electronic sources and notes

sources:
superbrightleds.com
jameco.com
allelectronics.com  (surplus supplies)
digikey.com (the sears catalog of electronics)
mouser.com
sparkfun electronics

-order super bright (sometimes called ultra bright) LEDs
-order magnetic switches

Book: Electronics Formulas, Symbols, and Circuits (by Forrest Mims, published by Radioshack, available on Amazon.com)

Binary logic:
-Logical "AND" (&&): two switches in series
-Logical "OR" (||): two switches in parallel

Commom timer chip: 555 chip
microcontrollers in general:
     -little semicircular indent indicates top of chip
     -pins are numbered starting at upper left and continuing in a counter-clockwise direction

Book: Code by Charles Petzold

For those concerned with Radio Frequency Radiation, you may want to look at LessEMF.com, where you can get RF-blocking fabric and other such paraphernalia. Makes great paranoia curtains!

Types of wireless:
802.11 (wifi IP)
Bluetooth (close range, not very fast--meant to replace USB)
IR (infrared, not radio waves)
RFID (reader sends out enough radiation to power a non-powered tag to read its character string)
Zigbee (low power, supposedly simple data-- made for telemetry)

Wifi toy: Nabaztag
switch for up/down: tilt switch

Assignment:
-at least two sketches of toy concepts using wireless
-read (magnetic) switch toy (post two photos, narrative like last week)