OK , so i have nothing better to do !

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dacflyer
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OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by dacflyer »

i am always collecting junk and whatever
blinks / buzzed or entertains me...
heres a fun thing i did....since i have junk,, i decided to have fun...i had aquired one of these point of sales blinky/flashy things...was bout to be thrown out... so i rescued it...was just a simple 10 leds on a board with a 4017 and a 555 timer...all it did was just a sequental 1-10 step thing... just something to attract attention...well i too this thing,,removed the 555. replaced the leds.with better brighter leds..various colors... mostly red/yellow/greens from scrapped traffic leds moduals..THEN...
i mounted the leds/tested...looked awsome...super bright...now heres where it gets good...i wanted more excitment from my hum drum looking computer..took the cover off that blocks the spare floppy drive... driled 10 holes in it, for the leds..in a row...mounted the leds in the holes..then installed it,, connected the power to the board,,,BUT WAIT...THERES NO 555 TO ADVANCE THE LEDS..heehehee... i took the pulses from the hard drive led...and use it to advance the leds on the board,,,BOY IS IT AWSOME...LOL the busier the hd is, the faster the leds fly...I KNOW ITS TOTALLY USELESS...BUT MY FRIENDS THINK ITS THE SCHMITT !,,,VERY COOL ETC ETC... i just wanted something fun here... comments are welcome !
if someones interested in making such a thing its very simple to do...and build...g'day !
Bernius1
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by Bernius1 »

I know the feeling. I got a burned-out touch lamp from a co-worker. PC strip burned (from the BT134 triac fusing). So I jumped the board, & replaced the BT134 with a T2800D. Surprise !! Not enough gate current. Surprise!!! That TT6061A has no pinout on Google. Hmmm. AC volts vary @ .1-uf cap supplying the gate. Change to 1-uf (after decrypting schematic), and *POOF* works perfect.
Who says cap's don't supply current !!! It's just
dI/dt, that's all. My next venue is to see if dI/dt on a Briggs&Stratton magneto can be forced to store a limited voltage in a large cap on the dead-fire cycle (valve overlap). Then flip-flop it so the magneto fires the spark plug on the power stroke, and charges the cap on the off stroke. Then use cap voltage for something else.
More minutia !! What we call 'fun'.
Can't we end all posts with a comical quip?
Ron H
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by Ron H »

One little nitpick - in a capacitor, I=C*dv/dt. In an inductor, V=L*di/dt.
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dacflyer
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by dacflyer »

guess i am only one thats easily amused..lol
oh well.....
jrob709
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by jrob709 »

no your not alone on that one, just a few days ago i rigged up a 555 astable to blink a single bright blue led for no reason at all. i just got bored. i'm still a student at a electronics school so when i can accomplish something like that it makes me feel like i'm getting my moneys worth.
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by Will »

Rigging a blinking LED is Ok - I can remember when I could get a thrill out of it. As a project why don't you try to set up one or more Op Amps to operate as a PID controller - It's not too difficult, produces highly intetesting results and has enormous educational value
Will
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Bernius1
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by Bernius1 »

WHY NOT TRY SOME SORT OF PIEZO STRAIN GAUGE, SO THE HARDER YOU 'PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN', THE FASTER IT (LED) BLINKS? BUT REALLY, CAN AN OLD CLOCK RADIO'S TIMING CIRCUITS BE ADAPTED ( W/ A 555?) TO BE A FREQUENCY COUNTER?? IF THE CLOCK'S 'PER SECOND' RATE IS GOOD, AND OSC. FREQ. KNOWN, WHY NOT ???
Can't we end all posts with a comical quip?
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dacflyer
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by dacflyer »

no vice... i have worked on a few electromechanical car clocks.. like the ones in VW's etc... the contact points whould wear out...which kicked a mechanical wind up...after a min or so it whould wind down,, then repeat...
well the points were non-fixable... so i have adapted a 555 to energise the windup mech... after that they work fine forever...as long as theres power,,not sure as for a clock radio...
, good luck
Bernius1
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by Bernius1 »

Dac, I hear you, but I have these few working clock-radios (LED CLOCK) , and I'm thinking 'what use can I derive from a stable square-wave source of known frequency',especally when most clocks have a 'seconds' output pin on the main chip. Do I hear dig-voltmeter, or logic probe, or freq-counter? Hey, the display's already there. I bet $20.00 that Dean can beat Gadgeteer to the first functional solution with under $15.00 addt'l parts !!! I'll try, but I'm still just a no_vice.
Can't we end all posts with a comical quip?
unknown_entity
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by unknown_entity »

nothing better to do huh. Well the other day in lab I made a nifty little coil gun type thing out of a camera board and some magnet wire around a piece of 1/4" copper tube. For just throwing it together between class it was pretty good. After it charged up a little bit it would shoot machine screws across the room. Now i just need to hook up an IR LED/reciever and set it up so when somebody walks by. :D<p>[ April 15, 2003: Message edited by: unknown_entity ]</p>
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jollyrgr
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by jollyrgr »

dacflyer <p>I like your idea. But to make it more interesting you could "radomly" place the LEDs on the front panel. Thus they don't simply go in a 123 sequence. Then you can tell people that the LEDs indicate the head position of the hard drive. Yes, they MAY recognize the pattern sometime but you could fool them for a while anyway.<p>[ April 23, 2003: Message edited by: Jolly Roger ]</p>
No trees were harmed in the creation of this message. But billions of electrons, photons, and electromagnetic waves were terribly inconvenienced!
chessman
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by chessman »

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jolly Roger:
dacflyer <p>I like your idea. But to make it more interesting you could "radomly" place the LEDs on the front panel. Thus they don't simply go in a 123 sequence. Then you can tell people that the LEDs indicate the head position of the hard drive. Yes, they MAY recognize the pattern sometime but you could fool them for a while anyway.<p>[ April 23, 2003: Message edited by: Jolly Roger ]<hr></blockquote><p>
Goin on that thought, you could make a psuedo-random generator in a PIC....then it would look like it really is the head position!
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dacflyer
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by dacflyer »

i do not know... it goes so fast you cannot get a bead on it,,lol... and its very random too,,you cannot see a 123 order...they zip left to right so fast its almost impossible... but it still looks cool... i have red / yellow / green / blue
leds,, its awsome... :)
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dacflyer
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Re: OK , so i have nothing better to do !

Post by dacflyer »

coil guns can be fun... just becareful...its all fun untill someone looses a eye..lol !
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