catalogs.) Also, make sure to include a fuse, as indicated.

The circuit may be used for other AC applications including motor speed control and the clever designer
might add in positive feedback based on current consumption to achieve near constant motor RPM with
changing load (a non-trivial challenge). Or, consider applying negative feedback via the optoisolator.

Substitutions:

The 1N4003 only see about 100 volts reverse and the current is fairly low so other rectifiers may be
substituted. The 2N5551 may be replaced with a lower voltage transistor like the 2N4401 if the 10k
resistor is decreased to 6.8k (to limit the collector voltage). Full brightness will be reduced a slight
amount but for most applications the loss will be insignificant. The 27k resistors should be at least 1/2
watt or the resourceful experimenter may wish to double their value along with the 10k if the triac is
sufficiently sensitive. The pulse transformer was designed for triggering thyristors but other types may
work as substitutes - try a 1:1 phone transformer, for example.

Here is a hand-made dimmer built onto a piece of laminate. The triac is an RCA T2710 and the pulse
transformer is a Sprague 1:1, 66Z906. (Both are older parts from my vast surplus collection!) Read the
construction page for more information about this project. Users of ExpressPCB may download the
design file. The board was built into a grounded metal chassis with a line filter and fuse.
 High Voltage Circuits

These circuits generate high voltages and can cause dangerous shocks! Do not build these devices unless you are
experienced and qualified to work on high voltage devices.

High Voltage Breakdown Tester

(not for beginners!)

The following circuit is used to determine the breakdown voltage of electronic components without causing permanent
damage. The circuit quickly ramps the high voltage up from zero and stops when the leakage current reaches a preset
amount up to 100 uA. When power is applied the two-transistor flasher circuit drives the complimentary-symmetry
output stage with a square pulse at about 3 or 4 kHz (set by the 0.02 uF capacitor). The output stage is connected to the
speaker winding of an audio transformer from an old tube radio and the transformer steps the voltage up to about 250
VRMS . Many audio or power transformers will work here but a lower frequency may be better when using a power
transformer. This high voltage AC is further stepped up using a diode voltage multiplier consisting of high voltage
rectifiers and 1000 volt capacitors. The high voltage is filtered and current limited by two resistors and a 0.1 uF
capacitor. This filtered voltage is connected to the positive test terminal. The negative test terminal receives the current
that flows through the device being tested and converts it to a voltage with a 10 k resistor. 100 uA will give 1 volt. A
zener is included to protect the op-amp. A reference voltage from 0 to 1 volt is applied to the other op-amp input to set
the threshold current and when the D.U.T. current exceeds this current the 2N4401 turns on and steals current from the
0.02 uF capacitor in the flasher circuit, limiting the output voltage.

A voltmeter (not shown) is connected between the positive terminal and the circuit ground to read the voltage. (Note:
Don't connect the meter to the negative terminal - the negative meter lead goes to ground.) A 40 megohm resistor (4, 10
megs in series) in series with a 50 uA current meter will make a 2000 volt full scale meter which should be adequate. The
prototype shown in the picture also has a 200 volt scale which uses a 4 megohm series resistor. The power switch
controls a relay which selects the meter range but this option is only slightly useful and the switching circuit must handle
high voltage. If you wish to have meter ranges and you are using a current meter, connect the resistors to the high voltage
and switch the other end of the resistors instead of running the high voltage directly to the switching device. Add neon
lamps or other voltage limiting devices to ground to limit the voltage seen by the relay or switch.
Construction is not critical except for the high voltage section which must be well insulated from the other circuitry.
Notice the "air wiring" techinque for the voltage multiplier. Care was taken to ensure that no other wires were near the
high voltage section.
To use the tester, connect the device to be tested across the test terminals, set the maximum current then turn on the
power switch. Stay away from the terminals or you will get a nasty bite! After the breakdown voltage is determined, turn
off the power and let the voltmeter discharge the capacitor before removing the D.U.T. (Device Under Test)

Uses:

Try grading inexpensive 1N4001 or similar diodes. You will find breakdown voltages from 50 volts to over 1000 volts!
The lower voltage devices can be used as zeners in very low current applications. Check the breakdown voltage of
transistors. For example, connect the collector of a 2N4401 to plus and the emitter to minus and notice the breakdown
voltage is below 100 volts. Now connect the base to the emitter and the breakdown voltage will go up. When you see
breakdown voltage ratings like "Vceo", "ce" means "from collector to emitter" and the "o" means "with the base open".

High Voltage Generator for Geiger Tubes

Here is a 700 volt or less power supply for powering a Geiger tube or other low current device. The circuit is very
efficient when no current is being consumed which is typically the case in a Geiger counter. Geiger tubes draw about 100
uA when they pulse but the pulses are very short and relatively far apart (hopefully). The current drain from the 9 volt
battery is less than 1 mA with no load. The circuit will supply a bit more current when operated from 12 volts. The
output voltage is set by the string of devices that includes the neon bulbs. Select a combination of neon lamps, varistors,
zeners, etc to achieve the desired voltage. Zeners are available at high voltages but neon lamps are probably easier to
obtain. The current here is low and a reverse biased ordinary diode with a low voltage breakdown will also work. Try
several 1N4001s or even a couple of 1N914s. The circuit shows the power supply in a typical Geiger counter circuit.
Geiger tubes are available in a variety of sizes and styles including units with thin mylar windows for detecting larger
particles besides x-rays.

Note: This generator cannot supply much current. An ordinary 10 megohm voltmeter will pull the output voltage quite
low; a very high impedance voltmeter is needed to directly measure the output voltage. A 1000 megohm resistor in series
with a 10 megohm voltmeter will give a 100 to 1 voltage reduction and will not overload the circuit. Large Geiger tubes
may also draw too much current in moderate x-ray fields so a more robust generator may be needed. (See the 3V
version.)
 High Voltage Generator for Low Current Applications

Here is a simple circuit for generating over 100 volts from a 12 volt source for powering low current devices and
experiments. The two transistors may be 2N4401 and 2N4403 or similar for lower power applications or higher power
devices for heavier loads. If more power is desired then lower the two 10 ohm emitter resistors to 3.3 ohms. When
driving power transistors, more drive may be achieved by adding two more gates and resistors in parallel with the two
output gates shown. Notice that the two driver gates are simply in parallel with 220 ohm current limit resistors in series
with their outputs.

The transformer is an ordinary power transformer but selecting a secondary voltage somewhat below the power supply
voltage will give higher output voltage. The frequency is set near 60 Hz by the two 1 Meg. resistors and the 0.01 uF
capacitor and this frequency may be varied for driving an audio transformer. The circuit will work well with other power
supply voltages but do not exceed the voltage rating of the CMOS gates.

Also see Cockcroft-Walton Voltage Multipliers

 Battery Charger Ideas

Here is the schematic for the automatic charger I have been using for my kids' battery cars. The charger
is a small molded unit that probably doesn't supply more than an amp and this circuit would have trouble
with much more. No current limit is provided by this circuit - it relies on the charger for that. The circuit
could be modified to provide more current by lowering the 470 and 330 ohm resistors in the 5195's base
circuit and the 10k in the collector of the 4401. A relay could also be used in place of the pass transistor.

Here is how it works: When the battery voltage is low, the voltage at the base of the first 2N4401 (on the
right) is not sufficient to turn it on and the second 2N4401 is biased on by the 10k resistor. The power
transistor is turned on and the LED lights. When the battery is fully charged the voltage will exceed a
somewhat arbitrary "overvoltage" value slightly below 14 volts and the regulator will switch off. The
470k feedback resistor gives the circuit some hysterisis so that it will not turn back on until the battery
voltage drops below about 13.5 volts. When the battery is nearing full charge the light will begin to flash
on and off and after a few hours the light will only come on occasionally. This occasional overvoltage
jolt sure seems to keep the batteries in great shape.

Here is an experimental (and simple!) regulator for alternator chargers.

Thanks to Jon de Mesquita who took the time to draw these using his Paint program.
 Power ●

●
Home Page
Wenzel.com
Supplies ● Discussion Forum

There are a number of ways to obtain the low voltages required to run small projects from the wall power
outlet. The simplest way is to buy a factory-built molded supply which is designed to plug directly into
the wall outlet. Some such supplies have an internal voltage regulator and need no additional parts, others
provide an unregulated DC voltage and many are simply AC transformers in a box. The regulated types
offer less power output for a given size with currents limited to a couple of hundred milliamps but the
AC transformer types can provide several amps. The distinct advantage of the molded supply is that no
line-voltage wiring is required and they are easy to find in local stores. Some deluxe models have a
terminal for the earth ground which may be used to ground the chassis of your project. Such supplies
should be grabbed up quickly when spotted at the flea market or in the surplus catalog! Inexpensive
computer supplies offer high currents by using switching regulator technology but these supplies often
require a fairly high minimum load current (usually on the 5 volt output), so use this type of supply with
care.

The unregulated DC supply is a very common type and the simple regulator shown in fig. 1 may be
added for projects that require a stable voltage.

Select a molded supply with an output voltage several volts above the desired regulated voltage but
remember that the more voltage that the regulator drops, the hotter it will get. A heat sink may be added
to the regulator but the regulator's metal tab is connected to the output voltage so insulation may be
needed. The voltage set resistor is selected from the following chart.

Voltage 1.25 1.5 3 5 10 12 15 24

Resistance 0 47 300 680 1.5k 2k 2.5k 4k

A 5k potentiometer may be used to set the voltage or just to find the optimum value for a fixed resistor.
The two most common packages for the LM317 are called TO-220 and TO-202 which have black plastic
bodies with metal tab heatsinks. A hole is provided in the metal tab for mounting but this tab is
electrically connected to the center pin which is the output pin. The input pin is on the right side and the
adjust pin is to the left when the device is held so that the markings may be read (leads down, metal tab
to the back):

Fixed regulators such as the LM7812 ( 12 volt) need no resistors and may be mechanically grounded
without insulation since the tab is internally connected to ground. Either way, these three-terminal
regulators perform well and offer built-in current limit and thermal overload circuitry. Make sure to
include the input and output capacitors as shown and mount them fairly near the regulator IC.

To convert an AC molded transformer into an unregulated DC supply, simply add a full-wave bridge and
large electrolytic capacitor as shown in fig. 1. The size of the capacitor will depend on the load current
and the amount of allowable ripple voltage but a standard 1000uf capacitor with a voltage rating well
above the output voltage is a good starting point. Measure the voltage across the capacitor with no load
to make sure that its voltage rating is high enough. Here are some equations for selecting the transformer
secondary voltage and the filter capacitor:

VRMS = 0.815 (VDC + 1.4) (assumes a full-wave bridge)

C = (DC current max.) /(60 x 2 x Vp-p ) where Vp-p is the ripple voltage under full load.

