Diodes

Diodes are components that allow current to flow in only one

direction. They have a positive side (leg) and a negative side. When the
voltage on the positive leg is higher than on the negative leg then current
flows through the diode (the resistance is very low). When the voltage is
lower on the positive leg than on the negative leg then the current does not
flow (the resistance is very high). The negative leg of a diode is the one with
the line closest to it. It is called the cathode. The postive end is called the
anode.

LED
Light Emitting Diodes are great for projects because they provide
visual entertainment. LEDs use a special material which emits light when
current flows through it. Unlike light bulbs, LEDs never burn out unless
their current limit is passed. A current of 0.02 Amps (20 mA) to 0.04 Amps
(40 mA) is a good range for LEDs. They have a positive leg and a negative
leg just like regular diodes. To find the positive side of an LED, look for a
line in the metal inside the LED. It may be difficult to see the line. This line
is closest to the positive side of the LED. Another way of finding the
positive side is to find a flat spot on the edge of the LED. This flat spot is on
the negative side.

When current is flowing through an LED the voltage on the positive

leg is about 1.4 volts higher than the voltage on the negative side.
Remember that there is no resistance to limit the current so a resistor must
be used in series with the LED to avoid destroying it.

Resistors
Resistors are components that have a predetermined resistance.
Resistance determines how much current will flow through a component.
Resistors are used to control voltages and currents. A very high resistance
allows very little current to flow. Air has very high resistance. Current
almost never flows through air. (Sparks and lightning are brief displays of
current flow through air. The light is created as the current burns parts of the
air.) A low resistance allows a large amount of current to flow. Metals have
very low resistance. That is why wires are made of metal. They allow
current to flow from one point to another point without any resistance. Wires
are usually covered with rubber or plastic. This keeps the wires from coming
in contact with other wires and creating short circuits. High voltage power
lines are covered with thick layers of plastic to make them safe, but they
become very dangerous when the line breaks and the wire is exposed and is
no longer separated from other things by insulation.

Resistance is given in units of ohms. (Ohms are named after Mho

Ohms who played with electricity as a young boy in Germany.) Common
resistor values are from 100 ohms to 100,000 ohms. Each resistor is marked
with colored stripes to indicate it’s resistance. To learn how to calculate the
value of a resistor by looking at the stripes on the resistor, go to Resistor
Values which includes more information about resistors.

Variable Resistors
Variable resistors are also common components. They have a dial or a
knob that allows you to change the resistance. This is very useful for many
situations. Volume controls are variable resistors. When you change the
volume you are changing the resistance which changes the current. Making
the resistance higher will let less current flow so the volume goes down.
Making the resistance lower will let more current flow so the volume goes
up. The value of a variable resistor is given as it’s highest resistance value.
For example, a 500 ohm variable resistor can have a resistance of anywhere
between 0 ohms and 500 ohms. A variable resistor may also be called a
potentiometer (pot for short).

Switches
Switches are devices that create a short circuit or an open circuit
depending on the position of the switch. For a light switch, ON means short
circuit (current flows through the switch, lights light up and people dance.)
When the switch is OFF, that means there is an open circuit (no current
flows, lights go out and people settle down. This effect on people is used by
some teachers to gain control of loud classes.)
When the switch is ON it looks and acts like a wire. When the switch is OFF
there is no connection.

Using a Bread Board

To build our projects, we will use a breadboard like the one shown below.

The bread board has many strips of metal (copper usually) which run
underneath the board. The metal strips are laid out as shown below.

These strips connect the holes on the top of the board. This makes it easy to
connect components together to build circuits. To use the bread board, the
legs of components are placed in the holes. The holes are made so that they
will hold the component in place. Each hole is connected to one of the metal
strips running underneath the hole.

Each strip forms a node. A node is a point in a circuit where two components
are connected. Connections between different components are formed by
putting their legs in a common node. On the bread board, a node is the row
of holes that are connected by the strip of metal underneath.

