Help with ICs - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: BreadboardEngineer
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 16, 2011, 10:19:28 pm
content: I'm 17 and I decided that I want to be an electric engineer. I've learned a lot from purchased books, kits, etc. At Radioshack I stumbled upon their Electronics Learning Lab kit and, with the help of internet, I've achieved a basic understanding of what a lot of the parts do. To get to the point, the only parts that I'm having trouble understanding is how to use the ICs that it came with and what they each specifically do. The names of which are below. The 555 Timer is the only one I've been experimenting with, (making the simple astable and monostable circuits) but I don't get how to use these applications in broad situations. I know it's a very expansive question, but if ya'll can help me out, even a little bit of helpful information is greatly appreciated.1) Quad Op Amp 3242) CMOS Quad 2-input NAND Gate 40113) CMOS Quad 2-input NOR Gate 40014) Dual-D Flip-flop 40135) Decade Counter/Decoder 40176) Phase-Locked Loop 40467) Hex Inverting Buffer 4049CMOS 4-bit Presettable Up/Down Counter 40299) Quad Bilateral Switch 406610) BCD to 7 Segment Decoder 451111) Exclusive OR-Gate 407012) Dual Op Amp 27213) Power Amp 38614) Quad Comparator 33915) Regulator 780516) Timer 555

author: tecman
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2011, 12:45:13 am
content: Go online and download the data sheets for the ICs. Many data sheets have good typical apps and reference circuits.paul

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 17, 2011, 06:18:03 am
content: A lot of your questions can be answered by reading books written by Forrest Mims III. Also, the book "Make: Electronics" is very good for beginners as well.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2011, 07:14:59 am
content: You've been given a lot of good advice here.You can have a lot of fun with the 555 & the 4017,plus some LEDs,resistors & capacitors,making an LED follower,where the LEDS flash in succession.Google for 4017 LED follower(or flasher),for a circuit diagram.These ICs have been around for years,so you might pick up some old magazines,Text books,or IC "cookbooks" at swapmeets,second hand bookshops,or Hamfests.VK6ZGO

author: Jimmy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2011, 08:30:14 am
content: You are new and you just want to play with electronics?I suggest you may be looking at it from the wrong stand point. Maybe you should come up with a problem and then find an electrical solution. This is usually the case I get at work someone asks me can you do this and the journey begins.E.g. Lets say something easy for you to do as a beginner that you can achieve Lets make a Led flash - Boring how boring is that. 555 timer, led and blah blah. Now lets say I want to design something so when I drive past my letterbox I can tell if there is Mail in it or not buy putting a flashing led on the back of the box.Now you need to spec the job out from the start.Needs Cool name ""Do you want simple yes there is mail or know how much mail there is?Detection of mail ? Simple switch by weight or load cell/ Distance sensor For analog inputWhat sort if display? LED, Flashing LED, LED bar graph, Servo with pointer attached or It will sms you when mail arrivesIs the display going to be on the letterbox or remote? Wired or Wireless?How am i going to power this thing? Solar and BatteryIs my mail box big enough to fit all this crap into?Once you have your list of stuff you want to achieve it will be easier to get your head around. If you do decide to go ahead and do a Intelligent Mail Receptacle or whatever you want to call it make sure you post design and photos for us.If you just ask google how to do everything is that really learning? Yes it is

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2011, 08:32:26 am
content: Quote from: BreadboardEngineer on July 16, 2011, 10:19:28 pmi admire your passion, not like most tenagers nowadays, they like to play videogames, high tech mobile phone, softwares and fancy gadgetry,clueless and waste time hanging outside. i'm 34 and i've never completed knowledge in all IC's you've mentioned, maybe one reason is i'm polymathand another is i'm marriedlearning is not a one night, week or month process. it will take years of patient, enjoyment and appreciation. take your time dont rush otherwise you'll risk desperate and end up leaving this wonderfull hobby. my suggestion, slowly get to know each chip by downloading datasheet, find circuit example for it, see what it does, appreciate it and build it and appreciate it etc etc. and many chips classed into same category, for eg "regulator" 7805 in your list, its not the one, there are many other "regulator" chip outside. "quad" or "dual" op amp are just op amp, its just "quad" op amp have four (4) "normal" op amp in one chip. my point is, dont rush, do it slowly and consistently, its not easy to teach you all the 16 items above, even for analog master. you have to get the feeling yourself. we only can show you the path, but its your decision to walk it or not. and pain will come with joyfull in the end... end of ramble