This equation is for 60 Hz and other frequencies may be accommodated by changing the 60 in the denominator.
The three-terminal regulators can also be used to drop and regulate a battery voltage but remember that
the regulators usually need at least a 2 volt drop to regulate properly. (Low drop-out versions needing
less than 1 volt drop are available.)

The LM317 can also be used as a current limiter which is handy when experimenting with new circuitry
since a simple mistake can lead to disaster if unlimited power is available from the power source. Fig. 2
shows a simple current limiter for the test bench which simply connects in series with the bench power
source or battery.

Place the current limiter ahead of the voltage regulator so that the limiter doesn't drop the regulated
voltage presented to the load. The 100 ohm pot may be replaced with a fixed value if the adjustment is
not needed. The value is selected by:

R = 1.2 / I

With the 100 ohm pot shown, the lowest current setting will be about 12ma. Lower currents will require
additional circuitry since the LM317 must supply a minimum amount of load current for proper
operation. A voltage regulator may be added after this current limiter to make a current-limiter, variable
voltage bench supply.

This current limiter may be made without a heatsink to add a slow foldback feature. When the current
limits, the LM317 will become hot and its internal thermal limit circuitry will reduce the current below
the set point. The device must cool down before full current will be available again.

Misc. Regulator Circuits

This simple regulator provides excellent performance when the input voltage is several volts above the
output voltage. The output voltage is set by the zener and is approximately 0.6 volts above the zener's
rating. Select R2 to set the zener current from the following equation:

R2 = 0.6 / Iz

A 600 ohm resistor will give about 1 mA of zener current.

Select R1 for sufficient base current for the pass transistor. A good first cut is found from:

R1 = (Vin - Vout - 0.7)/(0.1 Iout)

A 15 volt regulator powered from 24 volts and supplying 30 mA max. should use:

R1 = (24 - 15 - 0.7)/(0.1 x 0.03)

R1 = 2.8 k

A higher value may be used since this equation assumes a low gain pass transistor. The designer may
multiply the value by 3 for most transistors.
This version uses an N-channel JFET as the pass element to achieve excellent line noise rejection and a
bit of short circuit current protection but it is only suitable for light loads. Choose a JFET with
sufficiently high Idss to power the load and select R2 as before. The output voltage must be above the
pinchoff voltage of the JFET but most JFETs will work if the regulated voltage is above 5 volts.

When batteries are used to power lower voltage circuits, a switching regulator is desirable to conserve
battery life. There are excellent ICs that can do the job with great efficiency and small size. An example
is the Maxim (www.maximic.com) MAX639 which converts inputs from 5.5 to 11.5 volts to 5 volts at
up to 225mA. The only additional parts are an inductor, schottky rectifier and a couple of capacitors.
The following circuit is a discrete switcher similar in power handling capability to the MAX639. The
performance is somewhat inferior to the IC switchers but suitable components can be found in most junk
boxes.
There are a few component selection considerations:

● The input and output capacitors should have a low ESR. Tantalums or special electrolytics
intended for switching supplies are recommended. (Extralytic is a trade name for a low ESR
aluminum electrolytic.)

● The pass transistor should have good gain at the maximum load current. The MPS6726 works
well at 200mA and a 2N4403 works well up to about 150mA. The first symptom of trouble is that
the top of the squarewave at the collector starts to roll off.

● The 100uH choke can be an ordinary molded type with a DC resistance not more than a couple of
ohms. The circuit works with a fairly wide range of values.

● The 1N5818 may be just about any schottky rectifier since both the voltage and current are low.

The efficiency is about 80% at 200mA and drops to about 75% at 100mA due to the quiescent circuit
current. The effect on battery life can be significant since small batteries are more efficient at lower
discharge rates.
An example of an application is a homemade medical thermometer that uses a 3 1/2 digit LED panel
meter as the readout. The meter draws about 120mA most of the time and the switcher lowers this
current drain to about 80mA from a 9 volt battery. Current drain would be less for a higher voltage
battery. The circuit was built on a small piece of perf board with many of the parts standing up for
maximum density:

The top of the molded choke can be seen between the large yellow capacitor and the black transistor.
 The Amazing All-Band Receiver

The Amazing All-Band Receiver is basically a diode detector followed by a high-gain audio amplifier.
The detector uses a biased Schottky diode for excellent sensitivity and bandwidth; the detector will
detect signals from below the AM broadcast band up to the microwave bands. The number of
interesting signals is surprising; it is fun to drive around listening to the numerous strange sounds.

By trying different antennas and locations, this receiver has picked up AM radio stations, FM stations,
TV video (buzz), car lock transmitters, cell phones, and even the microwave oven (a whoosh-whoosh
sound as the microwave spreader rotated). It isn't clear how FM stations are demodulated; perhaps the
antenna Q is sufficient for slope detection. Even the familiar buzz from a narrow-band FM pager
transmitter has been heard - somehow. There are some mysterious signals out there, too! What is that
occasional descending whistle over by the highway? Some vehicles emit a curious buzz, too. If you
hear a mysterious click-click now and then, its your cell phone!

Other signals that should be easy to receive include in-flight aircraft transmissions (this passive receiver will not interfere with
communication/navigation systems), CB radio transmissions, amateur transmitters, "bugs", wireless networks and devices, radars,
radio control transmitters, certain security/alarm systems, and even unexpected oscillations in your next circuit.

A short, perhaps 6", antenna is a great general-purpose length for general listening but trimming the length for the a desired band
will give surprising sensitivity. For the antenna connection, use an RCA or similar connector with the ground connected to the
battery negative. Loop antennas (loose end connected back to ground) work especially well for single frequencies and a tuning
capacitor may be added across the loop. This detector circuit will also work well as a crystal radio, even at higher short-wave
frequencies with the addition of a simple tuned circuit. Add a 10 to 100uH choke in series with the antenna near the receiver to keep
out the higher frequency signals when listening to AM stations and connect the diode to a fairly high impedance tap on the tuned
circuit since the diode impedance is high in this circuit. The 100pF capacitor and 10k resistor are not needed as long as the tuned
circuit provides a DC path to ground for the diode. (See Crystal Radio Circuits for tuned circuit ideas.)
The above schematic shows a 100k volume control but the signals usually aren't loud so this component may be replaced with an
ordinary 100k resistor. The .01uF capacitor would connect directly from the collector of the first transistor to the base of the second.
This amplifier is non-inverting so a feedback squeal will be heard if the earphone wires are too near the antenna. Reduce the 100pF
in the antenna if feedback squeal is a problem. The circuit draws only about 125uA so battery life is excellent. The circuit is
designed for a sensitive crystal earphone and cannot drive most other types of earphones. One notable exception is older sensitive
dynamic headphones which are rare treasures. To drive a lower impedance earphone, say a 60 ohm type, lower the last transistor's
collector and base resistors from 100k and 10Meg to 1k and 100k but remember that the battery current will be much higher. An 8
ohm earphone will require a different output stage for satisfactory performance.

An inexpensive plastic box makes a great housing. The unit below employs a couple of pieces of tinned circuit board to hold the
circuitry and to act as a battery holder. The tab on the circuit board assembly is soldered to the unused bottom row of pins on the
power switch to hold it in place. A few drops of epoxy on the bottom side could serve the same purpose. Don't forget some fancy
artwork for the front of the box!

(I have lots of these brown boxes and 1N5711s. Just ask.)

Any high-impedance high-gain audio amplifier circuit will work with the basic diode detector so feel free to experiment! Remember
to leave the 10Meg bias resistor for the diode and couple the amplifier through a .01uF capacitor.

Here is a version of the all-band receiver for the car that I hesitate to publish! The following circuit can be tricky due to the very
high gain combined with the high speaker currents which is a sure recipe for stability problems. Be warned that making it work
right may be a challenge! It makes a great workbench companion, watching for undesired oscillations in your latest creation!

Automobile Warning: This thing will pick up police radar but only when a few yards away - not soon enough to serve as a
conventional radar detector. Some states have laws against radar detectors and you may have a problem convincing the nice
officer that your gadget is a harmless toy. Few people have hobbies like ours and nefarious motivations are usually
suspected. A copy of this article might help but don't count on it!

A loud speaker version of the all-band receiver is shown below:

The circuit is similar to the two-transistor version but the second stage uses lower resistor values for driving a PNP emitter-
follower. The emitter-follower provides enough current to drive a transformer-coupled class-A power amplifier that can deliver
several hundred milliwatts to the speaker. A transformer-coupled class-A amplifier was chosen for a couple of reasons. First, the
transformer provides an efficient match to the speaker and lowers the audio current flowing in the circuit ground. A similar circuit
operating an 8 ohm speaker directly from the 12 volt supply would be much less efficient and would produce higher ground
currents for a given volume. Second, the class-A amplifier is simple, performs well and, since the circuit operates from the car's
battery, a little inefficiency is fine. Class-A audio output stages should not be overlooked by the experimenter! The gain of the
output amplifier is reduced by a 10 ohm resistor in series with the 220uF emitter capacitor because the overall circuit gain is so
high. If you experience stability problems, increase the value of this 10 ohm resistor; don't worry, there is plenty of gain left! The
2N2219A does dissipate about 1/2 watt so some heatsinking is required. Power transistors will work well, including TO-220 types
which would not need a heatsink.

Placing the volume control in the DC path of the first transistor causes some noise when adjustments are made so it may be better to
replace the pot with a fixed 100k resistor and to AC-couple the potentiometer to the collector.

The unit is constructed in a metal housing with a BNC connector for the antenna:
The audio transformer is the metal can in the picture above but any 500 ohm to 8 ohm miniature type will work. The output
transistor has a black heatsink attached and is mounted to a miniature terminal strip. The red blob is one of the power chokes before
it is secured to the capacitor with some hot-melt glue. Notice that the circuit is separated into three sections to reduce feedback. The
output stage is directly connected to the incoming power leads, and the rest of the circuit has a filter consisting of a 100 ohm resistor
and 22uF capacitor to reduce the possibility of feedback via the power supply. The diode detector and first transistor are mounted
directly on the BNC:

Before circuits are installed:

This gadget has enough gain to hear the internally-generated component noise with no antenna attached in a noisy car! After the
unit was placed in a spot in the car relatively free from ignition noise, all sorts of strange sounds were detected. A shorter antenna is
favored due to the abundance of FM and TV stations - try 2 or 3 inches. There are some common sounds: The penetrating buzz that
sounds like 60Hz line noise is from TV stations, the really loud hiss means you are passing near a digital cell phone tower, the
gaggle of music and voices are FM stations, other buzzes and tones are probably from digital networks, nearby cell phones, and
other wireless devices but who knows!
A high fidelity AM radio was realized on the workbench simply by connecting the BNC through a 10uH choke to a tuned circuit
consisting of a 120uH choke in parallel with a large variable capacitor. The antenna was about 3 feet long. This project makes a
great universal detector for a variety of bench experiments. And, by building it, you will learn a lot about unwanted positive
feedback, too! : )
 ● Home Page
Regenerative Receivers ● Wenzel.com
● Discussion Forum

Regenerative receivers provide a surprising level of performance with only a handful of components. They excel at receiving amplitude modulated
signals from below the AM broadcast band up to the higher short-wave bands above which the superregenerative detector becomes the better
choice. Many designs for regenerative receivers are available and most will do a fine job. The regen is basically an oscillator circuit with a gain
control that allows the user to adjust the feedback to a point just below oscillation or, quite often, just above the critical level such that a small
oscillation is present. The typical regen uses a tapped coil or additional windings to connect into the tuning tank and the tuning capacitor provides
the total tank capacitance. The advantage to this approach is that the tuning range is maximized since there are no fixed capacitors contributing to
the tank. The disadvantage is that special, hand-made coils are required. The regens shown below use capacitive taps to achieve the required
feedback and, as would be expected, the tuning range is restricted to about two to one. For example, the AM broadcast band would require two
inductors to tune, perhaps from 500kHz to 1MHz and 900kHz MHz to 1.8MHz. This disadvantage really isn't all that important when one
considers the advantage of being able to use factory-made molded inductors! If a multi-band receiver is constructed, there will be a couple more
band switch positions. Actually, the lower tuning range makes fine-tuning a little easier which is critical for achieving the maximum performance.

