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.

Exertion Recipes

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

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.