The long top and bottom row of holes are usually used for power supply
connections. The row with the blue strip beside it is used for the negative
voltage (usually ground) and the row with the red strip beside it is used for
the positive voltage.
The circuit is built by placing components and connecting them together
with jumper wires. Then when a path is formed from the positive supply
node to the negative supply node through wires and components, we can
turn on the power and current flows through the path and the circuit comes
alive.

A series connection of 2 resistors on a breadboard looks like the picture

below on the left and a parallel connection of 2 resistors looks like the
picture below on the right.

For chips with many legs (ICs), place them in the middle of the board
(across the middle dividing line) so that half of the legs are on one side of
the middle line and half are on the other side.

A completed circuit might look like the following. This circuit uses two
small breadboards.
Transistors and LEDs
Now we know enough that we can start to build circuits. But first we
will look a little closer at a component that was introduced in Section 1.2.

The LED

An LED is the device shown above. Besides red, they can also be
yellow, green and blue. The letters LED stand for Light Emitting Diode. If
you are unfamiliar with diodes, take a moment to review the components in
Basic Components, Section 1.2. The important thing to remember about
diodes (including LEDs) is that current can only flow in one direction.

To make an LED work, you need a voltage supply and a resistor. If

you try to use an LED without a resistor, you will probably burn out the
LED. The LED has very little resistance so large amounts of current will try
to flow through it unless you limit the current with a resistor. If you try to
use an LED without a power supply, you will be highly disappointed.

So first of all we will make our LED light up by setting up the circuit below.

Step 1.) First you have to find the positive leg of the LED. The easiest way
to do this is to look for the leg that is longer.

Step 2.) Once you know which side is positive, put the LED on your
breadboard so the positive leg is in one row and the negative leg is in
another row. (In the picture below the rows are vertical.)
Step 3.) Place one leg of a 2.2k ohm resistor (does not matter which leg) in
the same row as the negative leg of the LED. Then place the other leg of the
resistor in an empty row.

Step 4.) Unplug the power supply adapter from the power supply. Next, put
the ground (black wire) end of the power supply adapter in the sideways row
with the blue stripe beside it. Then put the positive (red wire) end of the
power supply adapter in the sideways row with the red stripe beside it.

Step 5.) Use a short jumper wire (use red since it will be connected to the
positive voltage) to go from the positive power row (the one with the red
stripe beside it) to the positive leg of the LED (not in the same hole, but in
the same row). Use another short jumper wire (use black) to go from the
ground row to the resistor (the leg that is not connected to the LED). Refer
to the picture below if necessary.

The breadboard should look like the picture shown below.

Now plug the power supply into the wall and then plug the other end into the
power supply adapter and the LED should light up. Current is flowing from
the positive leg of the LED through the LED to the negative leg. Try turning
the LED around. It should not light up. No current can flow from the
negative leg of the LED to the positive leg.

People often think that the resistor must come first in the path from
positive to negative, to limit the amount of current flowing through the LED.
But, the current is limited by the resistor no matter where the resistor is.
Even when you first turn on the power, the current will be limited to a
certain amount, and can be found using ohm’s law.
Revisiting Ohm's Law
Ohm's Law can be used with resistors to find the current flowing
through a circuit. The law is I = VD/R (where I = current, VD = voltage
across resistor, and R = resistance). For the circuit above we can only use
Ohm's law for the resistor so we must use the fact that when the LED is on,
there is a 1.4 voltage drop across it. This means that if the positive leg is
connected to 12 volts, the negative leg will be at 10.6 volts. Now we know
the voltage on both sides of the resistor and can use Ohm's law to calculate
the current. The current is (10.6 - 0) / 2200 = 0.0048 Amperes = 4.8 mA

This is the current flowing through the path from 12V to GND. This
means that 4.8 mA is flowing through the LED and the resistor. If we want
to change the current flowing through the LED (changing the brightness) we
can change the resistor. A smaller resistor will let more current flow and a
larger resistor will let less current flow. Be careful when using smaller
resistors because they will get hot.

