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Model builder in need of help

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skreien

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First, thanks for the help. I am not an electronics person, although I do have a very basic knowledge of electronics. Not nearly enough to design circuits, but enough to solder, build kits, read a schematic or a meter, etc.

I am helping my father put together a model, and we want to narrate it with lights. I found a 120 second voice recorder module I can use easily enough, but I need to setup the lights, which I'm not sure how to do. My requirements are that I need to cycle through four lights. When power is applied all four lights should turn on. Press a button, all four turn off. Then turn light one on for a time, then turn light one off and turn on light two for a time, etc, until all four lights are cycled through, then back to the default state of all lights on. The on and off times need to be adjustable as I will be setting the timers based on the voice recording.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
 
I saw a project once where they recorded a certain frequency with the voice, and used it to control the jaw in a skull. The control tone was outside normal range of hearing. Thinking it used an LM567 tone decoder, but don't think they make them anymore. It uses DTMF (dual tone multi frequency), like the telephone, but you can set up any frequency. Somebody more up on their chips might have some suggestions.

Just thought I'd throw that in, think it could save you some hassles later on.
 
hi,

The light cycling is fairly simple, but the type of light you are switching could make it more involved, what sort of lighting do want to use?
 
Thanks for the thought Harvey, but that's probably a bit beyond what I'm capable of electronics wise. I'm trying to keep it fairly simple also since I'm not an electronics person. I had thought a simple delayed on, delayed off timer, but I couldn't find anything like that in a kit.
 
skreien said:
It's just a small 12 volt model lamp. Like the kind used for train sets. Fairly generic.

Hi,
I'll draw up a diagram, post it tomorrow, its now 19:30hrs in UK.

Consider the newer LED's instead of small 12V filament lamps, some of these
LED's are quite bright. [ White and other colours ]
 
Eric, thanks for the help. It would have to be fairly simple for me to build it. I'm willing to give it a try though. Since I'm not in the electronics world you might have to help me locate anything I can't get in the neighborhood Radio Shack. I'm also not sure what to build it on. The ones I've done in the past were kits that came with a PCB.

I thought about using LED's, I am using the 12v lamps so it looks more historically correct. :)
 
Hi,

Just to recap.

1. Power ON.
READY:
All 4 lights ON and remain ON until user button press.

2. Button is Pressed.
All 4 lights OFF

3.
Then... #1 ON... 'delay' then #1 OFF... 'delay' ..... repeat for #2,3,4

4. LOOP to READY


Notes:
This condition needs to be defined.
>> "The on and off times need to be adjustable as I will be setting the timers based on the voice recording. "

Do the individual lights #1 to #4 require to have an adjustable ON times, or will a same ON time be OK.

Do the individual lights #1 to #4 require to have an adjustable OFF times, or will a same OFF time be OK.

Is the total cycle time of the timed ON/OFF's going to be in the order of the 120 seconds?

Can you give me an idea what the individual light ON/OFF times may be?

You prefer 'tungsten' filament lamps to suit the presentation, the voltage is 12V,
what current/wattage are the lamps going to be?
 
ericgibbs said:
Hi,

Just to recap.

1. Power ON.
READY:
All 4 lights ON and remain ON until user button press.

2. Button is Pressed.
All 4 lights OFF.
Narrative starts.
BTW, I was going to use something like this: **broken link removed**
ericgibbs said:
3.
Then... #1 ON... 'delay' then #1 OFF... 'delay' ..... repeat for #2,3,4

4. LOOP to READY


Notes:
This condition needs to be defined.
>> "The on and off times need to be adjustable as I will be setting the timers based on the voice recording. "

Do the individual lights #1 to #4 require to have an adjustable ON times, or will a same ON time be OK.
--The narrative will be of different lengths for each section, so each on time will need to be adjustable.
ericgibbs said:
Do the individual lights #1 to #4 require to have an adjustable OFF times, or will a same OFF time be OK.
--The narrative will be of different lengths for each section, so each off time will need to be adjustable also.
ericgibbs said:
Is the total cycle time of the timed ON/OFF's going to be in the order of the 120 seconds?
--We're going to be limited to 120 seconds narrative due to our choice of recorder, and maybe a little time after light 4 turns off and the narrative ends before we recycle back to ready. If the narrative runs longer I might have to find a different voice recorder, so I don't want to limit to 120 seconds. Certainly no more than 3-4 minutes though.

ericgibbs said:
Can you give me an idea what the individual light ON/OFF times may be?
--My father is working with my grandfather on coming up with the presentation, they haven't written/recorded it yet. The off times will likely be between 2 and 15 seconds. The on times will likely not be more than 60 seconds.

ericgibbs said:
You prefer 'tungsten' filament lamps to suit the presentation, the voltage is 12V, what current/wattage are the lamps going to be?

I can't find much information on the lights, I bought them at a hobby store. The description is "12 volt 5.5 millimeter incandescent light". Would it be easier to use a relay to control them? That way I can reuse this for other projects in the future also if the lighting changes and you don't have to worry about powering them from your circuit.

I have an excellent 12 volt 30 watt power supply from my days in R/C car racing, it should easily be able to power all of this.
 
hi,
Attached a couple of drawings showing one way of getting 8 sequential delays periods [ON/OFF].
One is the proposed circuit diagram and the other a example of a layout in order to give you an idea of the board size etc....
These drawings will give you an idea of whats involved in making this project. It may look complex, but its basically 8 identical modules.

It uses 4 dual monostable HEF4528 ic's and 1 quad gate HEF4093.

Each of the 8 monostables has it own timing components R1/P1 & C1.

At power ON, ALL relays are energised [lights ON], waiting for the Push Button press.

When the P/B is pressed ALL the relays de-energise [lights OFF].

Monostable #1 is triggered, by the latch controlled by the PB1, this energises RLY1, via the FET driver.
At the end of the MS #1 period MS #2 is triggered, the RLY is de-energised.

The time delay before MS #3 is triggered is determined by MS #2 timing period,
at the end of the MS #2 period, MS #3 is triggered and RLY2 is energised.

This sequence is repeated for MS #3 thru #8.

As MS #8 is triggered the system is Reset and ALL the relays are energised [lights ON].

Summary:
the odd numbered MS ie: #1,#3,#5,#7 are the [light ON] relay energised
the even numbered MS ie: #2,#4,#6,#8 are the [light OFF] relay de-energised, between lights.

I have designed this circuit to give some degree of control of the ON and OFF times.
Assuming a ON/OFF times of about 20secs maximum, total around 120-160secs.
I wouldn't consider using this method for delay times greater than this.

If you wish to use this circuit I will advise you regarding the timing components
connected to pins 1/2 and 14/15 of the MS [monostables].

Typically for about a 20sec delay, P1 is a 1M0 single turn pot and the Resistor 1M0, with a 22uF 6Vwkg tantalum capacitor.

Comment:
A PIC based controller would be a more logical solution, especially if you want to
extend delay times to many minutes.
It will also give you much more flexibilty in future presentations.
 
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