The basic receiver is shown below. The components are not critical and the values were pretty much the first ones found on the bench that were
near the "right" value so don't hesitate to experiment. The transistor could be just about any small-signal NPN including the 2N4401, 2N3904,
2N2222, or others. The audio output is fairly weak and will need an amplifier to drive headphones or a speaker. See the audio amplifier page for
suitable amps.
The receiver was constructed on a piece of painted MDF (medium-density fiberboard). This material is great for little projects like this and it is
readily available from home improvement stores. Look for the lumber with dull white primer and a very fine "grain". The solder connections were
made with solder lugs secured with 1/2" wood screws (see close-up). Predrilling the screw holes is recommended.

The inductor is the highest component in the close-up and it plugs into tiny sockets for experimentation. This inductor could be selected with a
double-pole multi-position switch for a multi-band receiver. A 220uHy will tune the lower part of the AM band from about 570kHz to 1.15Mhz, a
5.6uHy will tune from about 3.5MHz to 7.5MHz and a 2.2uH will tune from about 5.6MHz to near 11.6MHz. For calculating inductors, the
effective tuning capacitance is from about 85pF to 370pF.

Another receiver was constructed with a single-stage audio amplifier suitable for driving sensitive headphones or a crystal earphone:

The regen control was mounted using an ordinary right-angle bracket from the same home improvement store. Just drill out one of the holes to
accommodate the pot. The audio amp. does not show a capacitor on the input because there is already one on the receiver's output. This amp is
nothing special and many substitutes are fine.

When the regen control is set too high, there will be a lot of squealing and whistling as the radio is tuned. When it is set too low, there will be no
sensitivity. There is no substitute for experience! After a desired station is found, the regen control can be carefully advanced along with careful
fine tuning to get the best results. The regen is actually oscillating in this mode but it is synchronized to the signal. In fact, with careful adjustment,
a sinewave may be extracted from the collector of the oscillator transistor which is locked to the radio transmitter's frequency. I was able to get
about 0.1ppm stability from wwv and from local radio stations! When this poor man's frequency standard looses lock, the speaker squeals out a
warning!

Here are some enhancements from a reader:

Thanks for your great TechLib webpages!

I've built your regen receiver and was pleased with its performance. I've added a few "bells n' whistles" which enhance its ease of use.

Mods include a bandspread cap, a fine regen control, a BCB Trap, and a simple multiband coil/switch arrangement which allows it to tune most of
the SW bands (2.5 - 20 MHz), using WWV signals at the ends of each band (2.5, 5, 10, 20 MHz) in order to simplify "calibrating" the tuning
cap/coil. An SPDT switch simply selects the proper tap and shorts out unwanted coil turns for each band.

If you can use any of this info, feel free.

Thanks again, for a fun project.

Mike H.
Thanks Mike!
 Crystal Radio Circuits

The crystal radio gets its name from the galena crystal (lead sulfide) used to rectify the signals. A "cat's whisker" wire contact
was moved about the surface of the crystal until a diode junction was formed. The 1N34A germanium diode is the modern
substitute for galena and most other germanium small-signal diodes will also work well. Silicon diodes are not a good choice
because their much higher barrier potential requires larger signals for efficient rectification. Certain silicon Schottky diodes
with low barrier potential will work well but most small-signal Schottky diodes will not perform as well as a garden-variety
germanium diode.

The circuit is quite simple but many pitfalls await the novice. The first precaution is most important! The crystal radio works
best with a long, high outdoor antenna but the beginner may not fully appreciate the danger of bringing such a wire into the
house. Lightning strikes to the antenna will probably destroy the crystal radio but if precautions are not taken, much more
damage will result. The best strategy is to incorporate a commercial lightning arrestor with a straight, heavy gauge ground
wire leading down to a buried water pipe. It is not sufficient to disconnect the antenna from the receiver during thunderstorms.

Other pitfalls are less dangerous and relate to the receiver's performance. A common mistake when building a crystal radio is
to load the tuned circuit excessively. The Q of the tuned circuit must remain high to give selectivity or strong radio stations
will all mix together. A good design will usually have low-impedance taps on the inductor for connections to the antenna and
diode as shown in the schematic. A long wire antenna with a good ground connection will connect to the lowest impedance
tap whereas a shorter antenna with no ground connection may connect to a higher tap. The diode may be experimentally
moved to different taps and even across the whole coil for maximum sensitivity. The antenna and diode connection may be
made with alligator clips for easy experimentation.
Another potential problem area is the earphone. Not all crystal earphones are sensitive and the experimenter should test a few
to get a "good" one. High impedance dynamic earphones are a bit more reliable and can give excellent results. Try an old
telephone receiver or a modern portable tape player headset (some are high-Z and fairly sensitive). Low impedance earphones
like those used with many portable radios will not work at all. A simple test is to hold one earphone wire between the fingers
while scraping the other lead across a large metal object. If static is heard in the earphone it will probably work well with the
crystal radio.

The variable capacitor is often connected incorrectly. Make sure to connect the rotor to ground and the stator to the "hot" side
of the coil. Otherwise, the radio will detune when the capacitor knob is touched. If detuning is noticed then try reversing the
connections.

Some experimenters are tempted to omit the 82k resistor which discharges the capacitor on the theory that it wastes precious
signal power. With a typical germanium diode, this little "improvement" may work somewhat but only because the diode has
significant leakage and the performance will not be predictable. A dynamic earphone may be DC coupled eliminating the
need for the resistor.

The coil may be wound on a 1.5 inch PVC pipe coupler as shown in the drawing. Drill two small holes at each end to secure
the ends of the coil. The wire type is not particularly critical but select a gauge and insulation so that the 65 turns cover about
2/3 of the coupler. A "loopstick" coil may be used in place of the coil shown. These coils have an adjustable ferrite core for
tuning so a fixed value capacitor may be used in place of the variable capacitor shown. The coil, capacitor and a terminal strip
for the other parts may be mounted to a small wooden board. (See photo of receiver with transistor amplifier below.)
If a metal chassis is used then the coil must be mounted horizontally and above the metal to prevent unacceptable loading.

An amplifier may be added to boost the audio level as shown below. The current consumption of this amplifier is quite low
and a power switch is not included. Disconnect the battery when the receiver is stored for long periods.

© 1995, Charles Wenzel

Note: You may use the transistor above as a sensitive detector eliminating the need for the 1N34A diode. Simply leave out
the diode, the 0.001 uF, and the 82k resistor. Connect the negative side of the 1 uF directly to the coil. Change the base
resistor from 10 meg. to 1 meg. and change the collector resistor from 100k to 10k. Now add a 0.01 uF from the collector to
the emitter and the modifications are complete. This detector is quite sensitive and will be overloaded by very long
antennas! Use a shorter antenna or a coil tap very near ground if significant distortion is noticed. The circuit draws about 1/2
mA.
 Crystal Radio Audio Amplifier

Here is a simple audio amplifier using a TL431 shunt regulator. The amplifier will provide room-filling volume from an
ordinary crystal radio outfitted with a long-wire antenna and good ground. The circuitry is similar in complexity to a simple
one-transistor radio but the performance is far superior. The TL431 is available in a TO-92 package and it looks like an
ordinary transistor so your hobbyist friends will be impressed by the volume you are getting with only one transistor! The
amplifier may be used for other projects, too. Higher impedance headphones and speakers may also be used. An earphone
from an old telephone will give ear-splitting volume and great sensitivity! The 68 ohm resistor may be increased to several
hundred ohms when using high impedance earphones to save battery power.

To use the circuit as a general-purpose amplifier, apply the input signal to the top of the potentiometer. (Leave out the diode
and .002 uF capacitor.) A higher value potentiometer may be used for a higher input impedance.

© 1995, Charles Wenzel

Crystal Radio RF Amplifier

For the more experienced hobbyist...

One of the best places to add a transistor to a simple crystal radio is at the front end in the form of an RF amplifier. The circuit
below is a simple but effective amplifier which will give surprising performance improvement. This amplifier can exhibit
negative resistance for low settings of the 500 ohm pot which results in extra gain or even oscillation. So, the circuit can
actually be considered to be a regenerative receiver with an external detector. The sensitivity is so high that no cold water pipe
ground is needed and the antenna is short.
The behavior of the amplifier depends on how it is connected to the tuned circuit. When connected to a lower impedance tap
as shown in the schematic, the gain will be lower with less tendency to oscillate. Higher taps or even connection directly to
the antenna will give higher gain and even oscillation. The 500 ohm pot is adjusted to give adequate gain without squealing as
stations are tuned. High regeneration settings will actually narrow the bandwidth of the tank enough to give the sound a
"mellow" quality which sounds pretty good in a "tinny" crystal earphone! Lower settings are best when using an audio
amplifier and the fidelity is quite good thanks to the linear detector (typical regens use changes in the operating point of the
transistor to demodulate the RF). As with any regen, the gain may be increased after the station is tuned in and the circuit will
oscillate, locked to the station's frequency.

Current consumption is about 1 mA which may be reduced by increasing the 1.8k but the RF envelope begins to
distort below about 500 uA.
A 4.5 volt battery may be used if the 220 k resistor is reduced to 68 k.
The transistor may be just about any NPN small-signal transistor.
No ground is shown but performance is better with a good ground connected to the bottom of the tuner.
Longer antennas should be connected to taps instead of across the whole coil. A ferrite loopstick will pick up stronger
stations with no antenna at all but use more audio gain after the diode detector and reduce the regeneration to get
adequate bandwidth or the sound will be muffled.

