Have a guide or tutorial? Post it up!
#348131
jackdoud wrote:Yup, that's the final schematic. Here it is again since it's on the last page:
Image

Here's a parts list:

19x NPN Transistors (pretty much any will do, I use 4401's)
2x 4015 Quad Shift Register
4x Red LED
15x Blue LED
1x 555 Timer
1x 4017 Decade Counter
1x 9v Battery Clip
1x 1uf Electrolytic Capacitor
1x 50kohm Potentiometer
16x 10kohm Resistor
19x 470ohm Resistor
1x 51kohm Resistor (these can be tricky to find, a 47kohm will probably work instead)

Useful other parts:
Breadboard
Header Pins
Ribbon Cable
Hookup Wire
8-pin IC Socket
16-pin IC Sockets
Heat Shrink Tubing

Jameco may or may not have everything, I order from Futurelec who does have everything and they're cheaper than Jameco, Digikey or Mouser.
Wow, thank you! I just might try doing my lights myself :)

*edit: Thank you for pointing out Futurelec! I just bought a crapton of parts. They had everything I needed for this project.

They also have REALLY cheap value packs. Stuff like 100x assorted 1/4w resistors for $3.95 (a pack like this from Frys is about $20). I got value packs of ICs, IC sockets, LEDs, voltage regulators, diodes and transistors (already have packs of 1/4w resistors, and ceramic and electrolytic capacitors). I should be good for components for a long, long time!

They also have decently priced PCB creation (as well as layout design services). Thank you thank you thank you!
#351531
Ok, I FINALLY stole a camera to take a video of some finished lights. They start out at mid-speed, then I turn them all the way down, then all the way up, then back to mid-speed.



One note, the switch in this vid is on 7 feet of wire to run to the thrower. It turns out this messes with the circuit and causes the powercell to run wrong. I fixed it by adding a capacitor between power and ground, I used a .01uf metal film but pretty much anything should work.
#351533
jackdoud wrote:Ok, I FINALLY stole a camera to take a video of some finished lights. They start out at mid-speed, then I turn them all the way down, then all the way up, then back to mid-speed.



One note, the switch in this vid is on 7 feet of wire to run to the thrower. It turns out this messes with the circuit and causes the powercell to run wrong. I fixed it by adding a capacitor between power and ground, I used a .01uf metal film but pretty much anything should work.
Wow man, that's awesome! Nice clean board, too. Curious... how did the switch being far away mess with the circuit, and how did a cap fix it?
#351536
IPv6Freely wrote:Wow man, that's awesome! Nice clean board, too. Curious... how did the switch being far away mess with the circuit, and how did a cap fix it?
The length of wire can do a lot of wierd things like change resistance and do odd inductance stuff. The decoupling capacitor cleans up the signal between power and ground by smoothing little fluctuations out of it. That's about as much as I understand of it, circuit voodoo gets wierd fast.
#351615
jackdoud wrote:
IPv6Freely wrote:Wow man, that's awesome! Nice clean board, too. Curious... how did the switch being far away mess with the circuit, and how did a cap fix it?
The length of wire can do a lot of wierd things like change resistance and do odd inductance stuff. The decoupling capacitor cleans up the signal between power and ground by smoothing little fluctuations out of it. That's about as much as I understand of it, circuit voodoo gets wierd fast.
I hear ya, I'm just learning all this stuff. Despite buying light kits from R2DEVO, I'm still going to try my hand at building a set of pack lights, just for fun and learning sake.
#354653
Are you building on a breadboard or have you soldered everything together? Have you triple checked that everything connects to what it's supposed to? Are you using a good power source? Are you using all the same parts or did you substitute anything?

There could be any number of things wrong, it's impossible to tell what without knowing what you have in front of you.
#354658
i hooked it up using your schematic and the breadboard pic that mike put up. breadboarding now. playing around, i found that if i hook positive power to the 555 at pin three and then jump that to pin six on the second 4015 and just put power to it on and off, the cyclotron lights light up and they are sequencing. Using all the same parts you said to use. This is driving me crazy!
#354661
So that means it's cycling right, you just need to get the 555 working correctly. If you disconnect the 555 from the rest of the circuit and put an LED and 470ohm resistor on pin 3 (the output) you can see what the 555 is putting out.

Edit: I looked at Mike's pic, he's got a wierd setup on his 555, are you copying what he's doing or using my schematic?
#354666
ok, 555 is hooked up this way. pin one to ground, two to six, three to six on first 4015, four to eight to positive, five to nothing, seven to pin one on potentiometer. Is that right?
Also, i can apply the power from either three or four and get the same result.
#354706
Yeah, your timer circuit is wrong. Mike's setup is a very odd (imo) design that sets up a voltage divider in a place that (again imo) doesn't need it. Just use my design, it's more simple. 47k from pin 8-pin7, pin 7 to one side of the pot, center pot pin to pin 6, pin 6 through the cap to ground. Pin 6 to pin 2, pin 3 out to the 4015, pin 1 to ground, pin 8 to power.

Pin 4 is the reset, dunno why you'd run power directly to it unless you wanted an output test or something.
#354720
ok. wired it up like that and put in the 555cn timer instead of the other 555 i had. (would that make a difference?) The lights are now going randomly instead of one after the next. Still having to apply and pull power to get any sequence. AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#354737
zappa1971 wrote:ok. it is working, but running fast, then it will just stop and freeze. after a minute it will start back up. ?
Could be a charge buildup on ground. Try putting a capacitor between power and ground.

You say it's running fast, you sure you have the pot wired right? one side post and the center post? Also you're sure it's a 47Kohm resistor and not a 4.7kohm or a 470ohm resistor? You could try adding a 10k resistor in series with the 47k going between pin 8 and pin 7
#354906
zappa1971 wrote:When you say the resistor values, do you mean the ones on the LEDs? I'll add a 10k with the 470 and see what that does
No, the speed is controlled by the 555, i'm talking about the 47k (or if you found a 51k like I originally used) that goes between pins 8 and 7 on the 555.
#355027
BINGO!! I put the capacitor in and it was working but still freezing up. Realized I had it in backwards, flipped it around and working like a clock now!! Also had pin 14 on the 4017 tied into the 9-1-9-1 line instead of the 6-14-6-14 line. Moved it to the right spot and cyclotron lights working correctly now as well. Thanks for all the help man!!
#355080
Glad you got it working. Just goes to show even simple electronics can be frustrating. Any number of things can be wrong and usualy a bunch of them are at the same time so troubleshooting can be a bitch.
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