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Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

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Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#41

Post by bariumbitmap »

This post made me feel things. In Phillip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner, wild animals have died out due to the after-effects of war and most people can only afford electric animals as pets.

Here the ingenious circuit design and debugging to make an electronic firefly is made all the more poignant by the fact that artificial lighting disrupts firefly reproduction and communication,[0][1] meaning that LED light pollution at night is one of the main reasons firefly populations are declining.

[0] https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4557 [1] https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220468

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#42

Post by btbuildem »

> so I searched the web and found tinkercad.com has a circuit simulator where you can drag and drop all the components and see if and how it works. It worked for simple circuits, but for mine, the astable multivibrator, it didn’t for some reason. I tried falstad.com/circuit; the same thing happened. It also didn’t work. I searched the web for the reason, and I’ve noticed that sometimes these simulators don’t work well for complex circuits.

If anyone knows of a hobby-grade circuit design and simulation software (on macos! or online), I'd be so grateful to have it mentioned. I've tried kicad, diylc, fritzing, and a few other options, and nothing really "works". It's like the minds of people who created these are broken in a certain tragic way that just does not yield itself to making useable software.

The holy grail for me would be something that allows to design the electronic, then spatial aspects of circuits -- from testing the functionality, to making the board (and bonus points for stripboard support!)

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#43

Post by fsckboy »

>I love fireflies. But in recent years, they stopped coming for reasons I don’t know.

there were fireflies all over in my childhood, we played with them all the time. but I hadn't seen them in decades. Then one summer there there were... in the heart of New York City of all places. Crazy beautiful.

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#44

Post by btbuildem »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #2

The juxtaposition between the cleanliness of the software and the absolute travesty of a schematic is jarring. But it still works! I applaud the author for wading into analog electronics. Pretty much everyone nowadays would just put a timer on a micro and be done in 2 minutes. No fun in that. There is something to be said about the minimal elegance of purely analog designs, and a special rewarding feeling for wrangli…

Honestly, it's the easiest onramp for people coming from a software background. Analog circuits are HARD, but rewarding. And as you ramp up to various ICs, things start to ~~~ make sense ~~~ in a wonderful way. Oh, and also the battery life!

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#46

Post by 867-5309 »

btbuildem wrote: post #42

> so I searched the web and found tinkercad.com has a circuit simulator where you can drag and drop all the components and see if and how it works. It worked for simple circuits, but for mine, the astable multivibrator, it didn’t for some reason. I tried falstad.com/circuit; the same thing happened. It also didn’t work. I searched the web for the reason, and I’ve noticed that sometimes these simulators don’t work wel…

> astable multivibrator

come again?

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#47

Post by Animats »

nerdsniper wrote: post #32
supportengineer wrote: post #5

I was programming well before I was learned anything about analog electronic circuits. I had the Radio Shack 160-in-one like anyone else and I could follow the directions but I didn't understand what was happening because I was thinking of it as an orderly pipeline, almost like a conveyor belt, where each component was doing a task. It wasn't until college when we studied LRC circuits in physics that it finally click…

I had RadioShack's "ScienceFair"-brand (co-branded with RadioShack) "Advanced Electronics Lab - 300 projects" kit when I was very young. https://www.ebay.com/p/2254341989 I just found it again yesterday at a very old-school electronics shop. The kind of delightful place packed wall-to-wall & floor-to-ceiling with stuff where each category (test equipment, passive & active components, motors, motor drivers, audio, vid…

> Things like LRC circuits don't make sense without an oscilloscope. I have one now but REALLY wish I had one as a kid, even a crazy-cheap incredibly low quality one would have been amazing.

Yes. Especially since oscilloscopes now start at $43 at WalMart.[1] $36 on Amazon. There are $12 oscilloscopes on Alibaba. Bandwidth is low, but plenty for audio, motors, etc.

Here's an electronics kit recommended on Reddit.[2] That plus a cheap scope and you can do most of the basics. All for under $100.

[1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/Osdhezcn-Pocket-Size-Oscilloscope...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/comments/1k06mpz/sho...

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#48

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

867-5309 wrote: post #46
btbuildem wrote: post #42

> so I searched the web and found tinkercad.com has a circuit simulator where you can drag and drop all the components and see if and how it works. It worked for simple circuits, but for mine, the astable multivibrator, it didn’t for some reason. I tried falstad.com/circuit; the same thing happened. It also didn’t work. I searched the web for the reason, and I’ve noticed that sometimes these simulators don’t work wel…

> astable multivibrator come again?

Astable means that it keeping switching, like a clock signal, as opposed to a lightswitch which is bistable (will stay where it is in either position) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivibrator

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#49

Post by iaaan »

btbuildem wrote: post #42

> so I searched the web and found tinkercad.com has a circuit simulator where you can drag and drop all the components and see if and how it works. It worked for simple circuits, but for mine, the astable multivibrator, it didn’t for some reason. I tried falstad.com/circuit; the same thing happened. It also didn’t work. I searched the web for the reason, and I’ve noticed that sometimes these simulators don’t work wel…

The naive programmer in me wants to assume, "It can't possibly be that hard to simulate a circuit," and get to work on prototyping my own simulation engine but the fact that this apparently has not ben adequately solved yet gives me pause.

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#50

Post by BobbyTables2 »

stared wrote: post #29

> I love fireflies. But in recent years, they stopped coming for reasons I don’t know. No tiny, glowing dots in the dark like they used to. I miss them more than I expected. Light pollution, and even more: pesticides. Population of all insects fall dramatically. "Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years" - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/18/warning-…

I have memories of the front of the car being caked in bugs from night driving and long daytime trips.

Doesn’t seem to happen anymore…

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