3V LED Chaser project

[audioguru2]

Hi Guys,
The project is here:
http://www.electronics-lab.com/projects/games/003/index.html
I have a pic of my Veroboard layout. It has 47 (!) trace cuts which takes my drill-press about 2 minutes to do. It has 21 jumpers, a few under the ICs, that takes me abut half an hour to cut, bend and solder. It takes a while to solder the rest of the stuff on the board. See that I am using pieces of IC-socket to plug-on-to two LEDs that have their wires inside the box where it is crowded for soldering.

I had to be careful drilling the CD for the LEDs because it is fragile, my 1st one shattered all over the place!

I drilled the front of the box for the two LED holders to protrude through and routed-out the PCB support grooves at the sides to allow space for the pots.

I bought log (audio taper) pots for brightness controls and linear ones for speed control, but the linear ones were actually log type (marked wrong) so the full speed adjustment ends-up in the maximum 1/4 rotation of the pot.

I am busy making a bunch of these things for family and friends.

Corrected Nov.12/04

View attachment 36204

 

[audioguru2]

Hi again,
Here's a pic of a finished board showing the parts and ribbon cables.
Also a piece of cut Veroboard with the traces cut.

Corrected Nov.12/04

View attachment 36205

 

[audioguru2]

Hi Guys,
I am sorry that I made a boo-boo on my Veroboard layout and pic. I made another project and it didn't work!
Besides getting one AA cell backwards (darn Japanese battery cells with tits on both ends), I discovered that I had one extra trace cut (between pins 2 and 13 of the 74HC14).
I have corrected my layout and pic, above.
Sorry for any inconvenience.

 

[audioguru2]

Hi Guys, (And warm greetings to the ladies amongst us)

Here's a pic of two 3V LED Chaser projects. It was difficult to snap a pic at the moment when both are lighted (even though they were chasing at high speed).

Between them might be the next project that I post, it very slowly dims and brightens its three colours, each at a slightly different rate. I used 30 degrees angle Ultrabright LEDs that make a magnificant display of 16 million colours on the ceiling. Every 10 minutes all LEDs are sync'd and are at their brightest, producing white, then 10 minutes later they all dim to nothing. All colours appear slowly in between.
The circuit uses a bootstrap technique so that the LEDs dim logarithmically, like our vision. At first I tried linear ramps, like the project that we already have, but it doesn't dim very much.

View attachment 36212

 

[Dazza]

Hi audioguru,
very nice, top job . can I make these and sell them locally ???

 

[audioguru2]

Thanks Dazza,
Sure you can make and sell these thingies, I didn't patent anything. I just design them for fun and the challenge of making them work well with a power supply as low as 2V.

My only condition is that if I ever visit down under, you buy the 1st round of Guinness. ;D ;D

[move] :'( :-* :-\ :-X :-[ : ??? 8) > ;D [/move]

How can I make these faces loop vertically, like my LEDs?

 

[Dazza]

Audioguru, it's a deal . I'll first have to teach you, how to drink a Guinness upside-down .

As for your question, a dozen Guinness should do the job nicely .

 

[audioguru2]

Burp! 'Scuz me.

Let's see. The Guinness is upside down. I will also be upside down.
If I glug it really fast, it won't flow into the sky. Right, mate?
G'day t' ya. ;D ;D

 

[Dazza]

Yes that's right, that way you won't give it a chance to get hot as well ;D.

[move]
I'm ready for the next one mate ,[/move]

 

[ante1]

Hi Audioguru,

These are two great projects you have there (don

 

[audioguru2]

Thanks Ante,
I'm making a bunch of these 3V Chasers. I gave one to my (grown up) daughter for her birthday yesterday, and she says her friends will want them too. My friends and rest of my family also want them.

In my pics is my new Taiwan copy of Veroboard. It seems to be made of compressed dung, or similar stuff. It certainly isn't epoxy-glass and stinks during soldering. I hope it doesn't warp too much.

What happened to the division of Vero that made Veroboard and other prototyping things? I liked the "real stuff" and know that Brits would never use dung. I viewed their "new" website a few months ago but now it's gone.

 

[ante1]

I can see your CD collection going down the drain right now, while you are trying to keep up with the demand.
I am also missing the old blue stuff, I still have a small stock but I don

 

[Dazza]

Audioguru, surprise surprise, Farnell doesn't have a listing for the(CD74HC4017N) please tell me there is an alternative ???. Also Farnell does have a listing for the(CD74HC14N) although it is not a (N) it's a (M) will this do the job :-\.

Thank you

 

[audioguru2]

Hi Ante,
A big joke over here was, "What are we going to do with all those free ISP CD Roms?" I found a use for them.
While searching in my son's room for his digital camera, I discovered that his stack of virgin CD-Rs or CD-RWs create a very intense rainbow reflection effect, so i "borrowed" a few. I'll use them next. They are darker than the ISP's ones and the label side has a pleasant diffused reflection. They are slightly transparent so I hope the LED wiring doesn't show through.

 

[audioguru2]

Hi Dazza,
You might have a big problem with availability. The various manufacturers all have different codes, but my ST-Micro datasheet lists the "M" suffix as a surface-mount package. Double-check with Farnell. Texas Instruments further confuses things because some of their 74HC ICs have a CD prefix and SN for others.

Up here, we get to choose the supplier and the manufacturer of ICs. I used Digikey for a recent order, but they ran out of TI ICs so I settled for slightly cheaper ST-Micro ones.

Won't TI send you free samples? Tell them your plan.

 

[trigger]

audioguru,

Your project is great, save me from thinking on how to flash a bunch of LEDs with 2 AA cells...
I will build my own too, not for $$$, but for a special gift to my girlfriend..... ;D

The IC with prefix CD40xx may not work at 3V but the 74HC40xx should be work fine with 3V..... I gotta check this out.

Anyway thanks!! ;D

 

[Dazza]

Nothing is simple is it ;D, I'll send Farnell an e-mail.

Ante's comment that they would be popular for Christmas,I think is true . That doesn't give me much time.

I can see the scenario, I put a dozen out to test the market, and I find everyone wants one, and then I can see myself going mad trying to keep up, with no experience soldering in surface mount chips ;D ;D,

 

[audioguru2]

Thanks Trigger,
I am using 74HCxx ICs that are guaranteed to supply a strong output current with a supply of only 2V, which is what the 3V battery will be at the end of its life. Ordinary CD4017 ICs are guaranteed to supply hardly any output current with a supply of 3V, and probably don't work at 2V.

Hi Dazza,
Ask TI for a list of their distributors down under of the IC. With both them and you asking Farnell about it, Farnell might decide to supply it, or TI will give you samples.

 

[12412]

those are prety neat ;D ;D ;D