Learning Electronics from a Clock Radio

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Do you remember we took apart a couple of telephones a bit back?  Well, last week we started to dismantle a clock radio. Wow.. it was just so very interesting do to this, a great hands on way to learning electronics. 

We only had the one clock radio, so we shared our discoveries with each other.  Join us in learning electronics from a clock radio, won’t you?

Okay, so this is what we did.  We took this clock radio and figured out how to take off the outside of it (basically just needed to undo some screws).

Once we got the cover off we took a really good look at the internal parts.   

We took what we learned from the telephone and found the resistors, diodes and capacitors.   We also found some… wire coil things we needed to look up.  Learned they were inductors.  And we found a transformer too!  OH!  and I mustn’t forget the really thin copper wire wrap!  We couldn’t figure out how to detach it so are saving that for another day. 

OH, that thing with the ON-tech on it?  I looked up that number and learned it was a transformer.  The lad figured how to get it out of its’ housing.  It’s gone into our keep pile.

Digital Display

He was very intrigued by the digital display and managed to get it out of the clock radio.   Unfortunately he was unable to get it to work.  He wants to see if Dad can help him get it working as he has plans for it it he can!

Even though he couldn’t get the digital readout to work, he did check out what capacitors, diodes and resistors do.  It was actually quite fascinating.    Here is the capacitor one that he did.  It’s not the best, but I tried.

Oh I should tell you what he used to test the components out.  He has a battery pack with a black and red wire.  He also has some resistors (I think) and he would simply connect the component he was testing to the wires and see what happened.   No chance to electrocute himself or his mother.  🙂  The idea made him laugh though, and then he explained his reasoning really well and all was good. 

In our Remaining Time:

What else did we have time for…. OH, it was a tough job but I managed to get the speaker unattached from the plastic housing.  WOW.. it was stuck on with some rather tough glue.   To get it off it took the two of use to pry a screwdriver underneath and break a clip.  Then it was just a matter of brawn over glue. 🙂

See!   We did get the motherboard (I think that’s what you call it) out of the plastic housing.   The lad and I clipped out a d1 and d2, three resistors, and two capacitors.   We hoped to get to the diodes but ran out of time.   

The lower the resistor the brighter it made the led bulb.  The capacitors made it gradually brighter and the d1 and d2 only worked in one direction. 

That’s all we managed this past Friday, check out our resources eh?  Maybe you’ll learn a bit more like we did!  🙂

Resources

We used these sites: 

Role of a capacitor.

List of electronic components.

As well as our book: 

I’m going to check if my library has these books, or at least books like them.