Experiments with Detector Diodes

When building crystal radios or other simple receivers, the experimenter often wonders about the relative performance of the
different diodes in the junk box. Here are the results of several experiments using the typical types available to the hobbyist.
The source is a low impedance and the load is a fairly high impedance. A particular diode will behave differently with
different impedance levels but for low received signal levels these measurements are fairly predictive of the relative
performance in most circuits. The diode types include germanium, silicon, Schottky, and even a light-emitting diode! The test
setup uses an accurate RF synthesizer, a homemade AM pin diode modulator driven by an audio generator, a simple test
fixture, a DC power supply for adding bias current, and a sensitive audio voltmeter. The setup shown below was used to test
the diodes at several frequencies with a low modulation index (about 20%) and the near optimum bias current was determined
by varying the DC supply.
Initially an RF level of about -15 dBm was used but this level was dropped to -25 dBm without much change in the relative
results. The best performance was provided by an H-P (Agilent) diode, the 5082-2835 with a tiny 10 uA of DC bias. The -25
dBm (35 mV p-p) results are shown below using the 5082-2835 Schottky diode at 20 MHz as the 0 dB reference point. The
dB numbers are the audio level at the audio meter for the different RF carrier frequencies. Some variability is due to the test
setup.

Diode Part Number DC Bias 20 MHz 60 MHz 100 MHz 130 MHz Notes
5082-2835 Schottky 10 uA "0" dB 0 dB -2.5 dB -4.5 dB quite good!
1N5711 Schottky 10 uA -0.5 dB -0.5 dB -2.0 dB -3.5 dB better at high freq.
1N4454 silicon
20 uA -8.5 dB -9.5 dB -10.5 dB -11.5 dB pretty bad!
(similar to 1N914)
1N277 (Ge.) None -3.0 dB -4.0 dB -6.5 dB -8.5 dB not great at high freq.
1N34A (Ge.) None -3.0 dB -4.0 dB -6.5 dB -8.5 dB .
1N32 10 uA -1.0 dB -1.0 dB -3.5 dB -5.0 dB microwave diode
Red LED 10 uA -4.0 dB -4.5 dB -8.0 dB -11 dB not bad for low freq.

Note: -3 dB means that the audio voltage dropped to about 0.7 of the 0 dB level and -6 dB would be a drop to about
one half.

The Schottky diodes are the all-around winners if bias is used but they do not perform as well as a germanium diode without
bias. Other small-signal Schottky diodes gave nearly the same results as the 1N5711. Other germanium diodes were tried but
the results were nearly identical to those shown. (The 1N60 was not available for testing.) The 1N4454 is similar to other
ordinary silicon diodes and the results were poor, as expected. Several LEDs were tried and a bright type red led gave fairly
good results as shown. Zeners were tried with dismal results in both directions. Large rectifiers like the 1N4001 were
similarly poor.

Misc.:

The optimum bias current is tiny and a very small battery can be permanently wired into a "crystal" radio without a
switch. A little photocell battery like those on tiny calculators could do the job.
Schottky diodes will work better without bias if higher source and load impedances are achieved. Germanium diodes
are hard to beat for most low frequency crystal radio designs if no bias is desired.
Schottky diodes don't need bias when heated by a soldering iron! (Hardly practical information.)
 Home Page
Antennas Wenzel.com
Discussion Forum

Home-made antennas can greatly improve the performance of AM and FM radios, short-wave receivers, and scanners. If
you are a talk-radio fan then experiment with the AM band antennas and you will be able to hear shows from all over the
country with surprising clarity. Short-wave receivers are always coping with weak signals and they must have a good
antenna to perform adequately. Scanners can pick up local police and two-way radio with the little telescoping antenna
provided but with good antennas a scanner becomes an amazing ear on the world nearby. No pre-amp, filter or other
receiver refinement offers anywhere near the level of performance improvement t that a well-designed antenna offers. The
results can be quite satisfying, leaving no doubt that the project was well worth the effort.

AM Band Antennas
A good AM Band antenna can be a simple long-wire strung between two trees or across the top of the roof. Even a modest
length wire will give your receiver greatly improved reception with less static because the signal pickup is occurring some
distance from the interference generating appliances in the house. An insulator mounted high in a tree so that the wire has a
large vertical rise will give great results. Mount the antenna as high and as far from the house as practical. Use a good
quality ceramic insulator for holding the wire and add a commercial lightning arrestor where the antenna meets the house
(Fig.1). Ceramic insulators are available with built-in wood screws and can be screwed into a tree or the wood parts of the
house by hand. The wire may be tied to the far insulator as shown but the wire will stretch with time and require
adjustment. A "trick" is to pass the wire through the insulator and fasten a fishing weight to the end so that the weight
hangs a few inches below the insulator. As the tree sways in the breeze, the weight will move up and down and the wire
will remain straight! (I must confess that my long wire antenna is made with insulated wire thrown over a branch with a
rock tied to the end... Who has time to do it right? I do have an arrestor, however!) A good place for the arrestor is directly
above the point where the water line enters the house. Run a heavy gauge ground wire straight down to the water pipe and
attach it with a brass grounding clamp (assuming a copper water pipe - always use compatible materials or corrosion will
result.). This connection also makes an excellent ground for the receiver. A shielded cable lead-in wire can give improved
results when the residence has unusually noisy appliances. If you do not have an AM radio with a coaxial antenna jack
then consider using an auto radio. Auto radios are well shielded to prevent ignition noise from interfering with reception
and all that is needed to make a superior receiver for the home is a 12 volt power supply and a speaker. Inexpensive AM
car radios are quite common, being discarded for fancy stereo upgrades and even the cheapest car receiver will outperform
most home radios.

Fig. 2 shows how to add a loading inductor to the antenna in the event that a little more signal strength is desired. Most
long wire antennas will be considerably less than 1/4 wavelength at AM band frequencies and behave as though a small
capacitor is connected in series. The inductor resonates with this capacity and will increase the signal strength
significantly. The required inductance range is from about 200 microhenry at the high end of the band to about 2
millihenry at the bottom end of the band for a 20 foot antenna.

Fig. 3 shows how to build a programmable loading coil using a 4.5 inch PVC coupling (found in the plumbing supply area
of the local home improvement store) and 22 gauge insulated wire. The coil is wound with 100 turns with taps brought out
every 10 turns by twisting a little loop in the wire The total inductance of this inductor is about 1 millihenry so short
antennas may need more turns for the lower frequencies.

.
Fixed inductors and a multi-position switch can be used to build a more compact and convenient unit shown schematically
in fig.4. 220 microhenry chokes are shown to give enough inductance to handle shorter antennas but other values may be
used depending on the application.

A directional antenna may be constructed with a ferrite rod and amplifier as shown in fig.5. A ferrite rod 5/16 inches in
diameter and 7 inches long was wound with 90 turns which gave sufficient inductance (about 300 uh) to cover the AM
band without tuning and gave good reception well into the short-wave band. Experiment with whatever loopstick is
available but larger is better.
The MC1590 differential amplifier may be constructed on a small piece of copper-clad circuit board material using the
copper board for ground connections. The amplifier should be mounted near the ferrite loopstick with the coax and power
wire leading to the radio. No separate ground wire is shown since the coax shield will serve both purposes. The loopstick
and amplifier may be slipped into a piece of 13/8 inch PVC with a cap on one end and a right angle coupling and pipe on
the other (Fig. 6).

The vertical pipe may be secured to the outside wall of the house with clamps loose enough to allow the antenna to be
aimed. The wires can simply hang out of the bottom of the tube without any seal or a little squirt of foaming urethane
caulking could be used to keep out insects. Ground the coax to the cold water pipe for lightning protection if the loop is
outside and high.

A totally different approach to low frequency antennas is shown in fig.7. A very short antenna can give amazing results,
often performing as well as a long wire antenna if the proper buffer amplifier is added between the radio and the antenna.
The electrical model of a short antenna includes a very small series capacitor - so small that little signal gets through and
the required resonating loading coil is impracticably large. However, if the antenna is connected to a high impedance
buffer with a very low input capacity, the antenna capacity will not attenuate the signal significantly. The amplifier must
have good intermodulation characteristics so that phantom stations don't appear all over the dial and the antenna must be
kept short to prevent amplifier overload. Don't connect this circuit to a long wire antenna unless you are curious to hear
what radio chaos sounds like. Keep the antenna under a few feet in length, especially if strong stations are nearby.

The N-channel JFET shown is a J309 but most other numbers may be substituted. (Possible subs include: J308-310, U310,
2N4857-4860.) The source voltage (on the 470 ohm resistor) should be about 1.5 to 5 volts. This source resistor could be
changed to get about 4 mA of FET current using the formula: New R = V/.004 where V is the voltage on the initial 470
ohm resistor. This source voltage will change when the new resistor is installed to replace the original 470 ohm but the
final current value is not particularly critical. Even lower current could be used (bigger R) to prolong battery life but the
performance will begin to suffer somewhere below a couple of mA. The antenna may be a few inches to about 6 feet but
avoid using longer antennas. With the values shown the buffer will work well from below 100 kHz to about 15 MHz which
covers the frequency range where an antenna buffer is useful.

Here is how it works: The 10 megohm resistor sets the DC gate voltage to zero volts and the voltage on the source will rise
to about 2 volts as the negative gate to source voltage reaches equilibrium with the source current. The FET is a very high
impedance voltage follower which converts the high impedance antenna voltage into a much lower impedance voltage
suitable for driving the 2N3904 amplifier. The base of the 2N3904 is biased to about 4 volts by the two base resistors and
the 1k emitter resistor sets the collector current to about 3 mA. The amplifier has an RF voltage gain of about 10 which is
set by the ratio of the 100 ohm collector resistor and 10 ohm emitter resistor. Lower gain may be achieved by increasing
the 10 ohm resistor if the circuit is being overloaded by large signals but a shorter antenna is usually the best approach.

Notes:

If the signal sounds distorted or is modulated by the line frequency then reduce the 10 megohm resistor to 1 meg. or
even 100k to reduce the low frequency gain. Also try a shorter antenna.
If more gain is desired, lower the 10 ohm resistor - even a short should work well. Even more gain may be had by
increasing the 100 ohm in the collector of the 2N3904 to 1k. These changes are especially useful for driving crystal
radios.
Couple to a crystal radio at a very low impedance tap or wind a few turns of wire around the coil for coupling.
(Connect the two ends to the amp. output and ground.)
 Most small-signal NPN transistors will work in place of the 2N3904.

For higher frequencies, a resonant antenna becomes feasible. For example, Fig. 8 shows a simple vertical ground-plane
antenna which connects directly to 50 ohm coaxial cable without a loading coil or matching network.

