Rich said:
No, don't. It wants me to sign on to myspace. Ick.
The first one works just fine here, but it doesn't look much like a 1-4
sequencer. ;-)
Rick
Dear Rick,
Thanks for the quick response. I'm still learning how to communicate
with this internet thing.
Sorry to stoop to using Myspace, but I'm not well-versed in how to do
things on the `net.
I don't know how to get my pictures viewed by others besides using
Myspace (which, I admit, is pretty creepy, but it's the only way I know
of at present.)
If the pictures at Myspace are viewable, here's my running commentary
on them:
The 1st picture is the schematic for the LM555 timer that sets the
clock frequency for the Christmas tree lights. The values shown are
not correct, but my choices of R & C give a freq of ~ 1 Hz.
2nd picture shows the combination of CD4013 and CD4001, which ends up
outputting 4 pulses in sequence to points A, B, C & D. These outputs
then go to BOTH four LED's on the board (shown as 3 yellows, and 1
green), AND four Crydom SSR's that control the four Christmas tree
lights: amber, amber, amber, Green.
3rd picture ("drag 1") shows the whole board described above. The
SSR's are at the top, and above them you can see, upper left, where the
120VAC hot and neutral lines come in. Directly to the right of that,
you can see 4 nails, where the output of the SSR's goes off (green 14
AWG wire) to the four 60 watt light bulbs on the Christmas tree. (The
AC power components LOOK, to me, (who knows little about this stuff) to
be quite far (~4 cm) from the logic chips.)
4th picture ("drag 2") shows a closeup of the logic chips: 555 ==>
4013 ==> 4001. Note the green .1uF caps that have been added at the
power inputs for the chips. This still didn't stop my problem!
5th picture (drag 3) shows an overview of the entire mess: the
computer (running Windows 98) is in the foreground, in front of the
interface box:
6th picture (drag 4) this is the box that is represented schematically
at this website:
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/7471/pwdtrack.htm
This is where I got the idea originally for the whole thing.
7th picture This picture is not directly relevant, but, hey, I''m
bragging: I designed this to control the staging and DQ (disqualify)
lights. Any car that "jumps the gun" and starts off before the green
light goes on, gets its DQ light turned on and their time is
automatically disqualified from that run.
I'm hoping this will help anyone who knows enough to have a sugggestion
as to why the main starting line board still jumps out of sequence once
in a while.
Bruce