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#1 ·
Getting my ideas straight...

Well, I've been busy at work on a new project over the last few weeks. It started after Christmas, while I was tinkering around with my new "no pressure" list and I came across a facebook post from my sister. "Does anyone know where to get a traffic light" she says. So she gets some very good responses, and even a link to a website that sells a nice looking plastic one…..for $75! And, being a Lumberjock, what do I say?....... "I can make that". And off I went, googling pictures, clearing off my bench, daydreaming about how cool my traffic light would turn out, and how much my nephew would love it.

After talking with my Sister for a bit, I had a good starting point. It would be a wall hanging decoration, with working lights, and maybe 15-20" tall. But beyond that it was all left to me to decide. Just the way I like it :)

Like so many of the projects we start, things are getting bigger and bigger with every turn. Every new idea, and "how am I going to do that??" is creating a project that isn't a whole lot like what we started with. And this is no different :) Right now it has become a table top lamp sort of decoration. One that will have a small microcontroller "computer" mounted inside of it and will have a built in alarm clock of sorts. I'm hoping to put several useful features, ones that are all kid friendly and parent approved.

For starters, I hope to make this have a push button that will toggle the lights from green to yellow to red. Then I'd like for it to shut itself off after a cycle or two. This way It only really cycles when he wants it to, and becomes a fun "toy". I'd like it to read out the time, day of week, date, and room temperature. This will also tell him important days, such as birthdays and holidays. Maybe even a Christmas count down! Another feature that I'd like to add is one that will disable the button "light cycle" during the night time. So that button presses will not function the lights at bed time. And at night it will turn on the red light in a dim mode, to act as a night light. And have a "alarm" that you can set for the morning, one that will turn the night light to the green light. This way it will help give a visual clock indication of when it's ok to get out of bed. Hopefully this will help teach the importance of not getting up at 4am and playing :)

SO, it's been a long few weeks of learning the circuits, testing and soldering. But I have built the basic frame in oak a few days ago, and have a functioning light cycle circuit. Good things to come, and I'm very excited!!

Passive circuit component Circuit component Hardware programmer Electronic engineering Engineering
 

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#2 ·
Getting my ideas straight...

Well, I've been busy at work on a new project over the last few weeks. It started after Christmas, while I was tinkering around with my new "no pressure" list and I came across a facebook post from my sister. "Does anyone know where to get a traffic light" she says. So she gets some very good responses, and even a link to a website that sells a nice looking plastic one…..for $75! And, being a Lumberjock, what do I say?....... "I can make that". And off I went, googling pictures, clearing off my bench, daydreaming about how cool my traffic light would turn out, and how much my nephew would love it.

After talking with my Sister for a bit, I had a good starting point. It would be a wall hanging decoration, with working lights, and maybe 15-20" tall. But beyond that it was all left to me to decide. Just the way I like it :)

Like so many of the projects we start, things are getting bigger and bigger with every turn. Every new idea, and "how am I going to do that??" is creating a project that isn't a whole lot like what we started with. And this is no different :) Right now it has become a table top lamp sort of decoration. One that will have a small microcontroller "computer" mounted inside of it and will have a built in alarm clock of sorts. I'm hoping to put several useful features, ones that are all kid friendly and parent approved.

For starters, I hope to make this have a push button that will toggle the lights from green to yellow to red. Then I'd like for it to shut itself off after a cycle or two. This way It only really cycles when he wants it to, and becomes a fun "toy". I'd like it to read out the time, day of week, date, and room temperature. This will also tell him important days, such as birthdays and holidays. Maybe even a Christmas count down! Another feature that I'd like to add is one that will disable the button "light cycle" during the night time. So that button presses will not function the lights at bed time. And at night it will turn on the red light in a dim mode, to act as a night light. And have a "alarm" that you can set for the morning, one that will turn the night light to the green light. This way it will help give a visual clock indication of when it's ok to get out of bed. Hopefully this will help teach the importance of not getting up at 4am and playing :)

SO, it's been a long few weeks of learning the circuits, testing and soldering. But I have built the basic frame in oak a few days ago, and have a functioning light cycle circuit. Good things to come, and I'm very excited!!

Passive circuit component Circuit component Hardware programmer Electronic engineering Engineering
What a cool project! When my son was about 4-5, we got him a Little Tykes plastic traffic light that was about 4' tall. He LOVED it! I can't tell you how many hundreds of hours he played with it, setting up traffic stops on the sidewalk in front of our house (the neighbors loved that!) and playing with his friends and their bikes and cars. I am sure it will be appreciated.

It is great to see you doing all the circuitry yourself, too. It will mean so much to him and I am sure it will be a great keepsake.

Thanks for reminding me of those times in my own life (my son is now 27 and a police officer) and for showing us your project. I will look forward to seeing the finished light.

Sheila :)
 

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#3 ·
Getting my ideas straight...

Well, I've been busy at work on a new project over the last few weeks. It started after Christmas, while I was tinkering around with my new "no pressure" list and I came across a facebook post from my sister. "Does anyone know where to get a traffic light" she says. So she gets some very good responses, and even a link to a website that sells a nice looking plastic one…..for $75! And, being a Lumberjock, what do I say?....... "I can make that". And off I went, googling pictures, clearing off my bench, daydreaming about how cool my traffic light would turn out, and how much my nephew would love it.

