I decided I wanted to make a spooky sensor for a Hive table display, but being as new at electronics as I am I’m having trouble A: Finding a circuit simple enough to assemble and/or B: Finding any properly specced parts without ordering out. RS and Microcenter seem to have only low power parts, outputting about 1/2 to 1/3 of either the voltage or amperage (though, usually at least one of those two is on spec…) of the parts I’ve seen in designs I looked at, and I don’t know enough to work around that.
The one I wanted to try first is this, since it makes use of an IC to reduce clutter, and is also yet another product placement for Arduino: http://interface.khm.de/index.php/lab/interfaces-advanced/theremin-as-a-capacitive-sensing-device/
Radio Shack doesn’t have any 74HC00’s. They do have 74LS00’s, but those use and output a lower amperage than the HC’s. I also don’t know if that matters in this case, but I’m guessing it does since it’s going into a feedback loop. I figured I would try them anyway, and nothing happened. I haven’t yet had time to double check everything is properly continuous, nor to try alternate parts (mostly on the resistors) to see if that helps. Also, I bodged the inductor because no place around sells tiny inductors, so that might make it not work too. It’s a bit of wire wrapped around the head of a nail of some sort of steel.
Also, I would greatly appreciate help learning how to use an oscilloscope since these things tend to make use of various oscillator circuits.