We saw in our last tutorial that a permanent magnet moving-coil (PMMC) galvanometer is a type of instrument in which a current carrying coil is placed within a permanent magnetic field. When an electric current ( I ) passes through the coil, the electromagnetic field created arou...
When analysing the operation of electrical and electronic circuits, or trying to understand why a circuit does not work as expected, eventually you will need to use a Voltmeter to measure the various voltage levels. Voltmeters used for the measurement of voltage come in many shap...
The advantage of relays is that it takes a relatively small amount of power to operate the relay coil. However a relay switch circuit can be used to control motors, heaters, lamps or AC circuits which themselves can draw a lot more electrical voltage, current and therefore power....
Nearly all electronic devices and circuits require some form of a DC power source for their operation supplied from either from a battery, solar cell or mains connected unregulated power supply. While batteries have the advantage of being small, portable and ripple free, they ne...
The emission of photons from a 7-segment display occurs when the diode junction of each segment is forward biased by an external voltage allowing current to flow across its junction, and in Electronics we call this process electroluminescence. The actual colour of the visible li...
There are many circuits and kits on the market that can flash any number of lights periodically, randomly or sequentially but one very versatile IC that the hobbyist or student can use to produce a simple Christmas Lights Sequencer for use in a variety of different seasonal light...
The I-V Characteristic Curves, which is short for Current-Voltage Characteristic Curves or simply I-V curves of an electrical device or component, are a set of graphical curves which are used to define its operation within an electrical circuit. As its name suggests, I-V characte...
The Wheatstone Bridge diamond shaped circuit who's concept was developed by Charles Wheatstone can be used to accurately measure unknown resistance values, or as a means of calibrating measuring instruments, voltmeters, ammeters, etc, by the use of a variable resistance and a sim...
In the tutorial about Rectifiers, we saw that the DC output voltage being controlled by the rectifier is at a value below that of the mains input voltage. The Voltage Multiplier, however, is a special type of diode rectifier circuit which can potentially produce an output voltage...
The Optocoupler is an electronic component which can be used in many different applications as an interface between low voltage digital or control circuits and large power electronic devices. We know from our tutorials about Transformers that they can not only provide a step-dow...