Using the equations shown, a 49 MHz antenna would have a vertical element 57 inches long and ground elements 59
inches long. The vertical element simply connects to the center conductor of the coax and the ground elements connect to
the coax braid. The elements may be mounted on a small square of phenolic, fiberglass, or other weatherproof board
material. Try not to let dissimilar metals come in contact or, if they must, coat the contact area with silicone rubber. One
simple approach is to make the whole affair from PVC pipe with copper wire or tubing on the inside. It is often desirable to
have a fixed-frequency antenna with directionality for monitoring a particular station or for installing on an antenna
rotator. For example, if you live within a mile or two of a fast food restaurant you can probably pick up the little wireless
microphones they use to take orders. You are probably wondering why anyone would want to pick up those signals (which
are around 33 MHz). Hmmm. Well, it would be a challenge. Or, how about building a dedicated antenna to receive a
distant weather transmitter instead. Or the police in a neighboring town, or a remote airport. Those sound a little better.
(When my kids were small I thought of making a tricycle "drive-up" window with real audio from the local fast-food
restaurant - never got around to it...) The point is that a directional antenna will give greatly improved performance for any
of the signals on your scanner. Multi-element yagi antennas are a good choice for single frequency reception and log-
periodic antennas give excellent multi-band reception. The construction of these antennas can prove difficult and
purchasing a factory assembled unit is usually a preferable approach. A three-element yagi is not overly difficult for the
more experienced hobbyist and several design references are easily found on the internet. A search using "3-element yagi"
turned up nearly 600 hits including excellent design articles and commercial sources.

copyright 1995
updated 2000
by Charles Wenzel
 Transistor Spot Checker

The simple transistor spot checker is one of the most handy gadgets on the experimenter's workbench, especially if said
experimenter has numerous surplus transistors with unknown histories or mysterious "in-house" part numbers. A quick check can
confirm that the problem lies elsewhere when a new circuit fails to function properly or help jog the memory on whether a
2N2905 is NPN or PNP without a trip to the data book. The following schematic is of a tester I made about 30 years ago. (Yes,
they had transistors back then.)

The transformer is a miniature type that was used for interstage coupling in transistor radios and it has enough series resistance to
limit the transistor current to about 30 mA. The earphone was commonly used for toy "crystal" radios and it serves as an effective
speaker with the earpiece removed. The neon lamp limits the voltage swing across the transistor and lights up brightly for a
"strong" transistor. The switch has a center off position although the circuit will not draw current without a transistor plugged in.
Operation is simple: The transistor is installed and the 100k pot is turned to attempt to get an oscillation in one of the two switch
positions.

A modern version of the spot checker is shown below:

It features parts more easily found today:

The transformer is a 1:1, 600 ohm audio transformer used for telephone line isolation. A center-tap is made by connecting
one winding to the other but the phasing is important. If your tester doesn't work, try reversing the connections to one of
the windings.

The speaker is from a discarded headset for a modern radio or audio player. It should measure a few tens of ohms at least
but not more than 100 ohms.

The neon lamp is replaced by a bi-color LED which is just two different color LEDs in one package. The color changes as
the intensity of oscillation varies making it easier to distinguish between different types of transistors.

A significant difference between this circuit and the earlier version is the resistor between the base and emitter. This resistor
makes it necessary to turn off the power even when no transistor is installed but it also gives the tester greater utility. It may be left
out if only ordinary bipolar transistors will be checked. By including it, the tester will work with a wide variety of semiconductors:

NPN or PNP bipolars: install transistor, switch to NPN or PNP, turn knob until oscillation is achieved.

NPN or PNP darlington bipolars: same as above, but knob setting will be near the higher resistance end.

VMOS FETs: N-channel will behave like NPN and P-channel will behave like PNP.
 SCR: Install gate to base, anode to collector, cathode to emitter and select NPN. Starting with the pot in the highest
resistance position, slowly turn the pot down until the power LED suddenly lights indicating triggering. The tester can only
supply a few mA of gate current so very high current SCRs may not trigger in this tester.

JFET: Don't plug in the gate lead! Drain and source go the collector and emitter. Turn on unit and touch the gate lead with
your finger. "Hum" should be heard in the speaker if the JFET is good. The volume will depend upon the local field
intensity and if the field is large enough, the lights will vary, too.

Diodes: plug into collector and emitter. Power LED should light in only one switch position.

LEDs: plug into collector and emitter. LED will light in one switch position. IR LEDs will act like diodes but will not light
(obviously).

Construction

The circuit is simple enough that point-to-point wiring is sufficient. The transformer is glued onto the back side of the front panel,
the speaker is glued over a few holes in the bottom side and hookup wire makes the connections:

Note that the 1uF capacitor in not really present in either tester even though good design practice would recommend it.

By the way, watch out for some DPDT switches! Some of these switches short the two center terminals together when in the off
position so don't connect the battery here. The center two terminals should go to the circuit and the battery connects to the outer
terminals as is shown in the schematic.

The cheap blue plastic look of the inexpensive enclosure is quite effectively covered by "hammer" look spray paint. This paint is
available in art stores and is similar to the gray "hammertone" paint used on factory painted metal boxes.
 Home Page
Curve Tracers Wenzel.com
Discussion Forum

V/I Curve Tracer

The V/I Curve Tracer is an indispensable tool for troubleshooting circuits and testing components. The circuit
traces the current versus voltage curve for the component under test on an ordinary oscilloscope. The peak-to-peak
test voltage is adjusted by selecting different taps on a power transformer and the test current is limited by a
selected series resistor. The voltage and current ranges are not critical and a single voltage version built with no
switches will prove quite useful. The "deluxe" version shown in the schematic provides four test voltages with
current ranges from a few hundred microamps to a few hundred milliamps. An optional diode is included in the
output to limit the voltage swing to a single polarity to prevent reverse breakdown when checking delicate devices.

T1: Unless you plan to test high-power devices, T1 may be a small power transformer with a few different
secondary voltages. The prototype depicted in the schematic has four secondary taps but a center-tapped 24VAC
transformer will give two useful test voltages of about 17 and 33 volts peak. Avoid voltages much above 24VAC to
reduce risk of shock.

S1: A single-pole switch with enough positions to accommodate the desired number of test voltages.
S2: A two-pole switch with enough positions to accommodate the desired number of test current ranges. Note that
the switch selects resistor pairs: R1 & R7, R2 & R8, R3 & R9, R4 & R10.

R1 - R4: These resistors limit the test current. R1 could be a 100 ohm, 10 watt resistor for a high power range
capable of testing incandescent lamps (and quickly zapping semiconductors!). R1 works with the current sensing
resistor R7. The current sensing resistors should be about 1000 times smaller than the series resistors so R7 should
be 0.1 ohms if R1 is 100 ohms. The power dissipated in the current sensing resistors will be small so any style may
be used.

Try R2 = 1000 ohms, R3 = 10,000, and R4 = 100,000 ohms.

Following the 1/1000 guideline gives R8 = 1 ohm, R9 = 10 ohms, R10 = 100 ohms. Note that these current sense
values give four ranges from 100mA to 100uA with about 10 mV per vertical division for the oscilloscope. If the
oscilloscope does not have a vertical sensitivity of 10 mV per division, the current sense resistors (R7 - R10) may
be increased.

R5 and R6 : About 100k is fine for R5 and R6 although just about any fairly high values will work here. These
resistors set the amplitude for the scope's horizontal input and may be left out entirely if the scope has good
horizontal gain control. Many scopes just have one or two gain settings and some sort of adjustment is necessary.

D1: A silicon diode capable of handling the highest test current and voltage. A 1N4002 should work well for most
applications. When the diode is in the circuit, it will limit the negative swing to under -1 volt.

Here is a simple version with a single voltage range of about 18 volts peak and a current limit of about 18
milliamps peak. The transformer is an ordinary "filament" transformer or similar with a single secondary. This one-
range tracer is quite useful for quick checking of zeners, transistor junctions, LEDs, and most other
semiconductors.

Here is my implementation for a 5000 series Tek scope.

R1 is a large power resistor taped to the transformer at
the bottom (barely visible). The two loose wires connect
to 120 VAC inside the scope and the single wire on the
front is a ground connection. It is not exactly a "plug-in"
but the scope is dedicated to this function.
 The Curious C-Beeper

The Curious C-Beeper uses the two-transistor flasher in conjunction with a darlington transistor to make a
most unusual capacitance beeper probe. When a capacitor is touched to the probe, the probe beeps at a
frequency that varies with capacitance. The frequency change is so steep with capacitance that tiny
capacitors may be precisely matched or an exact fixed value may be selected to replace a trimmer in a
prototype. If the user has reasonably moist skin, simply holding one lead of the capacitor to be tested while
touching the other lead to the probe is all that is necessary. The user's body forms the other connection
through the beeper's metal case. When the beeper is properly adjusted it draws only 10 uA with nothing
touching the probe - no power switch is required. This design is optimized for capacitors less than about
0.1 uF (100 nF). Large capacitors give a low frequency "clicking" sound and small capacitors sound a tone
that increases as the capacitance decreases. Many decades of frequency change occur over the beeper's
range giving even the more tone-deaf among us sufficient change to discern slight differences in
capacitance.

Part Description
R1 1 megohm
7.3 megohm (use
R2 3, 22megohms in
parallel)
R3 22 megohm
5 megohm (use 2,
R4 10 megohms in
parallel)
1.5 megohm (use
R5 a 1 meg. in series
with 470k)
R6 39 k
R7 33 k
R8 100 ohm
0.047 uF (not
C1
critical)
30 pF (or more)
C2
trimmer
100 uF, 10 volt or
C3
more
 2N4403
Q1 (substitution
risky)
MPS-A18
(substitution
Q2
probably won't
work)
MPS-A56 (sub
Q3 may work - use
darlington)
1.1" mylar (8
Speaker ohm) or similar
speaker
Battery standard battery
Clip snap
9 volt rectangular -
Battery Alkaline
recommended
pin jack or similar
Probe with short wire
probe
Altoids mint tin or
Case
similar metal box

The probe should be built into a metal box so that one hand makes good contact to the circuit ground. My
beeper is built into an Altoids Mint box with the paint sanded off (use steel wool). Leave the paint if you
like the artwork! I prefer the scientific motif. The open beeper is shown below. The thin metal box is
easily soldered so all ground connections are directly soldered to the box. Also note the strip of PCB
material soldered into place next to the battery to form a simple battery holder. A strip of foam pushes on
the battery when the lid is closed. There is a single small hole for the sound under the speaker.
Below is a fancy version built into a round nickel-plated can using a miniature 7.5 volt battery and a small
electro-magnetic transducer from an old processor card (the "beeper" speaker). The left end of the probe
has a small hole for the sound and the probe end has a tight-fitting grommet with a probe tip in the center
hole. A ground connection is made internally.

Parts substitution is risky! The resistor values are selected to barely turn on the transistors to conserve
battery power. The transistors must have very high gain and good low current properties. The MPS-A18 is
a very high gain transistor with excellent gain at very low currents and substitutions may not work well.
The capacitors are not particularly critical but the trimmer might require a little care. The trimmer is
adjusted until the beeping just stops and only a very weak squeal is heard when a 2.2 pF capacitor is
touched to the probe. Attempting more sensitivity risks excessive battery current. Less sensitivity is fine if
the probe is not to be used on very low values.

