LED sign. Blinking a few letters

I

ian

Guest
Hey. I'm wondering if someone can point me in a good direction to start
on a project.

I work at a summer camp and this year we have a 10ft tall mock up of a
city. At night the windows are lit up by LEDs. The guy who built the
city wired the LEDs, but I'd like to add a small (1 ft) radio tower that
would have blinking LED call letters (The initials of the camp). I
really want them to blink in a sequence and then all blink at once and
then repeat.

I'm thinking I may have to use some type of micro controller to
accomplish this, which may be beyond my skills. I've wired LED's, and I
can solder, and if I use a micro controller I at least under stand
programming which is a start. Power source could be anything. Any
tutorials or recommendations of hardware would be greatly appreciated.
 
In article <G8kXl.734308$yE1.352496@attbi_s21>, ian <ianingf@gmail.com>
wrote:

Hey. I'm wondering if someone can point me in a good direction to start
on a project.

I work at a summer camp and this year we have a 10ft tall mock up of a
city. At night the windows are lit up by LEDs. The guy who built the
city wired the LEDs, but I'd like to add a small (1 ft) radio tower that
would have blinking LED call letters (The initials of the camp). I
really want them to blink in a sequence and then all blink at once and
then repeat.

I'm thinking I may have to use some type of micro controller to
accomplish this, which may be beyond my skills. I've wired LED's, and I
can solder, and if I use a micro controller I at least under stand
programming which is a start. Power source could be anything. Any
tutorials or recommendations of hardware would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
One way would be to use a 4017 counter and a bunch of diode OR gates.

for this:
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/1c9cdbb01415e392

I connected the

"W" to output 0*1*2*3*4*5*7
"A" to 1*2*3*4*5*7
"R" to 2*3*4*5*7
etc.
and output 8 to reset.

then I ran the output thru a darlington array (ULN 2003) or similar.

(*="OR")
 
Jason Davies wrote:
One way would be to use a 4017 counter and a bunch of diode OR gates.

for this:
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/1c9cdbb01415e392

I connected the

"W" to output 0*1*2*3*4*5*7
"A" to 1*2*3*4*5*7
"R" to 2*3*4*5*7
etc.
and output 8 to reset.

then I ran the output thru a darlington array (ULN 2003) or similar.

(*="OR")
Click to expand...
Wow! Thats great. Gives me a good place to start. Thanks!
 
Why don't you go for PIC micro controllers. It is going to be easy and
useful for other purposes too...
 
Tybandara wrote:
Why don't you go for PIC micro controllers. It is going to be easy and
useful for other purposes too...
Click to expand...

Since you ask the question, why don't you at least offer to
help him learn to program and use a PIC, if he does not know?

Ed
 
On Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:13:05 -0700, Tybandara wrote:

Why don't you go for PIC micro controllers. It is going to be easy and
useful for other purposes too...
Click to expand...
You don't know whether or not there will be any "other purposes".

If this is a one-off project by someone who isn't planning on making a
hobby of digital electronics, a PICkit is significantly more expensive
than a 4017, a 555, and a bunch of diodes.
 
On Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:13:05 -0700, Tybandara wrote:

Why don't you go for PIC micro controllers. It is going to be easy and
useful for other purposes too...
Click to expand...
No "Use a PIC" posts are allowed without an included schematic and source
code listing.

Sorry.
RIch
 
I'm sorry guys, still very new to this group. So still don't have an
idea how the things here are organized. By the way the this link will
be about everything about PIC micro controllers. I guess this is a
good point for some one to start

http://www.mikroe.com/en/books/picbook/picbook.htm
 
On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:45:04 -0700, Tybandara wrote:

I'm sorry guys, still very new to this group. So still don't have an
idea how the things here are organized.
Click to expand...
Organised? This is usenet; nothing here is organised ;)

By the way the this link will
be about everything about PIC micro controllers. I guess this is a
good point for some one to start

http://www.mikroe.com/en/books/picbook/picbook.htm
Click to expand...
Also:

http://www.piclist.com/techref/microchip/index.htm
http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist/index.htm
http://www.microchip.com/
 
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