How should i start learning how to build an electronic oscillator?

[David lopez]

How should I start learning how to
Build an electronic oscillator? Any voltage will do. It drives a led. Target frequency I 1000 hertz.

 

[berkeman]

Step 1) Look up the datasheet for a CD4040 oscillator/divider IC.

Step 2) Use a 9V battery for the power supply (check the datasheet to be sure this is within the allowed power supply voltage for the CD4040

Setp 3) Use this tutorial web page to help you build and test the circuit...

http://www.bowdenshobbycircuits.info/page11.htm

 

[David lopez]

This is for beginners?

 

[berkeman]

Yeah, it's all low-frequency digital stuff. The only simpler thing would be to buy a kit and assemble it...

 

[berkeman]

BTW @David lopez -- You mentioned in another thread that you did not have access to an oscilloscope to help you work on the circuits you are building as you learn electronics. Here is a thread that discusses the options for inexpensive USB-based oscilloscopes. They have some limitations, but would probably work out well for what you are doing now:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/any-recommendations-for-a-good-cheap-usb-oscilloscope.936167/

 

[phyzguy]

Attached is a lab I used to teach about simple MOS circuits and oscillators. If you build the circuit described in Section 4 with the resistors and capacitors given, you can actually see it oscillating as the LEDs switch on and off. So you don't need an oscilloscope to build and analyze this circuit.

 

[berkeman]

Attached is a lab I used to teach about simple MOS circuits and oscillators

Which n-channel MOSFET did you use in the lab? Apologies if it's mentioned in the document and I missed it.

 

[LvW]

How should I start learning how to
Build an electronic oscillator? Any voltage will do. It drives a led. Target frequency I 1000 hertz.

David - there is a big difference between linear/harmonic oscillators (sinusoidal output) and squarewave generators ...what are you interested in?

 

[phyzguy]

Which n-channel MOSFET did you use in the lab? Apologies if it's mentioned in the document and I missed it.

Almost any small signal NMOSFET will work. The ones we used were ON Semiconductor 2N7000 transistors. They have a threshold voltage of about 1.0 V, and cost about 40 cents apiece. Attached is a datasheet. (it does say it in Section2, but it's easy to miss.)

 

[davenn]

. It drives a led. Target frequency I 1000 hertz.

why a LED ?
As I said in another of your threads, it ISNT going to give visible flashing

 

[phyzguy]

why a LED ?
As I said in another of your threads, it ISNT going to give visible flashing

The oscillator I described in Post #6 will give visible flashing, but only when it oscillates at a few Hz.

 

[sophiecentaur]

How should I start learning how to
Build an electronic oscillator? Any voltage will do. It drives a led. Target frequency I 1000 hertz.

Until you can afford to buy some proper test equipment, you will be unable to make much useful progress with this. There is no point in making circuits of which you cannot measure their performance.
There is always lots of second hand stuff on eBay, with cheap, used Analogue Oscilloscopes, oscillators and power supplies. There are many DMMs available that will give you more than just DC volts (depending on what you pay). You do not need to stretch to very high frequencies or to very low signal levels in order to get a working knowledge of Electronics.

 

[davenn]

The oscillator I described in Post #6 will give visible flashing, but only when it oscillates at a few Hz.

I wasn't referring to your post, note the quote
Yes, your cct will but none of the frequencies in the osc's the OP has so far referred to will
and that has been the ongoing problem with several of his threads

The OP, @David lopez, still hasn't understood what people have been trying to explain to him.
He is wanting to go up and up in frequency without understanding a low frequency oscillator
and to actually getting a LF one working ... even now he is suggesting a 2.4 gig oscillator Dave

 

[sophiecentaur]

. even now he is suggesting a 2.4 gig oscillator

I don't think the OP is treating Electronics in the right way.The saying about monkeys and typewriters applies very much to Electronics.

When it comes to learning Electronics it's a matter of more haste less speed.