Next, we want to be able to turn the LED on and off without changing
the circuit. To do this we will learn to use another electronic component, the
transistor.

The Transistor
Transistors are basic components in all of today's electronics. They are
just simple switches that we can use to turn things on and off. Even though
they are simple, they are the most important electrical component. For
example, transistors are almost the only components used to build a Pentium
processor. A single Pentium chip has about 3.5 million transistors. The ones
in the Pentium are smaller than the ones we will use but they work the same
way.

Transistors that we will use in projects look like this:

 The transistor has three legs, the Collector (C), Base (B), and Emitter
(E). Sometimes they are labeled on the flat side of the transistor. Transistors
always have one round side and one flat side. If the round side is facing you,
the Collector leg is on the left, the Base leg is in the middle, and the Emitter
leg is on the right.

Transistor Symbol
The following symbol is used in circuit drawings (schematics) to
represent a transistor.

Basic Circuit
The Base (B) is the On/Off switch for the transistor. If a current is
flowing to the Base, there will be a path from the Collector (C) to the
Emitter (E) where current can flow (The Switch is On.) If there is no current
flowing to the Base, then no current can flow from the Collector to the
Emitter. (The Switch is Off.)

Below is the basic circuit we will use for all of our transistors.

To build this circuit we only need to add the transistor and another resistor to
the circuit we built above for the LED. Unplug the power supply from the
power supply adapter before making any changes on the breadboard. To put
the transistor in the breadboard, seperate the legs slightly and place it on the
breadboard so each leg is in a different row. The collector leg should be in
the same row as the leg of the resistor that is connected to ground (with the
black jumper wire). Next move the jumper wire going from ground to the
2.2k ohm resistor to the Emitter of the transistor.

Next place one leg of the 100k ohm resistor in the row with the Base
of the transistor and the other leg in an empty row and your breadboard
should look like the picture below.

Now put one end of a yellow jumper wire in the positive row (beside
the red line) and the other end in the row with the leg of the 100k ohm
resistor (the end not connected to the Base). Reconnect the power supply and
the transistor will come on and the LED will light up. Now move the one
end of the yellow jumper wire from the positive row to the ground row
(beside the blue line). As soon as you remove the yellow jumper wire from
the positive power supply, there is no current flowing to the base. This
makes the transistor turn off and current can not flow through the LED. As
we will see later, there is very little current flowing through the 100k
resistor. This is very important because it means we can control a large
current in one part of the circuit (the current flowing through the LED) with
only a small current from the input.
Back to Ohm's Law
We want to use Ohm's law to find the current in the path from the
Input to the Base of the transistor and the current flowing through the LED.
To do this we need to use two basic facts about the transistor.

1.) If the transistor is on, then the Base voltage is 0.6 volts higher than
the Emitter voltage.

2.) If the transistor is on, the Collector voltage is 0.2 volts higher than
the Emitter voltage.

So when the 100k resistor is connected to 12VDC, the circuit will

look like this:

So the current flowing through the 100k resistor is (12 - 0.6) / 100000 =
0.000114 A = 0.114 mA.

The current flowing through the 2.2k ohm resistor is (10.6 - 0.2) / 2200 =
0.0047 A = 4.7 mA.

If we want more current flowing through the LED, we can use a

smaller resistor (instead of 2200) and we will get more current through the
LED without changing the amount of current that comes from the Input line.
This means we can control things that use a lot of power (like electric
motors) with cheap, low power circuits. Soon you will learn how to use a
microcontroller (a simple computer). Even though the microcontroller can
not supply enough current to turn lights and motors on and off, the
microcontroller can turn transistors on and off and the transistors can control
lots of current for lights and motors.
For Ohm’s law, also remember that when the transistor is off, no current
flows through the transistor.