Applications

The Curious C-Beeper will become indispensable in virtually no time!

Quickly match capacitors and trimmers. Forget the capacitance meter when matching parts from
the parts bin or selecting a fixed value to replace a trimmer - the "fingers as conductors" feature
makes the C-Beeper super-fast when searching for that perfect value.
Easily detect tiny variations when a capacitor is heated or cooled to quickly discriminate between
NPOs and "Stable" dielectrics. General purpose and temperature compensating dielectric are quite
easy to spot.
The C-Beeper makes an excellent cable fault locator - the end with the open will have less
capacitance and beep at a much higher pitch or not at all. A break along an unshielded bundle can
be spotted by grabbing the bundle at various points while listening for the capacitance change.
Identify which wire is which at the end of a bundle without stripping back the insulation. Touch
the bare wire at one end with the C-beeper probe and pinch the still-insulated wires at the opposite
end. The right wire will drop the pitch.
Identify traces on unpopulated PCBs right through solder mask - touch the C-beeper to the exposed
end of the trace and use a finger to follow the trace across the board.
Check the value of feedthrough capacitors after they are installed - a difficult operation with a
capacitance meter.
Identify varicap diodes. They beep at a much lower pitch than regular diodes.
Make a small flat plate electrode and line voltage electric fields may be detected. Follow wires
behind walls and ceilings or determine if wires are "hot" without touching them. The C-Beeper's
tone is modulated by the AC voltage causing a warbling sound. Circuits with lamp dimmers, solid-
state switches or fluorescent bulbs are especially easy to detect due to the harmonics on the line.
 Lightning Detectors

Egor! Come quick! A storm approaches!

Here is a VLF receiver tuned to 300 kHz designed to detect the crackle of approaching lightning. A bright lamp flashes in
synchrony with the lightning bolts indicating the proximity and intensity of the storm. Figure 1 shows the simple receiver which
consists of a tuned amplifier driving a modified flasher circuit. The flasher is biased to not flash until a burst of RF energy,
amplified by the first 2N4401, is applied to the base of the 2N4403. The receiver standby current is about 350 microamps which
is nothing at all to a couple of D cells, hardly denting the shelf life. Of course, the stormier it gets, the shorter the battery life.

For best effect, mount the lamp in an old-fashioned holder with an extra-large colored glass lens. Or construct your own fixture
with a plate of textured colored glass behind a panel painted with black-crackle paint. Watch a few old science fiction movies for
other ideas.

A totally different approach is to mount the circuit in an empty glass jar with the antenna and bulb protruding through the top. (A
malted-milk jar has a nice, red plastic lid which is easy to work and looks good.) Use a pin jack for the antenna. The gadget looks
quite home-made but fascinating.

Boat owners may wish to replace the lamp with a 3-volt beeper to provide an early warning of approaching bad weather. Choose
one of those unbreakable clear plastic jars like the large jars of coffee creamer. A little silicone rubber will seal the antenna hole
in the lid of the jar. Use a longer antenna for increased sensitivity since there are few electrical noise sources on the lake.

Tune-up is simple: adjust the potentiometer until the regular flashing just stops. (Use a multi-turn trimmer.) When properly
adjusted, the lamp will occasionally flash when large motors or appliances switch on and off and an approaching storm will give
quite a show. Obviously, tune-up is a bit more difficult during stormy weather. Adjust the pot with no antenna if lightning is
nearby. Tune an AM radio to the bottom of the dial to monitor the pulses that the lightning detector is receiving.

This lightning detector is not so sensitive that it will flash with every crackle heard on the radio but will only flash when storms
are nearby. Increased sensitivity may be achieved by increasing the antenna length. The experienced experimenter may wish to
add another gain stage after the first by duplicating the RF amplifier circuitry including capacitor coupling with the addition of a
47 ohm emitter resistor to reduce the gain somewhat. This additional gain can cause stability problems if the layout is poor so
novices are advised to use a longer antenna or adjust the sensitivity potentiometer more delicately instead! (When operating
properly, the additional gain makes the pot adjustment much less critical.)

Theory of Operation:

Lightning flashes generate a broad spectrum of radio frequencies with especially intense emissions in the VLF band. This
receiver is designed to pick up a band near 300kHz which is fairly empty except for lightning static. These radio "crackles" are
picked up by the antenna with the help of the 10 millihenry choke. Short antennas (short compared to the wavelength, that is)
behave as though a very tiny capacitor is connected in series and this choke resonates with this capacitor allowing current to flow
into the receiver. The 330 uH and 680 pF form a tuned circuit at 300 kHz and the 0.01 uF couples this tank into the base of the
first transistor amplifier. The amplified radio signal on the collector is coupled into the base of the second transistor which is part
of a lamp flasher circuit. The flasher is biased such that it doesn't flash (by careful adjustment of the pot) until a radio burst pulls
the base of the 2N4403 down. Positive feedback causes the flasher to quickly turn full on until the 100 uF capacitor discharges
giving a good lamp flash. The circuit quickly resets by charging the 100 uF capacitor through the 1N914.

Transistor substitutions are fine. Most modern small-signal transistors will work well in the circuit including 2N3904 (NPN) and
2N3906 (PNP). Avoid high frequency "RF" transistors since unwanted oscillations may result.

Note: A reader, Bob Radmore (N2PWP) has written an article featuring this lightning detector for the April, 2002 issue of QST,
ARRL's monthly membership journal.

Inspired by this season's first thunderstorm here is another experimental version of the lightning detector that features lower
battery drain and additional functions:
 Basic Low-Power Receiver

The basic receiver is similar to the first version except that the RF amplifier is a bit starved for current which saves power and
also provides demodulation for listening to the lightning crackles. The flasher portion uses much less current but only provides a
low current positive pulse which needs further conditioning for most purposes. When idle this new circuit draws only about 100
uA so applications using smaller batteries are practical. One or more of the following options are connected to the receiver to
complete the detector:

LED Driver

This LED driver consumes much less current than the previous design but the light output is less.

Audio Amplifier
The audio amplifier connects to the collector of Q1 and allows the user to listen to the received signal. The volume is not great
but an optional volume control may be added by replacing Q1's 10k collector resistor with a 10k potentiometer with the wiper
connecting to the 10k on the input of the amplifier. A power switch is included since this amplifier will draw several milliamps.
Adjust the resistor from the cathode to reference for 5 to 20 mA DC power consumption.

Averaging Meter

The averaging meter shows a fairly steady reading that is proportional to the lightning activity. A DC output is provided for
driving a comparator for alarms, automatic controls, etc.:

Alarm Comparator
The alarm comparator is used to drive a buzzer or other type alarm, a motor, relay, or other heavy electrical load. A separate
power supply provides power to the comparator and load. The 10k input resistor connects to the output of the averaging meter
circuit and the 10 megohm provides some hysterisis for quick switching. The 50k pot is adjusted for the desired trip point. Any n-
channel VMOS power transistor will work as long as it is rated for the load current. An LM358 op-amp or other ground-sensing
op-amp may be substituted for the comparator.

All of the options may be included in one unit.

 Barometers

Liquid Barometer
Have you ever noticed how those technical-looking aneroid barometers in the stores all indicate a
different pressure? And when you tap them gently they assume a new and equally meaningless reading.
These are not precision instruments. And since they tend to stick, they aren't even useful for monitoring
the rapid variations caused by passing storms. A home-made liquid barometer can exhibit excellent
accuracy and repeatability and the response is nearly instantaneous. Since most liquids are much lighter
than mercury, the sensitivity of the liquid barometer is much higher than mercury column types. Fig. 1
shows a schematic representation of the basic liquid barometer.

The liquid barometer uses back-pressure in the upper chamber instead of a vacuum to keep the column to
a reasonable length (and to reduce vapor pressure problems). The top container must be airtight except
for the tube extending down to the lower container. The bottom container is filled to a precise level with
a liquid and is open to the atmosphere through a gap around the tube. A completely open container will
also work at the bottom but evaporation may be a problem with some liquids, requiring frequent refilling.
(One advantage of mercury barometers is the nearly zero evaporation rate.) The tube should extend well
below the surface of the liquid. The tube must be quite long to accommodate the expected air pressure
changes: a five or six foot tube would be about right and the barometer will stretch from the floor to the
ceiling. Such a long barometer will change dramatically when storms blow by and is well worth the
trouble to construct.

A simple way to reduce the length of the barometer is to reduce the air capacity of the top container or
increase the diameter of the tube. As the liquid rises in the tube, pressure will build up if the top chamber
is small compared to the tube's volume and this pressure buildup will slow the column's rise. This short
barometer will have a non-linear scale and is only recommended for approximate measurements or
observing pressure changes. This back-pressure technique is the secret to those attractive glass long-neck
"swan" barometers which have a column height of only about a foot. These "barometers" have terrible
accuracy due to room temperature changes.

The professional mercury column barometer is relatively immune to temperature changes since the upper
chamber contains a vacuum but the upper chamber of the liquid barometer contains air and the pressure
of this air is proportional to the room temperature. If the temperature in the room varies by more than a
few degrees, the accuracy of the simple barometer will suffer unless a correction scheme is used. One
approach is to mark the scale with weather bureau comparisons made at one room temperature then
develop a calibration curve for other room temperatures. The chart will show how many inches to add or
subtract for different room temperatures. A superior approach is to control the temperature of the upper
chamber using the scheme shown in fig. 2. The upper chamber is made from a copper commode float!
Any similarly sized copper or aluminum container will work but choose a metal with good thermal
conductivity for even heat distribution. The copper toilet tank float is well sealed, has great thermal
conductivity, and is easily soldered.

DRILL THE VENT HOLE BEFORE SOLDERING!

Eight, 270 ohm, 1 watt heater resistors are mounted to the float by soldering one lead to the copper and
fastening the body of the resistor with epoxy. The other ends of the resistors are connected together and
to the controller.
A thermistor is mounted in the same manner about 1/2 inch from one of the resistors. Make sure to strain
relieve the wire connecting the controller to the free end of the thermistor. (A 10k negative temp-co
thermistor is shown but other values may be used with a proportional change in the associated resistor.)
The finished chamber is placed inside a suitable container and is insulated with fiberglass or Styrofoam.
A wooden box lined with the foam insulation may be constructed for a nice looking upper chamber or a
simple box may be fashioned from pieces of ceiling tile (a good thermal insulator). A small hole is
drilled into the float through the threaded brass base (fig.3) and the tube is fastened onto the base forming
an airtight seal. A copper or brass standoff or tube extension may be soldered to the float's base to allow
the use of a clamp on the tubing. If the tubing fits snugly on the tube then the clamp may not be
necessary but a little vinyl glue might be a good idea. The clear tubing protrudes through a hole in the
bottom of the outer container down to the lower chamber. The clear vinyl tubing has a one-quarter inch
outer diameter and a one-eighth inner diameter but larger tubing sizes will also work.
Fig. 3 shows the schematic for the temperature controller. This circuit is quite basic and most values and
components are not critical. The components shown were selected primarily for

easy availability. The temperature setting resistor depends on the thermistor and should be selected to
heat the float to a point that feels slightly warm to the touch (About 5.6k with a 10k thermistor).
Temporarily connect a current meter in series with the power supply to monitor the oven's performance.
The circuit should draw about 500 ma until the set point is reached and then the current should cut back
to about 200 ma (depending on the set temperature). Reduce the setpoint resistor if the final current is
much below 200 ma so that the chamber is hotter than the hottest temperature that the room might reach.
Thermally insulate the float for this test. A little cycling before settling is fine but if the current cuts on
and off repeatedly, then move the thermistor closer to the heater resistor or decrease the 330k resistor. If
the final current is much above 200 ma then increase the 5.6k resistor to cool the float somewhat.