The easiest two Electronics projects are the smoke-making machine and the 'does nothing' circuit. Without some measuring equipment, you can't even be sure that the 'does nothing' circuit is actually doing nothing. It could be interfering with your neighbours' equipment and you may have no idea about it.

 

[Tom.G]

How should I start learning...

Here is a place to start, they begin with the basics of transistors and how to use them. You may also find other good starting places in the rest of the thread.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-learning-more-about-them.942660/post-5976335
Cheers,
Tom

 

[darth boozer]

There are a number of unhelpful answers on here, there are also a number of helpful sites where you can learn at your own pace. An example I found is
https://www.electronicshub.org/tutorials/
Best wishes from someone basically self-taught long before the internet was even thought of!

 

[NascentOxygen]

You're wanting to flash a LED at 1000 Hz, powered by a 9V battery? Why not use a 555 chip? Plenty of circuits to copy, then tweak components to see how they change the result. It will be generating a rectangular waveform, not sinusoidal.

To see the strobing, and to compare ON duration with OFF duration, build everything compactly on one board, then in a darkened room hold the board in your extended arm and swing it vigorously in a wide arc, back and forth as fast as you can, and you'll he able to see the path traced out by the LED comprises lit and unlit portions. 1000 Hz is about the upper limit to see this, so I suggest that you design for around 100 Hz to start with, then once that is operating as desired, just change the R or C timing component(s) to produce your higher frequency.

 

[sophiecentaur]

hold the board in your extended arm and swing it vigorously

A mechanical oscilloscope. What a good idea,

 

[hutchphd]

A mechanical oscilloscope. What a good idea,

You've clearly never seen the lighted frisbees with button cells and pulsed LEDs on the rim. I even saw one with a stack of seven LEDs and a processor that would write messages when rotating a la times square in NYC ! Great ingenuity..

 

[bobob]

BTW @David lopez -- You mentioned in another thread that you did not have access to an oscilloscope to help you work on the circuits you are building as you learn electronics. Here is a thread that discusses the options for inexpensive USB-based oscilloscopes. They have some limitations, but would probably work out well for what you are doing now:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/any-recommendations-for-a-good-cheap-usb-oscilloscope.936167/

A fairly good USB scope that has a lot of other useful features is the Analog Discovery 2. The scopre is only good for about 10MHz, but it also has a protocol analyzer, spectrum analyzer, signal generator, power supplies and other things tht would be really expensive as separate self contained equipment. It runs about $300.00 but there is a student discount to the extent that it costs little more than the analog devices ADC built into it.

 

[sophiecentaur]

You've clearly never seen the lighted frisbees with button cells and pulsed LEDs on the rim. I even saw one with a stack of seven LEDs and a processor that would write messages when rotating a la times square in NYC ! Great ingenuity..

You're right. My grandkids have an aeroplane / scoot along toy and the prop rotates and the leds form a pattern. I believe you can get bike wheels that display words on them, too.
On second thoughts, it's more of a mechanical TV scan than an oscilloscope.

 

[Averagesupernova]

A mechanical oscilloscope. What a good idea,

Sweeping your eyes back and forth when following a vehicle with LED tail lights at night does the same thing. Quite irritating honestly. I have always wondered if it would be feasible to encode vehicle information onto the signal driving the tail lights on these vehicles. A device you point at the tail lights instantly tells you about the vehicle. Maybe some slight phase modulation could accomplish this.

 

[osilmag]

How should I start learning how to
Build an electronic oscillator? Any voltage will do. It drives a led. Target frequency I 1000 hertz.

A 555 timer is a cheap way to make an oscillator. The data sheet shows you how to set the frequency.

https://www.electroschematics.com/650/lm555-datasheet/

 

[hutchphd]

A 555 timer is a cheap way to make an oscillator. The data sheet shows you how to set the frequency.

https://www.electroschematics.com/650/lm555-datasheet/

Also the single most useful IC ever made IMHO. Buy a bunch from someplace cheap.