Another simple electronics project for kids

 

Project Features

• Simple
• Cheap
• Doesn't take long
• Can be done by children (with a little help)

Introduction

One of my sons recently started to nag me. He wanted to solder something. Initially I had no idea what he could solder and I thought he was simply bored. But he kept going and I knew I had to find something. Finally I remembered that it would be "Blue Night" soon and that I wanted to take my kids there. So we could build some coloured light object to be worn at the event.

I looked through my unused hoard of components and found the bag with one hundred rainbow LEDs (i.e. slow colour changing LEDs). I had ordered them from China for little money - for no good reason really... 

And so was born the idea to build a little pendant of 3x3 LEDs.

Connecting an ISP Programmer to an ATMega8

Several people asked me how you connect an ISP programmer to an ATMega8. It never occured to me that this could be a problem for anyone. But anyway, here is a schematic.

Over time, I will write a tutorial on how to program AVR controllers.

Please note that the header shows Atmel's standard pinout for the 10-pin ISP header. Most programmers use that same pinout. But to be safe you should check your ISP programmer's manual.

I hope this is useful for someone!

A Beginner's Guide to Driving LEDs - Part 4

The transistor as current source

In part 3 of this tutorial we looked briefly at several current sources, which contain integrated circuits. In this part, we will look in more detail at a simple current source built from a transistor, a zener diode and two resistors.