You may wish to add a permanent current meter so that you can monitor the oven's
performance.

Higher resistance negative temp-co thermistors may be used by increasing the resistor connecting from
the thermistor to the zener by a proportional amount. The thermistor and 270 ohm resistors are mounted
on the float and the other components are mounted in a separate metal box. To simplify construction,
connect the float to the negative terminal of the supply (negative ground) and connect the metal circuit
box to the positive terminal (positive ground). This wiring allows the resistors and thermistors to be
directly soldered to the float and it allows the 2N3055 to be directly connected to the metal case without
insulating hardware. Obviously, the case must not touch the float.

The simplest way to charge the barometer column with liquid is to heat the upper chamber above its set-
point by touching a soldering iron to the copper float or warming the float with a hair dryer. Air will
begin to bubble out of the tube's bottom end which is submerged in the lower chamber liquid. After about
a hundred bubbles come out remove the heat and allow the temperature controller to stabilize. The liquid
will rise in the tube to an arbitrary height. If the height is too low then heat the upper chamber until
additional bubbles come out of the bottom. The tube must remain submerged at all times unless the liquid
rises too high in the tube and some air must be let back into the upper chamber. In this event, heat the
chamber until all the liquid comes out of the tube and then remove the end from the liquid. Allow the
upper chamber to cool a bit before submerging the tube again. A few attempts will give an acceptable
level. Remember to consider the present air pressure when choosing the initial height. Set the level
somewhat high if it is a high pressure day or low on a stormy day.

Keep the settings near the low end to minimize the pressure differential and thus the long-
term drift. I have mine a little over two feet up for 30".

Check with the local weather station to get a current pressure number. Tape a piece of paper over the
permanent scale and start marking pressure readings obtained from the local weather bureau. Eventually,
a scale will become evident and may be permanently marked. Remember, some readings may not fit well
due to some error either at the weather station or in the reporting so take several readings to average out
the errors. Watch out for hours-old bureau readings if the pressure is changing. (Actually minutes-old
readings can be misleading if you are trying for super precision!) The long barometer will have a quite
linear response and the scale may be accurately extended and subdivided from a few good readings.
Further fine tuning may be accomplished by changing the level in the bottom container or even by
changing the temperature setpoint. Remember, this barometer is sensitive far beyond its accuracy, easily
displaying changes and differences well below 0.01 inches of mercury so don't worry if your marks are
off a few hundredths from the weather bureau. Don't let a perfect scale become an obsession because the
absolute numbers are not as important as the smooth, quick response.

With the addition of a temperature controller, this home-made barometer offers near-bureau grade
performance. The only maintenance is an occasional addition of liquid to bring the level of the bottom
container back to the calibration level (not likely necessary with mineral oil). (Refill at a particular air
pressure since the level will change as liquid goes up and down in the column.) This level can be
adjusted for minor calibration changes. If the barometer readings drop over time then the top container
may have an air leak usually at the pipe connection or the float's coldweld seal. If the float's seal leaks
then the seam may be soldered. Use plumber's flux to get a good solder bond but please clean the whole
assembly with soap and water to completely remove the acid flux. Otherwise the residue will eat your
componets alive! Occasionally compare your readings with the official readings to verify the health of
your instrument.

Note: The original Liquid Barometer used water but experience has shown that other
 liquids are better. Water evaporates easily, supports various slimy life forms, and
transports gases from the ambient to the float. A few drops of bleach will discourage the
slime and a thin layer of oil will slow the absorption of air in the lower chamber but other
liquids simply don't have these problems. Choose a liquid that has a low vapor pressure
and little tendency to dissolve gasses from the air. After trying several liquids, I have
settled on ordinary mineral oil from the drugstore. It seems to have few volatile
components to spoil the vacuum and it is light which gives the barometer fantastic
sensitivity. It is easy to see the column move up and down in a storm. Also, I have decided
that the best approach is to wet the inside of the chamber with the liquid to help quickly
stabilize the vapor pressure. Any extra liquid will seep down the tube and the column
height will not be affected. If you get a bubble in the tube, simply "crush" it with some
pliers. Smaller bubbles will result and these will float to the top. ( I am assuming a flexible
plastic tube, of course!)

Watch the barometer when thunderstorms are in the area-- especially if there is a tornado alert. The
pressure will move surprisingly quickly as storm cells pass nearby. The basic barometer without the
heater is fine for storm watching and an interesting "storm gauge" may be constructed by placing the
upper chamber in the attic or outside with no temperature controller so that the outside temperature
changes the column height along with the air pressure. Use a larger upper chamber container since the
column length will be longer. Cold temperatures and high pressures will combine to give a high column
reading which usually means clear, still weather. When the pressure drops on a hot day, the column will
drop very low and watch out for severe weather! The tube for the storm gauge can pass through a small
hole drilled in the ceiling in the corner of a room and should extend to the floor since the level will
change dramatically. This "storm meter" hopelessly mixes two meteorological quantities, temperature
and pressure, but then the "wind chill factor" does too. Calibrate the scale with temperature-pressure
units by multiplying the weather bureau pressure and temperature readings. (First, convert the
temperature to degrees above absolute zero by adding 273 to Centigrade readings or 460 to Fahrenheit
readings.) You will find this unconventional instrument to be a good storm predictor.

© Copyright 1998, Charles Wenzel

Some additional comments:

I took apart an inexpensive aneroid barometer to see why it worked so poorly. There appear to be a
couple of problems. First, the mechanism that converts the tiny movements of the vacuum chamber into a
large meter movement involves an unlikely combination of levers, gears and bearings. It readily sticks
and has an annoying "dead band" anywhere in which the needle is happy to sit. The other likely problem
is the large spring that keeps the diaphragm from collapsing. It probably has a nasty temp-co and the tiny
"adjustment" screw that pushes on the back is far too coarse of an adjustment. I don't think there is much
hope for cheap barometers.
My local weather station makes small reading mistakes fairly often so accumulate several data points
before drawing a scale. Remember, your resolution is better than most professional barometers - 0.01
inches of mercury is about 0.16 inches of mineral oil so you can easily resolve much finer amounts. In
the grand scheme of things there is really no reason to know the absolute pressure with great accuracy. It
is the trend that is most useful and even tiny changes might tell the amateur scientist something about
changes in the air overhead. And with this barometer you can see a butterfly go by!

(No, not really.)

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Emergency Siren Simulator

This siren circuit simulates police, fire or other emergency sirens that produce an up and down wail.

The heart of the circuit is the two transistor flasher with frequency modulation applied to the base of the first transistor. When
the pushbutton is depressed, the frequency of oscillation climbs to a peak and when the button is released, the frequency
descends due to the rising and falling voltage on the 22 uF capacitor. The rate of change is determined by the capacitor value
and the 100k resistor from the pushbutton. The oscillation eventually stops if the button is not depressed and the current
consumption drops to a tiny level so no power switch is needed.

The 0.1 uF determines the pitch of the siren: A 0.047uF will give a higher pitch siren and a 0.001 uF will give an ultrasonic (at
least for me, anyway) siren from 15 to 30 kHz which might have an interesting effect on the neighborhood dogs! The 33k
resistor from the collector of the PNP to the base of the NPN widens the pulse to the speaker giving greater volume.

The flasher circuit drives a PNP transistor which powers the speaker. This transistor may be a small-signal transistor like the
2N4403 in most applications since it will not dissipate much power thanks to the rapid on-and-off switching. The 100 ohm and
100uF capacitor in series with the speaker limit the current to about 60 mA and they may be replaced with a short circuit for a
louder siren as long as the transistor can take the increased current. The prototype drew about 120 mA when shorted which is
fine for the 2N4403.

Transistor substitutions should be fine - try just about any small-signal transistors but avoid high frequency types so that you
do not end up with unwanted RF oscillations.
 Kitchen Circuits

Refrigerator Door Alarm

Do your kids leave the door to the refrigerator open? Or does your celery reach out to keep the door from
closing properly when you turn your back? Here's a simple circuit that beeps whenever the door is open
for an extended period of time (which will also put a little pressure on the fridge loiterers in the house).

The photocell has a very high resistance in the dark which drops very low when the door opens and the
light turns on. The 22 uF capacitor begins to charge and when the voltage reaches the zener voltage, the
beeper sounds. Closing the door allows the capacitor to discharge through the 10 meg. resistor, resetting
the beeper. The circuit draws very little power when the door is shut and only draws significant current
when the beeper is sounding. The transistor may be a single NPN darlington such as the MPS-A14 or
two 2N4401's connected as shown. Other types will also work. The delay may be changed by changing
the value of the capacitor. It may be a good idea to add a 10 uF capacitor across the battery.
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Magic Lamp
No, its not Aladdin's lamp with a genie inside. This magic lamp appears to be an ordinary frosted light
bulb with a rather unusual characteristic. Whenever your finger is touched across the base threads and
center contact the lamp magically lights! Without wires! It is a most effective illusion if you don't make a
big production, "Hey! Check out this magic lamp!", but instead casually remove the bulb from a package
of new bulbs and pretend to not notice when it lights. When your victim gasps and grabs the bulb for
further investigation just explain away the flash as some sort of static electricity effect and act indifferent.

Construction will probably involve several attempts unless you are familiar with glass working. Collect
several old burned-out light bulbs and learn to remove the base without breaking the glass. The bases are
glued on fairly well but with gentle prying and twisting they will break loose.

CAUTION: The broken glass is quite sharp and can easily cause a serious cut.

Try not to scar the metal base too much if you want to reinstall it or alternately just peel it off and get a
pristine base by breaking away the glass on another bulb. Now the really tricky part is to break off the
bottom of the bulb without shattering the whole thing. A glass cutter may be used to score a ring around
the base to encourage the desired break. This break should be near the bottom so that when the bulb is
remounted on the base the break will not show. Keep your fingers out of the inside of the bulb so that the
frosting doesn't get a greasy fingerprint.