Introduction to Digital Devices - The Inverter

In digital devices there are only two values, usually referred to as 0
and 1. 1 means there is a voltage (usually 5 volts) and 0 means the voltage is
0 volts.

An inverter (also called a NOT gate) is a basic digital device found in

all modern electronics. So for an inverter, as the name suggests, it's output is
the opposite of the input (Output is NOT the Input). If the input is 0 then the
output is 1 and if the input is 1 then the output is 0. We can summarize the
operation of this device in a table.

Input Output

1 0

0 1

To help us practice with transistors we will build an inverter. Actually

we have already built an inverter. The transistor circuit we just built is an
inverter circuit. To help see the inverter working, we will build a circuit with
two inverters. The circuit we will use is shown below.

First Inverter (already built)

Second Inverter
 To build the circuit, use the transistor circuit we just built as the first
inverter. The first inverter input is the end of the 100k ohm resistor
connected to the yellow jumper wire. Build another circuit identical to the
first (the basic transistor circuit from Section 1.6.1) except leave out the
yellow jumper wire connected to the 100k ohm resistor (the inverter input).
This circuit is the second inverter.

Connect the output of the first inverter to the input of the second
inverter by putting one end of a jumper wire in the same row of holes as the
2.2k ohm resistor and the Collector of the transistor (the output of the first
inverter) and putting the other end in the same row of holes as the leg of the
100k ohm resistor of the second inverter (the input to the second inverter).

Here is how to check if you built it correctly. Connect the first inverter
input (the yellow jumper wire) to 12V (the positive row). The LED in the
first inverter should come on and the LED in the second inverter should stay
off. Then connect the first inverter input to 0V (the ground row). (You are
turning off the switch of the first inverter.) The first LED should go off and
the second LED should come on. If this does not happen, check to make sure
no metal parts are touching. Check to make sure all the parts are connected
correctly.

The input can either be connected to 12V or 0V. When the Inverter
Input is 12V, the transistor in the first inverter will turn on and the LED will
come on and the Inverter Output voltage will be 0.2V. The first Inverter
Output is connected to the input of the second inverter. The 0.2V at the input
of the second inverter is small enough that the second transistor is turned off.
The circuit voltages are shown in the diagram below.

When the Inverter Input is connected to 0V, the transistor in the first
inverter is turned off and the LED will get very dim. There is a small amount
of current still flowing through the LED to the second inverter. The voltage
at the first Inverter Output will go up, forcing the second inverter transistor
to come on. When the second inverter transistor comes on, the second
inverter LED will come on. To find the voltage at the output of the first
inverter (10.4V), use Ohm's law. There is no current flowing through the
transistor in the first inverter so the path of the current is through the first
LED, through the 2.2k resistor, through the 100k resistor, through the second
transistor to ground. The voltage at the negative side of the first LED is fixed
at 10.6V by the LED. The voltage at the second transistor base is fixed at
0.6V by the transistor. Then given those two voltages, you should be able to
find the voltage at the point in the middle (10.4V) using Ohm’s law. (Hint:
First find the current and then work through Form 1 of ohm’s law to find the
voltage at the point between the 2.2k resistor and the 100k resistor.)

Switch the input back and forth from 0V to 12V and you can see that
when the first stage is on, the second stage is off. This demonstrates the
inverting action of the Inverter.

Oscillators, Pulse Generators, Clocks... Capacitors and

the 555 Timer IC

Introduction

As electronic designs get bigger, it becomes difficult to build the

complete circuit. So we will use prebuilt circuits that come in packages like
the one shown above. This prebuilt circuit is called an IC. IC stands for
Integrated Circuit. An IC has many transistors inside it that are connected
together to form a circuit. Metal pins are connected to the circuit and the
circuit is stuck into a piece of plastic or ceramic so that the metal pins are
sticking out of the side. These pins allow you to connect other devices to the
circuit inside. We can buy simple ICs that have several inverter circuits like
the one we built in the LED and Transistor section or we can buy complex
ICs like a Pentium Processor.

