Tag: TEJ2O

Website Review Guidelines

Your web page must be educational and include specific, appropriate content related to the provided topic. It must not be a page that only includes links to other websites.

You should not write your review until it has been approved by the instructor as being relevant and unique (i.e. not already chosen by another student). To get the website approved, fill in this form and see your instructor ASAP.  [teacher link]

Submission Form


[Teacher Link]

Review Format

After the website has been approved, write the review using this format:

Title
URL

Intro paragraph — “I chose this website because…” (or similar)

Review paragraphs, for each of the four categories shown below.

Ratings, as shown below.

Use the following rating system for the review, giving the website of 1-5 (in asterisks) for the categories shown:

Educational: *****
Organization: *****
Suitability: *****
Aesthetics: *****

…as well as an Overall rating from 1-5.

To submit your review, you will be given a link to a Google Document where you can write your review.

Example Review

DC Circuits
http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/ohm/Q.ohm.html

I chose this website because it had content that looked like it closely matched what we were learning in class.

Educational: This site has a lot of useful information such as Ohm’s Law and basic schematic diagrams but it doesn’t take the time to make the concepts clear for the reader (important if you’re new to electronics like me). I would have appreciated more applied explanations of the topics before just leaping in like they did.

Organization: A side navigation bar would be greatly beneficial to this website. I found it troublesome to have to go to the bottom of every page to choose my destination. The provided links do the job though (i.e. Back, Next, Return to Main…)

Suitability: This site is fairly suitable for our class as it touches on similar electronics-related topics, however I would not recommend it as a resource simply because there is much clearer, well laid-out information available on other sites on the web.

Aesthetics: This site has a very uninteresting look to it. It makes it easy to read, but does not grab your attention or interest.

Ratings:

Educational: **
Organization: ***
Suitability: ***
Aesthetics: *

Overall: ***

Marking Method

10% will be deducted if there is no title.

Up to 10% will be deducted for each grammar or spelling error that has to be fixed.

Up to 10% will be deducted for each category of the rating system that is not mentioned in the review (which is impossible to do if you follow the guidelines!).

20% will be deducted if there is no rating.

Things Not To Say in Your Review

“This website contains a large amount of information on it.” (Be specific about content.)
“All I can say is Wow. After finding many sites that didn’t do jack for me I found a great site. I found it hard to believe that this site is hosted on a Geocities account.” (A lot of words without saying anything specific about the site.)
“This website is jam packed full of goodies.” (What kind of goodies? Be specific about content.)
“This site is very nice.” (Says nothing about the site.)

Five Steps in Solving Ohm’s Law Problems

    1. Identify the Variables
    2. Write Down the Formula
    3. Substitute the Variables
    4. Solve
    5. Don’t Forget Units!

    Example Problem

    Determine the resistance of a lamp drawing 250 mA at 200 V.

    Example Solution

     I  = 250 mA = 0.25 A
    V  = 200 V
    R  = ?
    R  = V / I
     = 200 / 0.25
     = 800 Ω

Chrome Sign In

For students having trouble signing into Chrome with their DSBN account, enter this address directly into the Chrome address bar and you should be able to sign in properly:

chrome://chrome-signin

Why sign into Chrome?

It will sync your bookmarks and Chrome extensions so wherever you are logged into Chrome (other classes, at home, on your laptop) everything will be sync’d.

Computer Hardware Safety Rules

Credit: https://pixabay.com/p-624558/?no_redirect

When installing/removing computer hardware and other peripherals:

  • Wear proper apparel. Avoid acrylic or wool sweaters when working with electronic parts. Do not wear loose fitting clothing, rings, bracelets etc.
  • Unplug all computer equipment and peripherals before opening any covering cases.
  • Keep your work area clean and well lit.
  • Check for damaged parts.
  • Do not force components into computer ports.
  • Use an anti-static wrist strap or discharge yourself by touching a grounded metal object such as a computer casing.
  • Power supplies produce several levels of voltage. Read the information on the power supply carefully and make sure that the power supply you are using is appropriate for the application.
  • Replace all cases or coverings after inspections or installations.
  • Check all circuits and installations with the instructor before power is applied.
  • Retain all screws during disassembly in containers such as film canisters for proper reassembly.
  • Electronic components should never become hot. Hot components means that there is a problem with the circuit. Disconnect any power immediately.

The most important safety rule of all: Always Be Careful! (ABC)

(from ICE4M Supplemental Profile Unit 1, Appendix 1.1.1)

(image from https://pixabay.com/p-624558/?no_redirect)

Resistor Colour Code

Color Digit value Multiplier Multiplied Out Tolerance
Black 0 100 1
Brown 1 101 10
Red 2 102 100
Orange 3 103 1,000
Yellow 4 104 10000
Green 5 105 100,000
Blue 6 106 1,000,000
Violet 7 107 10,000,000
Gray 8 108 100,000,000
White 9 109 1,000,000,000
Gold ±5%
Silver ±10%

See also http://www.eeweb.com/toolbox/4-band-resistor-calculator for an online resistance calculator.

Arduino PWM Activities

LED Dimmer

Using the Arduino reference page as a starting point, research the basics of how to use pulse width modulation (PWM) on the Arduinos.

For this activity, you will wire up a potentiometer so it controls the brightness of an LED.

Refer to the Arduino Potentiometer Activities page for further instructions.

Light Sensor

This activity is simply adapted from the LED Dimmer activity, but you will be using the light sensor in place of the potentiometer.

Note that the light sensor input will have to be “scaled” so that when the sensor is covered (dark) the LED will fully lit and when it is uncovered the LED is fully off.