1. PIGGYAXE & PIGLETS Simple, affordable ELECTRONICS that works.........and a NEW way of teaching with the PICAXE family of microcontrollers....... suitable for absolute beginners............up to and beyond A level By Gareth Evans (c) 2012 g4xat@ntlworld.comg4xat@ntlworld.com

2. Cheap as chips...........functional circuits to get you going in electronics! Above, AA battery box capable Joule Thief Above, steady hand testers, below, 6 LED random flasher using 40106. Above, flashing LEDs for starters...... In memory of Hans Camenzind, who died recently aged 78, the designer of the 555.

3. You don’t need a PIC for everything, timer from 1 to 60 minutes, activity indicator, bleeping buzzer and time-up LED. Actually good for teaching AS Electronics too! Schematics and PCBs drawn in Designspark, free from R.S.

4. Designspark 3-D visualisation – excellent! And now Designspark Mechanical – also FREE

5. The ‘Picaxe’ family has been around for a long time now, but the offerings for teachers/pupils are all, I feel, a bit remote from the chalk face and need a lot of background knowledge to get them going in a school situation. The ‘PIGGYAXE’ motherboards and attendant ‘piglet’ daughter-boards are the basis of a whole family of projects, offering an excellent blend of functionality with simplicity – ALL of it backed up on the www with diagrams, instructions and ready to use code. Use ‘as-is’ or write your own code, the sky is, very nearly, the limit. A ruggedized motherboard with reverse protection diode, smoothing capacitor and download socket & resistors – all 5 Inputs & Outputs are available at the end, along with +Ve and 0v. And it’s S M A L L !

6. The most flexible daughterboard is probably the RGB Multi-board – it does a LOT!. Board mounted potentiometer feeding A/D with 3 PIC outputs, (e.g. R.G.B.), with digital input for push button, PIR, piezo trigger etc. Its also possible to add an LDR or Thermistor but for ultimate accuracy, the Dallas DS18B20, -50 to +125 C! The board does all this and can be cut apart to remote mount the actual LEDs which can be replaced by a single RGB common cathode unit.

7. The ‘PIGGYAXE’ system under development..... A Tap-Tap controlled anything....in this case R, G, B & W Hyper-bright LEDs Works as ‘coin-drop’ sensor triggered software – adaptable to any input. 5 Volt zener across the piezo pins, no series resistor, straight to PIC Year 9 TAP controlled R-G-B-W desk light

8. VERSATILE!

9. Infra-red receiver (Sony code) board, with 4 12 volt 600 mA driver outputs, ideal for driving LED tapes. Control is also possible from a potentiometer with the loss of channel 4 as an output. And below, a matching 4 channel IR transmitter, that FITS in a 3 or 4 AA battery box, which provides an on/off switch, software uses the built-in pull-up resistor capability of the 08M2. A rugged case with product design possibilities....just add Polymorph or Milliput. Powerful!

10. Multitask!

11. 14M2 up to 8 power drivers + Binary timer!