Introduction

If you’ve caught the electronics bug, you’re ready to try all kinds of projects that will help you develop your skills while creating weird and wonderful gadgets. That’s what this book is about: providing projects that are fun and interesting as well as helping you find out about all kinds of electronic circuits and components.

Electronics Projects For Dummies is a great way to break into electronics or expand your electronics horizons. Here, we provide projects that allow you to dabble in using sound chips, motion detectors, light effects, and more. And all the projects are low voltage, so if you follow our safety advice, no electronics folks will be hurt in the process.

Why Buy This Book?

Electronics projects not only help you build useful and fun gadgets, but you pick up a lot of knowledge along the way about how various electronic parts work, how to read a circuit diagram, and how to use tools such as soldering irons and multimeters. So by using this book, you have fun and get some knowledge at the same time.

This book provides you with just what you need to get going in the fun world of electronics. It offers projects that you can build in a reasonable amount of time — and in most cases, for under $100 each (some well under!).

Foolish Assumptions

This book assumes that you have an interest in electronics and that you’ve probably explored the world of electricity and electronics a bit. You’ve probably scanned a few electronics circuit Web sites and maybe a magazine or two and have picked up some of the jargon. Other than that, you don’t need anything but a minimal budget to buy parts and tools, a small space in your house or apartment that you can set aside for a workbench, and a little time.

If you feel like you want more information about terms and concepts in electronics to help you out, we recommend Electronics For Dummies, by Gordon McComb and Earl Boysen (Wiley).

You don’t need to be an electrical engineer or have worked on electronic projects in the past. We provide some initial chapters that help you stock up on essential parts and tools, understand what each one does, set yourself up for safety, and master a few simple skills. Then you’re all set to tackle any one of the projects in this book.

Safety, Safety, Safety!

We can’t say this enough: Electronics, especially lower-voltage projects like the ones in this book, can be a painless pastime but only if you follow some basic safety procedures from the get-go.

Even low voltages can harm you, soldering irons can burn you, and small pieces of plastic or wire that you snip could fly into your face.

We recommend that everybody — even those with electronics experience — read the chapter on safety (Chapter 2). And because we can’t cover every potential danger in a single chapter, be sure to read each manufacturer’s warnings about how to use parts, power sources, and tools. Finally, use common sense when working on projects. If in doubt whether a safety precaution is necessary, just do it. Better safe than sorry is one of our mantras.

How This Book Is Organized

Electronics Projects For Dummies is organized into several parts, starting off with some general information about safety and stocking your electronics workshop. Then we offer several parts with different types of projects, and finally conclude with the Part of Tens chapters with additional resources you might want to explore. This book also has a spiffy full-color photo spread of some of the circuits and finished products of several of the projects.

Here’s the rundown of how this book is organized.

Part I: Project Prep

If you’re new to electronics, read through this part first. Even if you’re seasoned, humor us and read Chapter 2 about safety. Then use Chapters 3 and 4 to gather the parts and tools you’ll need and also bone up on some essential electronics skills, such as soldering and reading schematics.

Part II: Sounding Off!

This part contains the first set of projects, all involving sound in some fashion. Here you work on projects to make lights dance to music, create a parabolic microphone to pick up sounds at a distance, make a wizard that talks when you push his buttons, and create your own AM radio.

Part III: Let There Be Light

Electricity can produce light (as Thomas Edison could have told you), so here we show you how to work with light in a variety of ways. These projects use light to amuse or even make gadgets run. In this part, you light up a pumpkin by using a motion detector, create a light display that will make your next party rock, and build a go-kart that you direct by using an infrared remote control device.

Part IV: Good Vibrations

Some electronic gadgets do their thing when they sense vibrations. All the projects in this part depend on vibrations, including electrical, mechanical, or radio waves. Work through these projects to create a metal detector, a radio controlled vehicle that senses light and runs around a track, and a device that sits on your couch and raises a ruckus if your pet jumps on the cushion.

Part V: The Part of Tens

The chapters in this part provide the ever-popular For Dummies top-ten lists. Use the recommendations here to explore some interesting suppliers of electronic parts and tools; get information or swap ideas about general electronics topics online or in print; or look into resources for more specialized interests, such as audio effects and robotics.

Icons Used in This Book

We live in a visual world, so this book uses little icons to point out useful information of various types.

The Tip icon points you to information that is interesting and can save you time or headaches. These icons generally add a bit of spice to your electronic project education.

Oops. If you don’t heed these little icons, you might regret it. Warnings alert you to potential danger or problems that you want to avoid.

Remember icons remind you of an important idea or fact that you should keep in mind as you explore electronics. They might even point you to another chapter for more in-depth information about a topic.

If you’re gonna build an electronics project, you’re gonna spend some money. To save you time and help you keep your costs down, we give you shopping tips wherever you see this icon.