Getting Started with Electronic Projects

Build thrilling and intricate electronic projects using LM555, ZigBee, and BeagleBone

About This Book

• Get acquainted with fundamental concepts such as tools and circuits required for the projects
• Develop stunning cost-effective projects and build your own range of designs including flashlights, beacons, motion alarms, and wireless network alarm sensors using the LM555 timer, ZigBee, and BeagleBone
• A practical guide to developing handy electronic projects with lots of tips, tricks, and screenshots

Who This Book Is For

This book is aimed at hobbyists with basic knowledge of electronics circuits. Whether you are a novice electronics project builder, a ham radio enthusiast, or a BeagleBone tinkerer, you will love this book.

What You Will Learn

• Build an infrared beacon with the LM555 timer for someone interested in night vision
• Develop a motion detector using a mercury switch-activated car alarm sensor
• Redesign your PC sound card into a real oscilloscope and signal generator
• Build an RF power meter with some RF assembly techniques and programming skills
• Write Visual Basic software that will poll the power meter we created for readings and calculate antenna gain
• Use several ZigBee devices and a BeagleBone to create a wireless network of alarm sensors

In Detail

With Getting Started with Electronic Projects, you will create several popular electronic security projects. This practical and accessible guide will show you more than just building handy and useful electronic security projects.

Beginning with what the hams call "DC to Daylight," you will learn how to build everything from an IR Beacon to an RF power meter and a ZigBee point-to-point network. All you need to get started is a few simple tools and ordinary soldering skills.

The projects eventually become more complex when you start building an infrared flashlight using materials from a dollar store. Here you start with a IR flashing beacon and a motion sensitive alarm with a really cool on/off switch, then you move on to a black box project that will turn your sound card into an oscilloscope and eventually a ZigBee-based alarm system.

Bill Pretty

Bill Pretty began his career in electronics in the early '80s with a small telecom start-up company that would eventually become a large multinational. He left that company to pursue a career in commercial aviation in Canada's north. From there, he joined the Ontario Center for Microelectronics, a provincially funded research and development center. After that, a career in the military as a civilian contractor at what was then called the Defense Research Establishment Ottawa. This began a career that was to span the next 25 years, and continues today. Over the years, he has acquired extensive knowledge in the field of technical security and started his own company in 2010. That company is called William Pretty Security Inc. and provides support, in the form of research and development, to various law enforcement and private security agencies. He has published and presented a number of white papers on the subject of technical security. He was also a guest presenter for a number of years at the Western Canada Technical Conference, a law enforcement-only conference held every year in western Canada. A selection of these papers is available for download from his website (http://www.williamprettysecurity.com/).