This educational “logic password” circuit I’m building to see if my students should do it has a 9V AC bridge rectifier in the corner which I find odd— It’s not like providing 5V DC is a big mysterious thing.
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This educational “logic password” circuit I’m building to see if my students should do it has a 9V AC bridge rectifier in the corner which I find odd— It’s not like providing 5V DC is a big mysterious thing. And it makes you BUILD the switch to turn it on with header pins and a coupler like a cavewoman. I think it’s amusing but I worry I’m missing one of the educational goals of the board designer who is probably a teacher and a better engineer than me. Thoughts?
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This educational “logic password” circuit I’m building to see if my students should do it has a 9V AC bridge rectifier in the corner which I find odd— It’s not like providing 5V DC is a big mysterious thing. And it makes you BUILD the switch to turn it on with header pins and a coupler like a cavewoman. I think it’s amusing but I worry I’m missing one of the educational goals of the board designer who is probably a teacher and a better engineer than me. Thoughts?
This is amusing but why not just say “supply 5V of clean DC”?
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This is amusing but why not just say “supply 5V of clean DC”?
@futurebird
Like a USB charger... -
This is amusing but why not just say “supply 5V of clean DC”?
@futurebird From the classes I had that used these sorts of things, "stick a 9v battery connector into the screw terminal" was easier (and somewhat more portable) than a clean 5v supply, at least in a normal classroom without an overhead ring of multiple outlets over every seat. (My college's electronics lab had that)
The "9VAC" marking is also somewhat misleading: that rectifier also works for DC input of sufficient voltage (~8-12v should work fine) while also providing "automatic polarity" so you don't need to care about which way the battery is connected. aka "kids can't blow it up by plugging the battery in backwards" which from 'incidents' in my classes is "a rather critical feature" depending on the age and experience of the students.
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This is amusing but why not just say “supply 5V of clean DC”?
Have you looked at any of the Raspberry Pi stuff? That would be a lot more current and could teach them a lot more.
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@futurebird
Like a USB charger...@dlakelan well a usb charger you can’t plug into the wall just a 9v battery.
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@futurebird From the classes I had that used these sorts of things, "stick a 9v battery connector into the screw terminal" was easier (and somewhat more portable) than a clean 5v supply, at least in a normal classroom without an overhead ring of multiple outlets over every seat. (My college's electronics lab had that)
The "9VAC" marking is also somewhat misleading: that rectifier also works for DC input of sufficient voltage (~8-12v should work fine) while also providing "automatic polarity" so you don't need to care about which way the battery is connected. aka "kids can't blow it up by plugging the battery in backwards" which from 'incidents' in my classes is "a rather critical feature" depending on the age and experience of the students.
@becomethewaifu Ah the backwards battery makes sense! I saw “AC” and thought “there is no way this is for mains wtf”
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Have you looked at any of the Raspberry Pi stuff? That would be a lot more current and could teach them a lot more.
@andytiedye I want them to work with logic gates… not code. And see that some problems don’t need a processor or memory to be solved. They do tons of coding of things like that later in the class. This is right after their unit in binary.
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@dlakelan well a usb charger you can’t plug into the wall just a 9v battery.
@futurebird
Wait it wants you to plug in a 9v battery? And its using an AC bridge rectifier? I guess that could be a polarity protection feature, in case people wire up the battery leads backwards you dont let the magic smoke out of the board. -
@futurebird
Wait it wants you to plug in a 9v battery? And its using an AC bridge rectifier? I guess that could be a polarity protection feature, in case people wire up the battery leads backwards you dont let the magic smoke out of the board.@dlakelan yes this seems to be the reason!
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@andytiedye I want them to work with logic gates… not code. And see that some problems don’t need a processor or memory to be solved. They do tons of coding of things like that later in the class. This is right after their unit in binary.
@andytiedye I will not be the teacher responsible for the kid who makes a lamp that turns on when it senses low light levels and the thing needs an OS and internet connection to function! Not on my watch!
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F myrmepropagandist shared this topic
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@andytiedye I will not be the teacher responsible for the kid who makes a lamp that turns on when it senses low light levels and the thing needs an OS and internet connection to function! Not on my watch!
@futurebird
The older I get the closer I am to that guy in engineering fabrication who swears his soldering iron is all the damned IDE he needs.
@andytiedye -
@futurebird
The older I get the closer I am to that guy in engineering fabrication who swears his soldering iron is all the damned IDE he needs.
@andytiedyeWe can’t turn on the light because the cloud AI doesn’t agree it’s dark enough to need a light.
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@andytiedye I want them to work with logic gates… not code. And see that some problems don’t need a processor or memory to be solved. They do tons of coding of things like that later in the class. This is right after their unit in binary.
Have they discovered http://nandgame.com yet? That's a good way to kill an evening or two and come out of it understanding a lot more about how things work on a logic gate level
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@andytiedye I will not be the teacher responsible for the kid who makes a lamp that turns on when it senses low light levels and the thing needs an OS and internet connection to function! Not on my watch!
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@crankylinuxuser @andytiedye
Where is the "detention" button on this thing?!?
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Have they discovered http://nandgame.com yet? That's a good way to kill an evening or two and come out of it understanding a lot more about how things work on a logic gate level
Absolutely! And they love it!
Now you wouldn't think a modern child would be impressed by eight lights blinking out binary. But it hits different when YOU made it happen and know why it's working.
And it's all just gates-n-switches.
