CHAPTER 15

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Comparators

You’re in the midst of prototyping a line-following robot on a solderless breadboard. At this point, the breadboard has a power supply (9 V battery), a power switch, a power indicator (LED circuit), and two pairs of brightness sensors. It’s time to add some brains.

In this chapter, you’ll learn about a comparator chip. Upon adding it to the breadboard, it compares the sensors and illuminates an LED depending on which pair of sensors is receiving more light.

Voltage Comparator

An analog voltage comparator chip (see Figure 15-1) is somewhat like a tiny voltmeter with built-in switches. It samples voltages at two points and ...

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