Do nothing box

[dowdown]

40 years ago in some elect class we made a “Do nothing box”. Aprox. 50 v battery, six capacitors, six resistors & six or so neon lamps.. Concept was the battery in circuit would last as shelf life. Capacitors were “ponds” at the same level till a wave came along, neons lit at pond overflow..
Do you have a schematic?

 

[audioguru]

I don't know what you mean by saying "ponds, waves and overflow".

About 50 years ago I made chasers with 8 neon bulbs, some capacitors, some resistors and a 90V battery. They worked well so I cast them in clear plactic. One blew up because I forgot to drill a vent hole to release gasses formed by the battery.
Now I make chasers with LEDs, ICs and a 2 or 4 AA alkaline cell battery. They chase brightly for months before the battery is low.

 

[House0Fwax]

Something like this?
http://circuitos.cl.tripod.com/schem/r48.gif

 

[audioguru]

Something like this?

It has four completely separate flashers. Due to the tolerance of the resistors and capacitors each flasher will have a slightly different frequency so they will not chase and will appear to be random until you see that their frequencies are a little different.

 

[dowdown]

Thanks

Yes, thanks guys. From what I recall; the capacitors were taught us to be “connected water ponds” and at the origin the water ponds would have no movement and therefore not light a lamp (the lamps being at the spill gate). Gosh it sounded good at the time.
But the quiescent electronic state would be disturbed by any radio wave, micro wave, sun spot etc. etc.. In truth we are constantly bombarded with electrical waves at all times. Or so I was told.. Ergo the lamps would light.
I mounted the neons in a circle & I swear they would go cw. , ccw., random. Seemed to react to music, was strange & entertaining.
We were told the circuit did not consume power, but this seems counterintuitive as there are resistors in the mix.
I will try the circuit of Houseof, possibly it’s the one. I used the gadget to entertain my young kids, now I aim to entertain their kids.

 

[carlvanwormer]

Do Nothing Box - chasing Neon flasher

check out the link at:
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2011/06/muse136.pdf
for the classic 6-Neon circular flasher (that sometimes goes random)