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When turning a computer on and off, various peripherals (such as printers, screen, scanner, etc.) often have to be turned on and off as well. By using the 5-V supply voltage from the USB interface on the PC, all these peripherals can easily be switched on and off at the same time as the PC. This principle can also be used with other appliances that have a USB interface (such as modern TVs and radios). USB Standby Killer Circuit Diagram : This so-called ‘USB-standby-killer’ can be realised with just 5 components. The USB output voltage provides for the activation of the triac-opto driver (MOC3043) which has zero-crossing detection. This, in turn, drives the TRIAC, type BT126. The circuit shown is used by the author for switching loads with a total power of about 150 W and is protected with a 1-A fuse. The circuit can easily handle much larger loads however. In that case and/or when using a very inductive load a so-called snub-ber network is required across the triac. The value of ...

This circuit produces a random "Yes" or "No" with a single button press - indicated by the illumination of a red or green LED. The circuit has two advantages over similar circuits. First, it uses just a single momentary contact pushbutton, so no on-off switch is required. When the pushbutton is pressed, an oscillator comprising the 10nF capacitor and 22kΩ resistor at pins 1 & 2 is almost immediately stopped by FET Q1, which pulls the oscillator's timing capacitor to the positive rail. However, the 220nF capacitor and 470kΩ resistor in the gate circuit of Q1 introduce a tenth of a second's delay, so that about 250 oscillations take place before the clock is stopped. Due to variations in charge on the circuit's capacitors, as well as voltage and temperature variations, and the unpredictability of when the pushbutton will be pressed, randomness is assured. The circuit has a high degree of randomness because it takes advantage of a near-perfect compleme...