Back after a break for holidays, the Technology Group resumed their electronics sessions. Richard bought along a very old (1950?) model railway controller for a safety check. We replaced the deteriorated rubber insulated mains cable with a nice modern one. and also made some improvements to the connections to the railway track. It was all… Read more

Although there were only 2 participants this time, they were both (relatively) new to the group, so it was a chance to review the material we have covered so far, and to share thoughts on some specific questions. Read more

This session was quite quiet, with only a few members attending. We did some PICAXE programming; revising previous material and learning a couple more blocks. We also collected together components that we will be using in future sessions. Read more

On this 5th session we concentrated on the practical skill of soldering components into a circuit board. Read more

In this 4th session of the electronics course we completed our investigation of the three fundamental properties of electrical components (resistance, capacitance and inductance). We turned our attention to domestic electrics with a look at how power comes into the house via the Consumer Unit. We also had an overview of domestic wiring.  We finished… Read more

On the third session of the Electronics course we started by demonstrating the microprocessor program that we couldn't complete last time. After a brief revision of resistors we went on to look further at capacitors, and their use in timing circuits. We briefly discussed power in AC circuits and the meaning of RMS measurements. We… Read more

On the second session of the Electronics course we looked in detail at resistors, including making our own variable resistor using a pencil 'lead'. We considered the meaning of Power, and made a hot-wire for cutting polystyrene; we couldn't resist (pun intended) winding up the current until the wire glowed red-hot. We then moved on… Read more

On this session we added Book Club 2 to the list of Interest Groups that have a SiteWorks Author. We also provided refresher training for one of our early adopters, who just wanted to come back for more! Read more

There were 5 members at the first session of the Electricity and Electronics course.  We worked through some of the basic concepts and had some fun playing with batteries, lamps, motors and switches.  We saw how a circuit diagram describes the connections between components.  We had a gentle introduction to some basic laws (Ohm and… Read more

Here is a document summarising our activities in 2024. Read more