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[Dresdon Acacin]

This thread is 1) to showcase my electronics, and 2) to provide a detailed explanation/somewht of a tutorial baout how I did the electrical and such so that you can at least try...my electrical is very messy and only I have a good understanding of the particular manner of how these are working...but who knows: maybe you can make sense of my madness.

COMING SOON:
-HOW-TO SOLDER
-Standard LED wireing with a 9V battery
-Cheap lazar(how to put a dollarstore laser pointer to good use)
-DRESDON'S HELMET: "IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!..."(theres THAT much stuff crammed into it)
-Gauntlet Screen LED lighting
-Motor>LED connection
-Two-Way Radio Helmet Integration

Ok you young wippersnappers-I started electronics when I was 7 and got the resistor colour code figured out/memorised when I was 10(I had never actualy been informed of or had seen any charts about it for a long time...just Black0, Brown1, Red2, Orange3, Yellow4, Green5, blue6, Violet7, Grey8, White 9, gold5%, silver10%  )

If you don't have this down to par after a week, there is no hope for you.



555 TIMER/FLASHING LIGHTS
What is this useful for?  Gauntlets, helmets, blasters, comm units, lightsabers, anything that blinks, beeps, or even vibrates in pulses.

This video is were I learnt how to wire an LM555 integrated circuit(no offense to Thaxos' vid, but its not much of a Tut.) With this setup you get the LED flashing for about a half second on/off. In order to change the rate of flashing, you would put a higher value resistor(470k in this vid) will make the LED blink for longer intervals, and the lower resistor value will make it flash faster. I don't quite remember what you had to do to alter it's time on versus its time off, but with this circuit you can swap out the LED for a piezo speaker/buzzer for a heart monitor sound effect as well. You could even put a small weighted motor to simulate a cellphone vibration effect for example, the ones actually in cell phones are about 3V or so I believe.
_{heads up, I reflexively mute this video when watching it}

I realise that video might not be viewable in all countries, I'll try and either hypercam and upload it through photobucket, or I'll film my own version if I can find a filming aparatus that will work for this...

Now, a word of wisdom: don't expect to get this right your first time. If it doesn't work, try flipping the IC, and check the video to establish if all the parts are in the right places/connected to the right things

Whats easier than the actual circuit board I did, albeit somewhat messy, is to solder straight onto the IC socket, making the same connections as in the video above, then once you know it works, set all the parts in place with hot glue.

TERMS/DEFINITIONS:
leads:wires or the pins coming off of components
IC: integrated circuit
1k ohm resistor:   Brown, Black, Red, gold/silver/ect.
470k Ohm resistor: Yellow, Violet, Black, Yellow, gold/silver/ect.
^^^KEEP IN MIND, these colours can varry as it might be 47x100k instead of 470x10k

Materials:
-9V battery
-9V battery clip
-Jumper Wires
-two 1k resistors
-one 470k, 84k, 120k, resistor whatever rating works for your rate of flashing
-LM555 integrated circuit(the 8pin "microchip")
-8 pin IC socket
-Solder
-an LED rated for 1.7V(requiring a 330 ohm resistor) or rated for 3V
-a 1 uf capacitor
-an IC board(or a braedboard your willing to chop up and hotglue everything in place permanently)
-(optional: a lead terminal)

A good idea would be to get a 470k variable resistor/potentiometer to fine-tune your rate of blinking. 84k Ohms gave me about 6 pulses per second, ideal for my CQB heavy repeater or other automatic blasters.

Here is the one I did for my Jetpack's beacon'comm spike.

(notice how I had to use the dremal to isolate some of the pins to diagnose what the inevitable problems were....such is the case when using a soldering gun rated for stained glass)

This was very tricky to make due to my giant 140W Weller 8200 soldering gun rated for like......stained glass work 


9 LED SYNCHRONIZER CIRCUIT
So this is something I've been wanting to make for a long time. This synchronises 9 LEDs to blink one after the other, with blink rates being adjustable by switching out the 470 resistor with something else, or bypassing the 470 resistor all together to make it cycle about twice every second.
I designed this schematic myself

(watermark application done by jay krayt)

