RESISTANCES IN A CIRCUIT

INTRODUCTION
In the 21st century, electronics in the form of circuits can be found in every nook and corner of the
world. From a device as simple as a fan, to complex space probes circuits have taken a trivial part of our
lives, and this project is a the beginning step towards developing skills necessary for robotics, useful in
the modern world. It consists of LED’s that are connected to a combination of resistors, combined in
series as well as parallel and then connected to a battery.

MATERIALS REQUIRED
This project requires:

 Circuit Board X 1
 LED X 2
 Resistor 100 Ω X 2
 Resistor 47 Ω X 6
 Switch X 1
 9V Battery X 1
 Wire X 0.5m
 Soldering iron X 1
 Solder X 1 spool
 Flux Paste X 1 box

GETTING STARTED

The first step in this project would be to find how much resistance we will need in the circuit to keep the
LED from getting damaged. To do this we would use Ohm’s Law, using the formula V= I x R. To get
the V in our formula, we need to know two things: the voltage of our power supply, and the voltage of
our LEDs.

Let’s start with a concrete example. Suppose that we are using a 2 × AA battery holder (like this
one from our shop), which will provide us with a 3 V of power (with two 1.5 V AA cells in series; we add
the voltages), and we’ll plan to hook up a yellow LED (like one of these).

LEDs have a characteristic called “forward voltage” which is often shown on the datasheets as Vf. This
forward voltage is the amount of voltage “lost” in the LED when operated at a certain reference current,
usually defined to be about 20 milliamps (mA), i.e., 0.020 amps (A). Vf depends primarily on the color
of the LED, but actually varies a bit from LED to LED, sometimes even within the same bag of LEDs.
Standard red, orange, yellow and yellow-green LEDs have a Vf of about 1.8 V, while pure-green, blue,
white, and UV LEDs have a Vf of about 3.3 V. So, the voltage drop from our blue LED will be about 3.3 V.
The V in our formula is found by subtracting the LED’s forward voltage from the voltage of the power
supply.
 RESISTANCES IN A CIRCUIT
9 V (power source) – 3.3V (LED voltage drop) = 5.7 V
In this case, we’re left with 5.7 V which we’ll plug into our V = I × R formula.
The next thing we need to know is the I, which is current we want to drive the LED at. LEDs have a
maximum continuous current rating (often listed as If, or Imax on datasheets). This is often around 25 or
30 mA. What this really means is that a typical current value to aim for with a standard LED is 20 mA to
30 mA—slightly under the maximum current. So, 30 mA is the “desired” current— what we’re hoping to
get when we pick a resistor, and also the I that we’ll plug into our V = I × R formula.
15.7 V = 30 mA × R
or rephrased:
5.7 V / 30 mA = R
and when we solve that we get:
228 Ω or 200 Ω (approx.)

CHOOSING THE RESISTORS

Let’s look at resistor values for a moment. Resistors are usually available in values such as 10 Ω, 12 Ω,
15 Ω, 18 Ω, 22 Ω, 27 Ω, 33 Ω, 39 Ω, 47 Ω, 51 Ω, 56 Ω, 68 Ω, 75 Ω, 82 Ω and 100 Ω (and their multiples,
510 Ω, 5.1K Ω, 51K Ω, etc.), and (unless you specify higher precision while shopping) have a tolerance
value of about ±5%. Let us decide that we want to connect the resistors in series first, therefore an ideal
combination would be 2 resistors of 100 Ω each. We can find resistors of 100 Ω by colour coding and
referring to table 1.
 RESISTANCES IN A CIRCUIT

Table 1

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
The circuit diagram is as follows:-

It is clear from the circuit diagram, that R1 & R2 are in series, whereas R3 and R4 are in parallel, R5 and
R6 are also in parallel and are so are R7 and R8. Then these 3 sets of resistors are connected in series.
This is done to ensure that resistance is not too less and it keeps the LED safe from burning up.

JOINING THE COMPONENTS

We will now join the components as per the circuit diagram, by the process of soldering. In this an alloy
of tin and lead with a low melting point is plated over the pin of a component to secure the joint as well
as well as having an electrical connection.