The EE Cookbook

A delectable collection of just-add-suffering recipes!

Preface

The Double-E Cookbook is a collection of recipes for electronic 'black box' designs that achieve some sort of semi-modular end or goal. Electrical engineering is really unlike any other. Specific, specialized components that can not be made from scratch are indispensable for most designs and the function of a real circuit is invisible in a way that both mechanical creations and executing codes are not.

I seek a pragmatic way to record and use a small subset of all-available components to link the software I write and mechanical devices I build. Often my need is simple: cause a Raspberry Pi to turn a motor on with a 3.3V GPIO pin or read an analog light signal with an Arduino. The circuits to achieve this are often quite simple, but rely on effectively arbitrary off-the-shelf components that take time to source.

Each recipe in this 'cookbook' achieves some sort of simple goal like the above. It lists the components, provides a schematic or two, and leaves me a place to take notes on these designs so I don't end up doing the same engineering work every time I need to drive a stepper motor or pull serial data from a microphone.

Microcomputer Peripheral Recipes

These recipes have to do with extending the function of microcomputers (e.g. Raspberry Pi's) or micro-controllers (e.g. Arduino's) with peripherals, like driving motors, controlling appliances, or taking sensor data.

Sensory Recipes

Collecting data about the environment from from sensors.

Limit Switches

Perhaps the simplest of all sensors.

Exertion Recipes

Exerting a change on the outside world with motors, lights, etc.

Relay Motor Control

The cheapest way to control a large motor.

MOSFET Control

An inexpensive way to switch power.

Utility Recipes

These recipes fill in the blank spaces between designs. They tend to provide guides and parts for more abstract concepts like general board development or working with oscilloscopes.

DC Development

Parts and equipment.

Appendix A: Construction Notes

When creating icons for the recipes, use a 100px by 100px square base with 2px thick lines.

Appendix B: Credit and Resources

This github repository provides many of the schematic icons used for recipes.