Several factors should be considered when selecting a battery and lamp combination. First, the weight
should be kept low if the victim will hold the bulb. Second, the lamp should be as bright as practical and
should emit light in an omnidirectional pattern. Try those "super Krypton" flashlight replacement bulbs
and two AAA cells or one AA cell. A simple version may be constructed by connecting the battery, bulb
and base in series such that the circuit is completed when a penny is connected across the base. The more
sophisticated version shown in the diagram will respond to the resistance of moist skin and therefore
requires less manual dexterity. Mount the circuitry as deep in the base as possible so that it doesn't show
through the glass and mount the battery vertically out of the base by securing it with a good quality epoxy.
Paint the battery, wires, and components white so they don't show then fasten the bulb back into position
with hot-melt glue. Hot-melt glue will allow easy disassembly when the battery needs changing.

The Dripper! (Modified Circuit - works better!)

Just when you get all comfy in bed you hear it.... Drip....Drip....Drip. But when you stumble into the
bathroom to give the faucet a twist, the dripping sound stops. After a few trips back and forth you venture
out without turning on the lights- to "sneak up" on the drip. The only problem is that you can't see
anything! Well, this fate can befall a friend (hereafter referred to as "victim") with a little help from you
and the Dripper. The Dripper produces a slow dripping sound but only when the lights are off. The circuit
is based on a low power version of the two-transistor flasher and should run on a 9 volt battery for weeks.

This new circuit uses regeneration to increase the ringing of the tuned circuit that produces the chirp
sound. The circuit is therefore less sensitive to transistor gains and inductor Q. The potentiometer across
the inductor controls the chirp length. A short chirp will sound most like a drip whereas a longer chirp
sounds like some sort of insect. The CDS photocell is optional and will cause the dripping to stop when the
lights are turned on.

Here is how it works:

When dark, the photocell has a very high resistance and the voltage on the base of the 2N4403 is set by the
two resistor to about 6 volts. The emitter capacitor begins charging toward this value through the 330k
resistor which determines the drip rate. When the emitter voltage rises above the base voltage the two
transistors turn on and the 2N4401 quickly begins to oscillate at an audio frequency. The 22uF capacitor
on the emitter quickly discharges and the circuit switches off and the whole process begins again. The turn
on click followed by the short audio oscillation creates a realistic "pit - tink" dripping sound when the pot
is adjusted properly. Different values will give different effects and experimentation can be entertaining.
Transistor substitutions will usually work well.

TV Remote Control Jammer

Do you have an incessant channel hopper that is driving you crazy? Or perhaps you simply want to enforce
your own selections. The TV Remote Control Jammer will do the trick.

This circuit is a redo of an older design which is not effective on modern remotes. Modern remote
controls are hard to jam but with a little care this circuit will do the job. The circuit is just a flasher
operating at 40 kHz which is the carrier frequency used by common remote controls. The strong 40 kHz
infrared flashing interferes with the signal from the remote.

The 50k potentiometer is adjusted to achieve a 40 kHz flash rate (around 20 kohms) and this adjustment is
fairly critical. When it is set properly and the LEDs are pointed directly at the receiver's photodiode, the
remote control will stop working. The LEDs are operating at about 30 mA when on but the duty cycle is
low and the circuit only draws about 7 mA.

Trouble may be encountered if the frequency is set wrong, the LEDs are not pointed correctly, or if the
remote is a real brute. More light may be had by adding another resistor and diode string from the collector
to the switch but the most likely problem is the frequency adjustment. Use a 10-turn pot and adjust it
slowly while changing channels. Or use a frequency counter or oscilloscope to set the frequency, if
possible. Make sure that the current drain is about 7 mA - if not, check the polarity of the diodes. A
photodiode infrared receiver is handy for checking the light output and comparing it to the remote's.
 Construction Ideas

Since most projects are one-of-a-kind creations, designing and making PCBs often doesn't make sense. PCBs
are great when mass-producing a device or when the circuit complexity makes point-to-point wiring
impractical. Surface-mount components with more than about three legs can be difficult -but not impossible-
to use without a PCB. But, if the project is relatively simple, the PCB really isn't necessary. (Note: Designing
a PCB for a one-of-a-kind project may make sense, after all! See below.)

Most experimenters are familiar with "perf board" which is pre-drilled circuit board material. The
components are mounted by inserting the leads through the most appropriate holes then are wired on the back
side, usually by bending the leads over to the desired connection point. The finished product is mechanically
great and the appearance is adequate. A somewhat more attractive technique employs countertop laminate
which can withstand soldering temperatures without burning too badly. A drill template printed on a piece of
paper is taped to the laminate on the top, attractive side. A sharp, preferably carbide, bit is used to drill the
holes for the components using the template as a guide. For those of us in too much of a hurry to make a
template, the holes can be marked with a fine-tipped felt pen by eye. Parts with stiff legs can be inked on a
stamp pad and pressed on the laminate to leave a drilling "footprint". The picture below shows a siren circuit
(found in an old GE hobby book) built on a piece of "Bermuda" blue laminate. The transistor legs were
marked using the "rubber stamp" approach and the other components were marked by laying a piece of perf
board on top and making little dots through the desired holes with a mechanical pencil. The holes are drilled
from the top side for best results. Clamp a piece of wood to the drill press table so that the back of the
laminate is supported to prevent chipping. No effort was made to make the back side attractive (no kidding!)
but the back doesn't show in most cases. Two pieces of laminate could be glued together back-to-back if the
appearance of both sides is an issue. The top side looks great, however! The number of available colors is
overwhelming and the hobbyist can really use his imagination here. Try to acquire one of those sample chains
with all of the different available colors. (The printing usually comes off with alcohol.) Clean off the
soldering flux with denatured alcohol followed by detergent and water. Make sure it is dry before you apply
power!
Laminate is also good for front panels. Print the mirror image of the desired markings on a piece of overhead
transparency film and affix it to the laminate with a transparent spray adhesive. The laminate's texture
combines with the plastic's sheen to give a really nice look. Or, just print on separate adhesive-backed labels
for each control using complementary background and border colors. Coat the finished labels with a clear
spray for protection. The laminate should be glued to a thin piece of hardwood plywood for stiffness.

RF projects are best built on a ground plane and often need shields between stages so an alternative to the
laminate is needed. My favorite technique uses tinned, double-sided circuit board material purchased from a
PCB manufacturer. It can prove surprisingly difficult to explain what you want to the manufacturer since they
usually don't understand how undrilled, tinned PCB can be of any use. "But you won't be able to etch it if it is
tinned" is the most common warning. Once they understand that you really don't want etching or drilling the
price is usually pretty low. Get thin board (perhaps 0.031") so that it is easy to cut. Cut one piece for the
ground plane and little pieces for connection "islands". I like to use an ordinary nibbling tool to make the
islands. In this case, the "nibbles" are the part you want.
The islands are soldered in place by applying a little solder along one edge. The molten solder will wick
underneath and the pad will be secure. There is no need to reflow the entire pad. Note the long strip of PCB
material at the top of the picture used to distribute power. (Don't forget bypass capacitors!) The clock
oscillator legs are bent and soldered to the little connection islands except for the ground leg which is bent a
little lower so that it is flush with the ground plane. Note the surface-mount resistor soldered from the ground
plane to the output island. Other surface mount parts can be accommodated in a similar manner. The tiny
islands have very little capacitance to ground and the proximity of everything to the ground plane makes for a
well-behaved circuit. And, since you are using double-sided board, you can have components on both sides
for excellent circuit density. Drill holes wherever feedthroughs are needed. You can also use untinned copper
board but soldering is more difficult and corrosion will spoil the looks.

Wood also makes an interesting substrate for many types of projects. Here is a picture of a "breadboard" three-
transistor radio built in the tradition of the old Atwater-Kent breadboards:
The board is a solid plank normally used for hanging awards, medals, etc. The connections are made to
ordinary solder lugs fastened to the board with wood screws. The coil is wound on a cardboard tube coated
with diluted epoxy (dilute with epoxy/lacquer thinner). Various brackets, knobs and other hardware where
salvaged from old equipment.

An electronics project box is not necessary for most hobby projects, especially with the wide variety of metal
and plastic containers that usually end up in the trash. For example, here is an "induction" receiver for
listening to audio frequency magnetic fields:

The circuit is a built into a 8 mm video cassette box which is fairly thick and just the perfect size for a 9 volt
battery. (Forget about audio cassette boxes - they are too thin and ugly!) The box has a nice purple hue and
notice that the circuit is built on a small piece of ""Wisteria" colored laminate. The yellow pickup coil is from
a relay (note the color coordinated tie wrap). A piece of blue foam holds the battery in place and the finished
unit really has a quality feel. Other projects in this library are built into various tin boxes which originally
contained mints (Altoids) or candy. These tin boxes are great for RF projects because they are easily soldered.
Looking around the shop I see a signal generator built into a homemade box made from pieces of tinned
copper-clad circuit board soldered together along the edges, an experimental charge mill built into white PVC
plumbing pipe, a lightning detector in a plastic peanut butter jar, an inline regulator in an ordinary plastic box
with a snap closure, a receiver in a plastic electrical box from the local home improvement store, and all sorts
of odds and ends on little pieces of wood and PCB material. If you are handy with wood, try making small
boxes with recessed metal panels. A little stain and varnish really looks sharp.

The following is not an endorsement of ExpressPCB. (But I don't know why not, I have had excellent service
so far!)

Here is a new twist on the laminate board technique: ExpressPCB is a company that manufactures prototype
quantity PCBs for a reasonable price and with excellent delivery - typically four days. The company provides
free layout software (http://www.expresspcb.com) which is easy to learn and use and the boards can be
ordered online from within the program! A really nice feature for the experimenter is that the program will
print the layout actual size. A laminate board as described above can be made by using the printout as a
drilling guide. No boards need be ordered unless the prototype is a success and the cost is not deemed to be
too high. Here is an example:

A simple triac motor speed control/ lamp dimmer circuit was designed with the software to fit on a sample
piece of laminate. (As it turns out, two of the circuits will fit on ExpressPCB's "economy" board size so six
boards could be purchased for $59.) The layout was printed and then taped to the laminate. Holes were drilled
using the printout as a guide:
After drilling, the parts are inserted and soldered using the component leads for the traces (as with the siren
circuit above) I did not trim the laminate down to the actual dimensions of the layout:

Only traces on the bottom of the board were allowed to make wiring easier and insulated wires were used
wherever the traces were too close for comfort or carried significant current. The unused IC pattern is for an
optional opto-isolator.

If I decide that I want six of these puppies, I just click on "purchase" and they arrive 4 days later at a cost of
about $10 each. That is a little high for just fooling around but it sure is tempting!

With a little practice, layouts are quite fast. The component library is limited so create your own parts and
save them in a component file (just another board file). The program opens and closes files very quickly so
just open your component drawing to copy a part (ctrl-c) then re-open your design drawing and paste it in
(ctrl-v). Make sure to say "yes" to "save changes" when opening the parts drawing! You should attach all of
the pieces of your component together using the "group" command so that you can grab it all with one click.