Black-Wolf
New Member
To anyone who is willing to help, let me say thank you right now.
First, I have some basic knowledge of how circuits work. I was an aircraft electrician for 18 years, so I understand basic terminology, and also some more advanced concepts.
Here's my problem: I'm now a volunteer fire-fighter/EMT. I installed a strobe kit and switch set which I built myself, to power the strobes and switch the patterns for them.
What I would like to do, is add a digital counter that will count from 1-24 (the number of the pattern). The counter should increase each time I press the Flash Pattern Change switch, until it reaches 24, and then it should reset back to 1. I understand the basic idea of how to do this using gates/flip-flops, or perhaps a PIC or an 74LS192 or 373.
At this point, I'm honestly thinking a 373 would work better for my needs.
There are five switches that control the strobes as well as two other switches for a pair of grille mounted lights. The switches for the strobes are:
Switch 1: Master Power (controls both the grille lights and the strobes)
Switch 2: Hi-Low Power
Switch 3: Heads 1-4
Switch 4: Heads 5 & 6
Switch 5: Change Flash Pattern (Increment from pattern 1 through pattern 24, at which time it resets to pattern 1).
Here are my questions:
1) When turning off the master power switch, how do I "kill" the display for the two LED displays, WITHOUT losing the value that they are currently set on?
2) When turning the master power back on, how do I reload the current value to the LEDs?
3) If constant power must be provided to the circuit to keep the current value, how do I make the LED Numeric display go black or look like it is off, again, while maintaining the value they currently display?
4) Are there any LED numeric displays out there that are "dimmable" - that is, I want to be able to wire them into my vehicle's instrument lighting system and have them dim as I adjust the rheostat... I am assuming that if there is such a thing, I could just figure out the appropriate resistor to plug in between the instrument cluster lights and the digital display.
5) I would also like to consider a more advanced circuit - one which has a text display (say 15 characters) which can be either scrollable or steady, but which would display, for example: "PAT1: Single Simul Flash" or "Pattern 2: Single Alternating Flash" or something similar. What sort of chip(s) would I need to do run this, and how would I program the text in (I'm assuming a patch cable into my PC or something similar?)
Again, any help you can give will be greatly appreciated!
I have uploaded the wiring diagram for the switches so you can see how it's wired (in case that might help).
Thanks!
V/R
Black-Wolf
Bennett VFD.
First, I have some basic knowledge of how circuits work. I was an aircraft electrician for 18 years, so I understand basic terminology, and also some more advanced concepts.
Here's my problem: I'm now a volunteer fire-fighter/EMT. I installed a strobe kit and switch set which I built myself, to power the strobes and switch the patterns for them.
What I would like to do, is add a digital counter that will count from 1-24 (the number of the pattern). The counter should increase each time I press the Flash Pattern Change switch, until it reaches 24, and then it should reset back to 1. I understand the basic idea of how to do this using gates/flip-flops, or perhaps a PIC or an 74LS192 or 373.
At this point, I'm honestly thinking a 373 would work better for my needs.
There are five switches that control the strobes as well as two other switches for a pair of grille mounted lights. The switches for the strobes are:
Switch 1: Master Power (controls both the grille lights and the strobes)
Switch 2: Hi-Low Power
Switch 3: Heads 1-4
Switch 4: Heads 5 & 6
Switch 5: Change Flash Pattern (Increment from pattern 1 through pattern 24, at which time it resets to pattern 1).
Here are my questions:
1) When turning off the master power switch, how do I "kill" the display for the two LED displays, WITHOUT losing the value that they are currently set on?
2) When turning the master power back on, how do I reload the current value to the LEDs?
3) If constant power must be provided to the circuit to keep the current value, how do I make the LED Numeric display go black or look like it is off, again, while maintaining the value they currently display?
4) Are there any LED numeric displays out there that are "dimmable" - that is, I want to be able to wire them into my vehicle's instrument lighting system and have them dim as I adjust the rheostat... I am assuming that if there is such a thing, I could just figure out the appropriate resistor to plug in between the instrument cluster lights and the digital display.
5) I would also like to consider a more advanced circuit - one which has a text display (say 15 characters) which can be either scrollable or steady, but which would display, for example: "PAT1: Single Simul Flash" or "Pattern 2: Single Alternating Flash" or something similar. What sort of chip(s) would I need to do run this, and how would I program the text in (I'm assuming a patch cable into my PC or something similar?)
Again, any help you can give will be greatly appreciated!
I have uploaded the wiring diagram for the switches so you can see how it's wired (in case that might help).
Thanks!
V/R
Black-Wolf
Bennett VFD.