i need more help

hi again guys

i am really getting into this electronics thing - its such a rewarding past timie (and a big stress when it doesn't work)

i have come up with a new project to do - my most adventurous yet but i like to push my self

this just has no real use, i think it would just be cool to do - i want to be able to turn a wheel/dial that then lights up a certain LED in a row of LED's to tell me what position the dial is in

i have no idea how to go about this at all though

if anyone could give me a pointer to kick it off that would be brill!

thanks very much

You could do it with a pot for the wheel. Set the pot up as one leg of a voltage divider. Then use one of the neat ICs that will sense a voltage and light up LEDs bar graph style to indicate where the wheel is positioned.

3v0

Look at using a **broken link removed**in dot mode.

Thanks guys

i know i am a beginner but this seems a little bit easier than i thought it would be hmm

how would i go about replacing the LED with a LCD screen that displays a number instead?

i really do want to learn and push my self - some of the projects i have seen on here are mind blowing to me - i don't have a head for it but i love seeing how you guys over come challenges - hopefully i will learn this too with experience

freckle, start simpler, just a handful of logic gates, flip flops, and few 555s and some other discrete components like caps and resistors. This will keep you busy for a long time, you can't just start in the middle and expect to learn anything. Don't think you're limiting yourself by starting with simple components, those simple components can be put together to give you a virtual infinite number of responses.

If you don't know what those components are, learn them.

Sceadwian said:

freckle, start simpler, just a handful of logic gates, flip flops, and few 555s and some other discrete components like caps and resistors. This will keep you busy for a long time, you can't just start in the middle and expect to learn anything. Don't think you're limiting yourself by starting with simple components, those simple components can be put together to give you a virtual infinite number of responses.

If you don't know what those components are, learn them.

Click to expand...

i have done the above for 2 years at college - i left last summer and miss my electronics lessons

i have a basic understanding of the above - i know what they are and how to make them (not off the top of my head though i will admit)

i understand where to use caps and resistors and transistors ect

i totally lack in circuit integration because we never did it - when we made stuff we just made a 555 astable - we never really linked it to anything so i never learned that and we never learned anything that wasn't on the curriculum as we didn't have time unfortunately and this is one of them things

Sounds like you need to jump right into micro controllers, though you have to learn how to program, skys the limit with a micro controller, they eliminate the messiness of many circuits because it can process things that might take dozens of other logic gates and flipflops to do, and let you do a lot of stuff that you could not practically do with discrete components. They're also cheap and easy to learn nowdays as long as you don't have an irrational fear of programming or learning. More than once in the forums here I've seen people say they absolutly require a solution in discrete components because they were so affraid to try something new =)

i did a little on them as well

i can program in VB.net so not scared of that at all

i guess its only another language

thanks alot pal

Yeah, with microcontrollers you'll be working in either ASM or C, ASM is a different world so that will be new, but you should pick up C relatively fast. Also if you've never programmed on the hardware level it's a bit different as you have a lot more numbers to deal with, like all the peripheral registers.