PARTS NEEDED:
(1)LM555 IC
(1)8pin IC socket(recomended)
(1)4017 Decade Counter
(1)16pin IC socket
(1)330 Ohm Resistor, 820 Ohm if using 1.7V super bright LEDs
(amount depends on how you assemble the circuit)20 gauge solid or striated core wire
(1)47uf electrolytic capacitor
(?)LEDs in a proper multiple for your application(at least 9 of them)
(1)9V battery
(1)9V battery holder or clip

You can assemble this on a PCB prototype board, or you can connect the parts directly onto the IC sockets to save space like I did. Since I used rectangular LED light bars I sealed in the leads with liquid electrical tape for ease of installation of more economical than a foot of shrink wrap and a lighter. Its allways a good rule of thumb(AFTER you verify the leads and it all works) to hotglue the wires, and then apply a sealent like circuit board sealing epoxy, circuit board sealing silicone spray, or this wonderful liquid electrical tape I discussed earlier.

Here are screenshots of the synchronization as I cannot upload a vid just yet.






LED KNIGHT RIDER CHASER LIGHTS
The circuit schematic is from a reputable source (Talking Eletronics' 101-200 transistor circuits PDF) I have not made this circuit yet but it is a very simple one to make, it is essentially a modification of the 4017 decade counter light sequencer directly above.

I certainly might make this if anyone would like on commissioned-however on my own projects I do not yet have need of one(although Im making a droid for an IB art project so I may make one in the future however until then I won't on any of my armour related projects).
next up: ammo counter

[Thaxos]

Per forum rules, refrain from double posting.
Eleven posts in a row is excessive.

To add additional information, please edit your original post, or make subsequent posts. On a forum reading level, it's normal practice to allow people to post in between your updates so there is a chronology to it all.

You've mixed 12 into 8 there...
Rules:

8. Please refrain from making double posts. Use the 'edit' button to fix or update a post if you were the last person to add to a discussion.
12. Please refrain from making 'placeholder' threads. Please wait until you have progress of some kind to show before making a thread about it.

For ease of navigating the thread, you can update your original post to link to the specific replies where you have your tutorials posted.

[Dresdon Acacin]

But they were going to be individual tutorials :/

Hondo Karr did it on his thread... >.>

[Thaxos]

Individual tutorial topics get individual threads.

[Dresdon Acacin]

updated first post, will have more updates as things progress and/or more examples/tutorials upon request

[Burger King Fett]

well we could just be glad someone is still posting vids and putting the time and effort into helping others on the site if theres overlap or duplicate i think if we can hunt down fugitives across the galaxies we can sort through double information....just sayin.....keep up the posts dresdon

[Dresdon Acacin]

9 LED Synchroniser schematic added to first post

[Dresdon Acacin]

Knight Rider chaser lights schematic added

[Dynas]

WOW! This is helpful, im a total noob on this stuff. Keep up the good work.

By chance is this how you did the lights on your blaster rifle?

[Dresdon Acacin]

yes, the 555 timer is how I did the lights, the resistor I used is a 84k ohm one for faster blinking. For all the lights along the battery compartment I had groups of them hooked up in parralel so there is less resistance and therefore less batteries. I then hooked up the batteries in series-parralel for very very ong runtime.

[Shadow Blade]

Here's a link (http://freespace.virgin.net/matt.waite/resource/handy/pinouts/555/) to a handy little 555 timer calculator that people can use to figure out the timing that they want. Most people will want the Monostable Mode for flashing lights. The Astable mode is for creating a squarewave with different timing for the high and low periods. If you have a multimeter, breadboard, and a potentiometer you can cheat a little by setting up the circuit first then using the pot to get the flash rate that you want. Then you disconnect (after killing the power to it) the pot and then measure the resistance between the two pins used. That will get you in a close ball park of the resistor needed. Oh and on the pot use the middle pin (wiper) with either the first or third pin (just changes the direction needed to turn).

[Dresdon Acacin]

yup, you can also make a servo controller with a 555 timer I hear, but ive never actually made one

[Conner Adenn]

yup, you can also make a servo controller with a 555 timer I hear, but ive never actually made one

You can, and it's not that difficult, but it's easier to just use an arduino-type board to control it nowadays. Not to say 555 timers aren't awesome, they definitely are.