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2011, 03:25:51 pm
content: Lots of those ICs have been replaced with better equivalents and it can be often more cost effective to replace them with a microcnotroller: for example, the CD4011 can be replaced with the 74HC00 but note the different pin out and the maximum supply voltage of 6V.For simple circuits though, logic gates, comparators, filp-flops etc are still the best way to go.Once you've identified the components by Googling for them, it should be easy to find information on how to use them, for example, you'll learn that the LM324 is an op-amp, you can then do more Googling and learn how to use op-amps.

author: A-sic Enginerd
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 18, 2011, 06:31:36 am
content: To cut to the chase - majority of those are for digital design. Logic gates, flops, counters, etc. are all basic building blocks for digital circuits. Want to know more of what you can do with them, pick up just about any book on logic design. Wakerly is the first one that comes to mind. (that's the authors name, don't recall exact title of book).Phase locked loop (aka: PLL) - generates a clock used by the sequential logic (ie: flops) in a digital circuit.Op amps of various flavors - they get used for a lot of things. Depends on the capabilities of the op amp. Everything from signal conditioning to output drivers to power circuits, etc. Believe some others replied with sources to go after to learn more on those.Believe that should pretty much cover it.Summary in layman's terms that everyone keeps dancing around - these are all basic building blocks, be it for digital, power, or other analog circuits. What you do with them is a matter of how you stack them together. Think of them as grown up Lego's or Tinker Toys. Pretty much any electronic gadget you pick up or turn on these days will have some variation or great grandchild of many of these components.

author: Vertigo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2011, 07:36:49 am
content: i am just starting electronics as a hobby, but i recognize some of those.i have some of those 4017's, i bought them to make something called a 'larson scanner'(i picked my parts based on schematics of stuff i want to build at some point)a larson scanner is the circuit that makes the tracing LED light u see in the oldseries battlestar galactica and knight rider.recently i discovered a circuit that uses that same chip to make a code lock.http://members.shaw.ca/novotill/CombinationLock/index.htmis that cool or what? i don't care what it says at the bottom, i simply have to try this some timefor more interesting ideas on what to do with the 555 timer, check out this contest that was helda while ago:http://www.555contest.com/people used it to make all kinds of things from a simply noise maker thingy to a self balancing robot,to a calculator to an inductivity meter. (srsly is there anything cooler then making your own test equipment?)IC's are made for a typical purpose, but what they are capable of is in large part down to your owncreativity.one thing i like to do to get an idea of what an ic can do is just look at what other people are doing with them.check out this site:http://www.discovercircuits.com/index.htmdo a search on a part and take a look at what people are doing with it for inspiration.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2011, 07:38:49 pm
content: QuoteWhy bother putting it on the damn website then?

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2011, 04:45:38 am
content: I remember when 4017s were fairly new (or I was new to them),I bought one,with a bundle of LEDS,& watched them light up as I put a series of pulses on the clock pin.(I just did this by hand, with a resistor in line with a piece of wire to the 12v supply).It was a quiet period on afternoon shift at work,so I had been playing with this setup .I was called to do something else,& when I got back to it,the workshop was dark.I was confronted with the 4017s LEDs flickering very fast,but in sequence,with just a floating piece of wire on the clock input.Apparently,either the input was detecting video from the TV RF,or it was direct radiation from the high level video modulator.Either way,it was weird!VK6ZGO

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2011, 05:28:35 pm
content: It was most likely picking up mains hum. The easy test is to hook it up to a frequency counter and the output will be a multiple of 50 or 60 divided by 10.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2011, 01:16:34 am
content: Quote from: Hero999 on July 26, 2011, 05:28:35 pmNo,I don't think so.The TV transmitter produced several kW of video to modulate the final stage,& you could hearinterference from this on a HF receiver.I didn't elaborate further in my original comments,but the rate at which the LEDs changed seemed to vary with program material.If it had been at 50Hz,it would have probably been due to the field syncs,but it seemed to rather follow slower changes in picture content.It didn't do it at home,& as this was 30 years ago,I will never be able to reproduce the conditions.VK6ZGO