The Pulse - More than just an on/off switch

So far the circuits we have built have been stable, meaning that the
output voltage stays the same. If you change the input voltage, the output
voltage changes and once it changes it will stay at the same voltage level.
The 555 integrated circuit (IC) is designed so that when the input changes,
the output goes from 0 volts to Vcc (where Vcc is the voltage of the power
supply). Then the output stays at Vcc for a certain length of time and then it
goes back to 0 volts. This is a pulse. A graph of the output voltage is shown
below.

The Oscillator (A Clock) - More than just a Pulse

The pulse is nice but it only happens one time. If you want something that
does something interesting forever rather than just once, you need an
oscillator. An oscillator puts out an endless series of pulses. The output
constantly goes from 0 volts to Vcc and back to 0 volts again. Almost all
digital circuits have some type of oscillator. This stream of output pulses is
often called a clock. You can count the number of pulses to tell how much
time has gone by. We will see how the 555 timer can be used to generate this
clock. A graph of a clock signal is shown below.
The Capacitor

The picture above on the left shows two typical capacitors. Capacitors
usually have two legs. One leg is the positive leg and the other is the
negative leg. The positive leg is the one that is longer. The picture on the
right is the symbol used for capacitors in circuit drawings (schematics).
When you put one in a circuit, you must make sure the positive leg and the
negative leg go in the right place. Capacitors do not always have a positive
leg and a negative leg. The smallest capacitors in this kit do not. It does not
matter which way you put them in a circuit.

A capacitor is similar to a rechargable battery in the way it works. The

difference is that a capacitor can only hold a small fraction of the energy that
a battery can. (Except for really big capacitors like the ones found in old
TVs. These can hold a lot of charge. Even if a TV has been disconnected
from the wall for a long time, these capacitors can still make lots of sparks
and hurt people.) As with a rechargable battery, it takes a while for the
capacitor to charge. So if we have a 12 volt supply and start charging the
capacitor, it will start with 0 volts and go from 0 volts to 12 volts. Below is a
graph of the voltage in the capacitor while it is charging.
 The same idea is true when the capacitor is discharging. If the
capacitor has been charged to 12 volts and then we connect both legs to
ground, the capacitor will start discharging but it will take some time for the
voltage to go to 0 volts. Below is a graph of what the voltage is in the
capacitor while it is discharging.

We can control the speed of the capacitor's charging and discharging using
resistors.

Capacitors are given values based on how much electricity they can
store. Larger capacitors can store more energy and take more time to charge
and discharge. The values are given in Farads but a Farad is a really large
unit of measure for common capacitors. In this kit we have 2 33pf
capacitors, 2 10uf capacitors and 2 220uF capacitors. Pf means picofarad
and uf means microfarad. A picofarad is 0.000000000001 Farads. So the
33pf capacitor has a value of 33 picofarads or 0.000000000033 Farads. A
microfarad is 0.000001 Farads. So the 10uf capacitor is 0.00001 Farads and
the 220uF capacitor is 0.000220 Farads. If you do any calculations using the
value of the capacitor you have to use the Farad value rather than the
picofarad or microfarad value.

Capacitors are also rated by the maximum voltage they can take. This
value is always written on the larger can shaped capacitors. For example, the
220uF capacitors in this kit have a maximum voltage rating of 25 volts. If
you apply more than 25 volts to them they will die. We don’t have to worry
about that with this kit because our power supply can only put out 12 volts.

