Components in miniTesla: build electronics and more

Each board has an LED and an 820-Ohm resistor in series to protect the LED from over-currents. The color of the board reflects the color of the LED for quick identification. An LED symbol is printed on the front and back to identify the orientation of the LED. You will get two blue LEDs and two white LEDs.

We are providing these merely for convenience. Regular LEDs with leads can be used with miniTesla without any alterations. However, these LED boards allow a more compact and neater build when LEDs are needed.

This is an incremental rotary encoder with a push button. It includes a plastic knob. Pressing on the knob activates a momentary switch. Rotating the knob creates the gray code signals at the outputs A, B, and C that allow you to determine the direction of the rotation as well as how far it has been turned.

These encoders are great for selecting among various possibilities. For example, they are often used to navigate through a multilevel menu. Rotating the knob moves you up and down a list of menu items, and pressing the knob selects the item and moves you one level lower in the menu.

This rotary switch connects a common (COM) pin with one out of 9 pins. This is a through-hole component; thus, this sub-board can only be used on the edge of a pegboard, either immediately above or below the pegboard, unless you drill additional holes into the pegboard.

The knob has a 4 mm diameter and a D-shape.

A momentary pushbutton. It connects the two pins only as long as the button is pressed.

It is easy to build a pushbutton from miniTesla traces and some hardware (screws, washers) - see the manual - but this assembly allows smaller and more convenient building.

Our toggle switch has three positions: left, middle, and right. The left switch position connects the middle pin to the left pin. The middle is a neutral position where the middle pin is not connected to anything. In the right position, the middle pin is connected to the right pin. You can use this toggle switch as a simple on-off switch or as a selector between two alternatives.

Toggle switches can also be built in combination with Lego. See the manual for ideas.

A potentiometer, or variable resistor, with three pins labeled CW, CCW, and wiper. The wiper moves between the CW (clockwise) and CCW (counterclockwise) endpoints and therefore the resistance between the wiper and the endpoints changes with the position of the potentiometer. The resistance between CW and CWW is a constant 10k Ohm.

Additionally, this potentiometer has a built-in momentary pushbutton by pressing down on the dial. When pressed the SW1 and SW2 pins are connected.