Posted: 10/6/2007 11:02:01 PM EDT
| So I'm making some props for halloween and can do simple stuff like soldering together regular LED's. But I want to make them look like a candle. Anyone know how I can do this using parts from Radio Shack? |
Complexily? Make yourself a Karganian (sp?) table, figure out the conditions, build your gates on that research. Easy? Look in a bike shop for LED's that do what you want. _______________________________________ ("Toaster!"--a human about any Cylon, (wtte), "Battlestar Galactica") |
Safer to use low-voltage battery-operated electronics with the kids, varboard, paper, etc.- no flames OP: they sell small boards like 1 X 2 with soldering pads. Look up the product information for 555/556 & see if they show a timer circuit. Changing the resistor & maybe capacitor values lets you set the flash rate. You also need a current- limiting resistor in series with the LED. |
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Blinking is easy, you can buy blinking leds at RS or Fry's Electronics, but blinking leds don't actually flicker like candles which never actually go out, they just dim and flash randomly. For that you would have to set up some kind of PWM circuit that randomly increases and shortens the duty cycle. |
Pssht. Pick a microcontroller of your choice. Learn whatever programming language you can find a compiler or assmbler for. Build or buy a programmer, or make sure the chip you picked has in-circuit-programming capability. Build circuit and write program for chip. Enjoy. |