The 555 Timer

Creating a Pulse

The 555 is made out of simple transistors that are about the same as
on / off switches. They do not have any sense of time. When you apply a
voltage they turn on and when you take away the voltage they turn off. So
by itself, the 555 can not create a pulse. The way the pulse is created is by
using some components in a circuit attached to the 555 (see the circuit
below). This circuit is made of a capacitor and a resistor. We can flip a
switch and start charging the capacitor. The resistor is used to control how
fast the capacitor charges. The bigger the resistance, the longer it takes to
charge the capacitor. The voltage in the capacitor can then be used as an
input to another switch. Since the voltage starts at 0, nothing happens to the
second switch. But eventually the capacitor will charge up to some point
where the second switch comes on.

The way the 555 timer works is that when you flip the first switch, the
Output pin goes to Vcc (the positive power supply voltage) and starts
charging the capacitor. When the capacitor voltage gets to 2/3 Vcc (that is
Vcc * 2/3) the second switch turns on which makes the output go to 0 volts.

The pinout for the 555 timer is shown below

Deep Details

Pin 2 (Trigger) is the 'on' switch for the pulse. The line over the word Trigger
tells us that the voltage levels are the opposite of what you would normally
expect. To turn the switch on you apply 0 volts to pin 2. The technical term
for this opposite behavior is 'Active Low'. It is common to see this 'Active
Low' behavior for IC inputs because of the inverting nature of transistor
circuits like we saw in the LED and Transistor Tutorial.

Pin 6 is the off switch for the pulse. We connect the positive side of the
capacitor to this pin and the negative side of the capacitor to ground. When
Pin 2 (Trigger) is at Vcc, the 555 holds Pin 7 at 0 volts (Note the inverted
voltage). When Pin 2 goes to 0 volts, the 555 stops holding Pin 7 at 0 volts.
Then the capacitor starts charging. The capacitor is charged through a
resistor connected to Vcc. The current starts flowing into the capacitor, and
the voltage in the capacitor starts to increase.

Pin 3 is the output (where the actual pulse comes out). The voltage on this
pin starts at 0 volts. When 0 volts is applied to the trigger (Pin 2), the 555
puts out Vcc on Pin 3 and holds it at Vcc until Pin 6 reaches 2/3 of Vcc (that
is Vcc * 2/3). Then the 555 pulls the voltage at Pin 3 to ground and you have
created a pulse. (Again notice the inverting action.) The voltage on Pin 7 is
also pulled to ground, connecting the capacitor to ground and discharging it.

Seeing the pulse

To see the pulse we will use an LED connected to the 555 output, Pin 3.
When the output is 0 volts the LED will be off. When the output is Vcc the
LED will be on.

Building the Circuit

Place the 555 across the middle line of the breadboard so that 4 pins are on
one side and 4 pins are on the other side. (You may need to bend the pins in
a little so they will go in the holes.) Leave the power disconnected until you
finish building the circuit. The diagram above shows how the pins on the
555 are numbered. You can find pin 1 by looking for the half circle in the
end of the chip. Sometimes instead of a half circle, there will be a dot or
shallow hole by pin 1.

Before you start building the circuit, use jumper wires to connect the
red and blue power rows to the red and blue power rows on the other side of
the board. Then you will be able to easily reach Vcc and Ground lines from
both sides of the board. (If the wires are too short, use two wires joined
together in a row of holes for the positive power (Vcc) and two wires joined
together in a different row of holes for the ground.)

Connect Pin 1 to ground.

Connect Pin 8 to Vcc.

Connect Pin 4 to Vcc.

Connect the positive leg of the LED to a 330 ohm resistor and connect the
negative end of the LED to ground. Connect the other leg of the 330 ohm
resistor to the output, Pin 3.

Connect Pin 7 to Vcc with a 10k resistor (RA = 10K).

Connect Pin 7 to Pin 6 with a jumper wire.

Connect Pin 6 to the positive leg of the 220uF Capacitor (C = 220uF). (You
will need to bend the positive (long leg) up and out some so that the negative
leg can go in the breadboard.

Connect the negative leg of the capacitor to ground.

Connect a wire to Pin 2 to use as the trigger. Start with Pin 2 connected to
Vcc.

