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Casemod project
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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by wil5on on Sat Jul 9th at 3:45am 2005

I'm working on a casemod which has a row of LEDs lighting up in sequence inside an old 5.25" floppy drive. Read all about it here. Does anyone here know about this sort of stuff? Am I going about it the right way?




"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"
- My yr11 Economics teacher



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by RaPtoR on Sat Jul 9th at 12:35pm 2005

Why are you casemoding an old floppy drive :O

I threw out mine years ago!



God got tired waiting all sunday for the world to compile and finaly had it.
On the Eight day, god created func_details, and he saw that it was fast.



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by wil5on on Sat Jul 9th at 12:54pm 2005

Why not? It wasnt doing any good before... its sacrificable. Also I think the disk slot is just right to make it look cool.


"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"
- My yr11 Economics teacher



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by fraggard on Sat Jul 9th at 1:08pm 2005

A few things I can think of:

1)A 66% duty cycle and a 50% duty cycle are equally easy to implement.

2)A 5Hz Clock may be a little too fast, unless you're dividing it. Have you checked whether the effect is visible with that clock? A 1Hz or 2Hz clock might suit your requirements better.

3)Get a circuit simulator to test out what you're doing. Multisim is good, but you have to pay for it (or buy a book called Digital Principles and Design by Donald Givone, then it's free). It'll save you a lot of heartache and burnt components later.

4)Get a 7495 instead of the 74194. It's easier to find and has both serial and parallel input, which is very useful if you're planning on having multiple patterns. It is also a 4bit L/R shifter,so your circuit stays the same.

5) Your circuit looks okay at first look, but I can't be sure. These chips heat up and burn out very fast if you've done something wrong, especially flipflops. Make sure you have the patience to keep trying. Again, get a simulator to test what you're doing.

I haven't worked with these for a long time now, so if anything goes boom...




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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by wil5on on Sat Jul 9th at 2:20pm 2005

Thanks for the suggestions Frag. I know its only a matter of resistor values, I chose 66% so both resistors could be the same. I dont think 5hz is too much, I've got 12 LEDs so it will take about 2s to scroll each way. I'll test it out on Pspice tomorrow to make sure it all works

Thanks a lot for the IC suggestion, I'm looking at the 7495 data sheet now. It looks like if I use this I'll have to do a lot more wiring, but I couldnt find anywhere that sells 74194, hopefully someone has these.

edit: According to their websites, none of the electronics stores around here has either chip. I'll go to them on monday and see if their sites are wrong...




"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"
- My yr11 Economics teacher



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by G4MER on Sat Jul 9th at 8:53pm 2005

Its funny, you all talk the talk.. I just grab crap from Autozone, like them stupid light kits with the ultra brigt LED's as an example, and get out the ol trusted sodering iron and whipp something up. I have no clue other than dumb luck.. My wife on the other hand went to ITT and knows all that resister stuff.

I had a light string in my case that dances and flashes to tunes played in my case, way before they were able to be bought.

I think that should be very interresting mod, make sure to update us with pictures when you get it done.




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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by Myrk- on Sun Jul 10th at 12:32am 2005

Don't worry MoneyShot, I think its only Wil5on and fraggard who are wierdo techno people :P




-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by Crono on Sun Jul 10th at 5:36am 2005

However, building simple circuits is fairly ... simple. Even simpler is making your own video cables, better quality too (about 10-70% the cost of buying it pre-made)


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by wil5on on Sun Jul 10th at 5:41am 2005

Youre quite right Crono. What I'm doing here is fairly basic.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, this is what I'm trying to acheive;

image

I've updated, with that gif, and a price list, in case anyone else likes my idea.




"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"
- My yr11 Economics teacher



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by asterix_vader on Sun Jul 10th at 6:07am 2005

? quoting RaPtoR
Why are you casemoding an old floppy drive :O

I threw out mine years ago!

i told you wilson, it's useless...





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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by French Toast on Sun Jul 10th at 3:16pm 2005

Seems kinda pointless with such a small light and an ugly drive.

Oh well, have fun.




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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by G4MER on Sun Jul 10th at 4:17pm 2005

OK the whole CYLON idea is pretty cool.. I hope your useing CYLONS as the base for the idea, and not that damn talking car. =)




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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by Crono on Sun Jul 10th at 8:11pm 2005

They're actually different. Cylons has a dot that traced back and forth, Kit had 8 "cells" that faded in and out from each other.

...


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by Orpheus on Sun Jul 10th at 9:58pm 2005

? quoting Crono
They're actually different. Cylons has a dot that traced back and forth, Kit had 8 "cells" that faded in and out from each other.

...

*attempts to sound important*

"Yeah, what he said"

*giggles*

For the record, my new case has lights all over it.. I am now considering getting a screw driver and disconnecting them.. They are getting noisome. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/sad.gif">





The best things in life, aren't things.



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by Pegs on Sun Jul 10th at 10:09pm 2005

why dont you put a lable printer inside ther that prints out "This piece of paper will explode in 10 seconds*. and then actualy put some kind of pop thingy that sais bang because that would be a total waste of time and uterly not funny....

dont you think?




Yes, My spelling is still terrible!



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by wil5on on Mon Jul 11th at 1:11pm 2005

I've bought the parts and updated my page. It turns out I was able to find a place that sells 74194s (I was the first person to ever buy one from there tho <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_lol.gif"> ), which makes my job easier since the 7495 wouldve required logic to drive it (I'm sure you understand Frag, 7495 only has 1 serial data input so its harder to cascade them).

If youre interested, check it out, theres pictures of electronicy stuff.




&quot;If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?&quot;
- My yr11 Economics teacher



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by Pegs on Mon Jul 11th at 9:37pm 2005

you so confused me now




Yes, My spelling is still terrible!



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by rs6 on Mon Jul 11th at 11:07pm 2005

I am taking a class next year on all these chips, and how to make stuff with them. Any basics I should know?



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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by fraggard on Tue Jul 12th at 1:52am 2005

? quote:
I've bought the parts and updated my page. It turns out I was able to find a place that sells 74194s (I was the first person to ever buy one from there tho ), which makes my job easier since the 7495 wouldve required logic to drive it (I'm sure you understand Frag, 7495 only has 1 serial data input so its harder to cascade them).

If youre interested, check it out, theres pictures of electronicy stuff.



Cool... /me will be waiting to see the result <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

? quote:
I am taking a class next year on all these chips, and how to make stuff with them. Any basics I should know?

-It's really easy to accidentally mess up and connect Vcc to GND and vice-versa... don't do that.
-If you're going to do that then get pictures. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif">




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 Re: Casemod project
Posted by wil5on on Tue Jul 12th at 3:11am 2005

rs6, the most important thing you can do is pay attention in lectures, they dont sound important but actually theyre very helpful. Also dont rely on the lab supervisors since theyll just look at your circuit, say "hmm i cant see the problem" and walk away...

Or maybe thats just me...




&quot;If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?&quot;
- My yr11 Economics teacher




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