Most awful hack job REDUX

My first electrical project was two D cells, a bulb, and a piece of wire. I had flashlights containing those items, but putting the parts together outside of the metal case is what really mede the gears start spinning.

Good job Iggy.

Jon

wire. I

You might also consider building something with alligator clip test leads, so that he would be able on his own to change things around; maybe a two-color LED or something like that. Heck, even different types of lightbulbs are fascinating at that age.

Jon

I made another traffic light, this time of LEDs, resistors, and a 9v battery. It is better than the first light, because now all wires are openly visible and the kid can see how electricity goes, how the switch works etc.

Good job! Now get yourself some 555 timer chips and build yourself a traffic signal controller. Hint: The red is controlled by a simple gate, if the green and amber lights are both out, then the red is on.

Vaughn

the

That's a clever idea... I am definitely thinking about making a traffic controller along these lines, as I have 555 timers, as well as comparators etc. Now now, but maybe in a couple of months.

Thanks Jon. Yes, I do think that having all the wires out and in the open would help him get interested. It is no longer a toy, but instead, a project.

I did something along the lines, yes, with some alligator clips.

Cool.

Now for advanced versions - add series switches - add parallel ones - e.g. add logic. And & or gates...

And a diode here or there and switches to route around... :-)

In other words - Kick it up a little now and then...

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

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Great! That is very good news!

Ed

logic.

Yep... I want first to mount it on something, and then I will do as you suggest, add some logic, timers etc.

--For a little fun with AC try messing with electroluminescent wire. Input can be from about 3v to 12v, then drivers can pump it up to AC at anything from 50 to 400hz. Hard to solder, but fun to make stuff with it. I get mine from coolneon.com but there are other sources. Here's a link to some of the finest work I've seen with this stuff:

add logic.

Then for the finishing touch you need to add a Conflict Monitor circuit, so if it sees Green signals in both directions it kicks off the signal controller power and defaults to 4-way flashing Red... ;-)

-->--

Do real traffic light circuits have this? Just curious.

add logic.

What I am really thikning about is somehow making an array of relays that are controllable from a computer (say, USB or RS-232). So that I coudl write programs and say things like (in perl)

$relays[5]->close; $relays[7]->open;

and that would close relay 5 and open relay 7. I do not want to start talking much about it, because I want to finish my tig DC-Squarewave AC inverter project.

Yes.

Vaughn

See if you can poke a copper wire and a steel nail into a lemon and make a bulb light. ;-)

For extra credit, report which is positive and which is negative. ;-P

For extra extra credit, use a compass to do so. ;-D ;-D

Cheers! Rich

add logic.

Well, don't neglect the rest of his physics and mathematics education, while making up edjamacaishunnal toys. Do stuff with weights and levers and pulleys and water and friction and motion and stuff.

Play ball with him. That teaches a surprising amount of physics.

Don't forget, "Play" is kids' most important function - it's preliminary to all of education.

Good Luck! Rich [prerequisite?]

add logic.

If he's not ready for protoboard, a piece of soft pine and a box of thumbtacks can go a long way...

Have Fun! Rich

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 14:29:15 -0600, AL top-posted:

I don't know about this alleged "conflict monitor" - I'd have written the controller such that no such of a thing ever happened in the first place. There are arbitrations, of course, between the various traffic sensors (and there can be more than one per lane, to detect multiple cars backups), and pedestrian button requests, but one thing I _do_ know that existing stop-lights have - when one pole gets knocked down, the rest of them pause a second, as if to consider the situation, and then revert to flashing red, 4way stop mode. And they do alternate the red between the crossing streets. (IOW, when the N-S are red, the E-W are off, and they switch.)

I know, because I saw a guy take out one of the poles, and that's what happened. :-)

Thanks, Rich