Now connect the power. The LED will come on and stay on for about 2
seconds. Remove the wire connected to Pin 2 from Vcc. You should be able
to trigger the 555 again by touching the wire connected to pin 2 with your
finger or by connecting it to ground and removing it. (It should be about a 2
second pulse.)

Making it Oscillate

Next we will make the LED flash continually without having to

trigger it. We will hook up the 555 so that it triggers itself. The way this
works is that we add in a resistor between the capacitor and the discharge
pin, Pin 7. Now, the capacitor will charge up (through RA and RB) and when
it reaches 2/3 Vcc, Pin 3 and Pin 7 will go to ground. But the capacitor can
not discharge immediately because of RB. It takes some time for the charge
to drain through RB. The more resistance RB has, the longer it takes to
discharge. The time it takes to discharge the capacitor will be the time the
LED is off.

To trigger the 555 again, we connect Pin 6 to the trigger (Pin 2). As
the capacitor is discharging, the voltage in the capacitor gets lower and
lower. When it gets down to 1/3 Vcc this triggers Pin 2 causing Pin 3 to go
to Vcc and the LED to come on. The 555 disconnects Pin 7 from ground,
and the capacitor starts to charge up again through RA and RB.

To build this circuit from the previous circuit, do the following.

Disconnect the power.

Take out the jumper wire between Pin 6 and Pin 7 and replace it with a 2.2k
resistor (RB = 2.2K).
Use the jumper wire at pin 2 to connect Pin 2 to Pin 6.

Now reconnect the power and the LED should flash forever (as long as you
pay your electricity bill).

Experiment with different resistor values of RA and RB to see how it changes

the length of time that the LED flashes. (You are changing the amount of
time that it takes for the Capacitor to charge and discharge.)

Formulas

These are the formulas we use for the 555 to control the length of the pulses.

t1 = charge time (how long the LED is on) = 0.693 * (RA + RB) * C

t2 = discharge time (how long the LED is off) = 0.693 * RB * C

T = period = t1 + t2 = 0.693 * (RA + 2*RB) * C

Frequency = 1 / T = 1.44 / ((RA + 2 * RB) * C)

t1 and t2 are the time in seconds. C is the capacitor value in Farads. 220uF =
0.000220 F. So for our circuit we have:

t1 = 0.693 * (10000 + 2200) * 0.000220 = 1.86 seconds

t2 = 0.693 * 2200 * 0.000220 = 0.335 seconds

T = 1.86 + 0.335 = 2.195 seconds

Frequency = 0.456 (cycles per second)

Building a 5 Volt Power Supply
Most digital logic circuits and processors need a 5 volt power supply.
To use these parts we need to build a regulated 5 volt source. Usually you
start with an unregulated power supply ranging from 9 volts to 24 volts DC.
To make a 5 volt power supply, we use a LM7805 voltage regulator IC
(Integrated Circuit). The IC is shown below.

The LM7805 is simple to use. You simply connect the positive lead of your
unregulated DC power supply (anything from 9VDC to 24VDC) to the Input
pin, connect the negative lead to the Ground pin and then when you turn on
the power, you get a 5 volt supply from the Output pin. This 5 volt output
will be used as Vcc in the following projects.

Connect the red wire from the power supply adapter to the input of the 7805.
Connect the black wire from the power supply adapter to the ground row
(with the blue line beside it). Run a black jumper wire from the ground row
to the ground of the 7805. Then use a yellow jumper to connect the 5 volt
output to the row of holes with the red stripe beside it. The breadboarded
circuit is shown below.
Sometimes the input supply line (the 12VDC above) may be noisy. To help
smooth out this noise and get a better 5 volt output, a capacitor is usually
added to the circuit, going between the input and ground (GND). Find the
220 uF capacitor and put the long leg (positive leg) in the row of holes with
the 12VDC line and put the short leg (negative leg) in ground (the row of
holes next to the blue line).