After talking with my Sister for a bit, I had a good starting point. It would be a wall hanging decoration, with working lights, and maybe 15-20" tall. But beyond that it was all left to me to decide. Just the way I like it :)

Like so many of the projects we start, things are getting bigger and bigger with every turn. Every new idea, and "how am I going to do that??" is creating a project that isn't a whole lot like what we started with. And this is no different :) Right now it has become a table top lamp sort of decoration. One that will have a small microcontroller "computer" mounted inside of it and will have a built in alarm clock of sorts. I'm hoping to put several useful features, ones that are all kid friendly and parent approved.

For starters, I hope to make this have a push button that will toggle the lights from green to yellow to red. Then I'd like for it to shut itself off after a cycle or two. This way It only really cycles when he wants it to, and becomes a fun "toy". I'd like it to read out the time, day of week, date, and room temperature. This will also tell him important days, such as birthdays and holidays. Maybe even a Christmas count down! Another feature that I'd like to add is one that will disable the button "light cycle" during the night time. So that button presses will not function the lights at bed time. And at night it will turn on the red light in a dim mode, to act as a night light. And have a "alarm" that you can set for the morning, one that will turn the night light to the green light. This way it will help give a visual clock indication of when it's ok to get out of bed. Hopefully this will help teach the importance of not getting up at 4am and playing :)

SO, it's been a long few weeks of learning the circuits, testing and soldering. But I have built the basic frame in oak a few days ago, and have a functioning light cycle circuit. Good things to come, and I'm very excited!!

Passive circuit component Circuit component Hardware programmer Electronic engineering Engineering
okay, yeah…you are hyper-focusing on this one, but it sounds like it is going to be SUPER-COOL!! Why do something halfway, when you can do something super-cool with it instead? If you have the know-how, then…why not? Or if you don't, there is the best opportunity and most effective means of learning!
-but it looks like you just need a few hours in each day, and you'd be covered!
 

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#4 ·
Getting my ideas straight...

Well, I've been busy at work on a new project over the last few weeks. It started after Christmas, while I was tinkering around with my new "no pressure" list and I came across a facebook post from my sister. "Does anyone know where to get a traffic light" she says. So she gets some very good responses, and even a link to a website that sells a nice looking plastic one…..for $75! And, being a Lumberjock, what do I say?....... "I can make that". And off I went, googling pictures, clearing off my bench, daydreaming about how cool my traffic light would turn out, and how much my nephew would love it.

After talking with my Sister for a bit, I had a good starting point. It would be a wall hanging decoration, with working lights, and maybe 15-20" tall. But beyond that it was all left to me to decide. Just the way I like it :)

Like so many of the projects we start, things are getting bigger and bigger with every turn. Every new idea, and "how am I going to do that??" is creating a project that isn't a whole lot like what we started with. And this is no different :) Right now it has become a table top lamp sort of decoration. One that will have a small microcontroller "computer" mounted inside of it and will have a built in alarm clock of sorts. I'm hoping to put several useful features, ones that are all kid friendly and parent approved.

For starters, I hope to make this have a push button that will toggle the lights from green to yellow to red. Then I'd like for it to shut itself off after a cycle or two. This way It only really cycles when he wants it to, and becomes a fun "toy". I'd like it to read out the time, day of week, date, and room temperature. This will also tell him important days, such as birthdays and holidays. Maybe even a Christmas count down! Another feature that I'd like to add is one that will disable the button "light cycle" during the night time. So that button presses will not function the lights at bed time. And at night it will turn on the red light in a dim mode, to act as a night light. And have a "alarm" that you can set for the morning, one that will turn the night light to the green light. This way it will help give a visual clock indication of when it's ok to get out of bed. Hopefully this will help teach the importance of not getting up at 4am and playing :)

SO, it's been a long few weeks of learning the circuits, testing and soldering. But I have built the basic frame in oak a few days ago, and have a functioning light cycle circuit. Good things to come, and I'm very excited!!

Passive circuit component Circuit component Hardware programmer Electronic engineering Engineering
Dale,

Sounds like this is going to be a really cool project. Once you're done, how about a copy of your schematic on how you put the electronics together for this?

In the meantime, have fun and…

Be Careful!
 

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#5 ·
Finally some progress....

Today marked two days in a row of progress on my light project. This, after over a week of beating my head on the bench with the electronics on the lighting. But….. finally I have the basic light circuit wired and working, and tested with the actual lights that will be mounted in when it's complete. Now I'm waiting for the paint to dry, and assembly of the "lamp" portion tomorrow. I'll post as soon as I can get it together, and post a video as soon as I can (although my work week starts tomorrow night, so it may be a few days). Also, I'll get a schematic of the traffic light wiring up on here soon. I chose to wire the light separate from the clock, so that if something happens to go wrong with one part the other will continue to work.

Now, here's some details to share…....

First off, I'll show a little video of what was driving me crazy for the last several days. This is what my lighting circuit was doing until yesterday when I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. What I wanted it to do is to press the button, and the lights would cycle through green-yellow-red. After doing this cycle three times, then it would shut itself off. And then you could adjust the knob to make it cycle faster or slower.



So as you can see….. this isn't what was happening :) I redid this stupid thing something like 5 times. I'd build it out on a breadboard and it would work just fine, but on my soldered board it would do this. So I'd re-solder it, and the same thing would happen. Over and over this stinkin' thing was killing me. I actually lost sleep on this part. So yesterday morning the wife had an appointment, and that pulled me out of the garage to watch the little ones. So I thought that I'd re-draw my schematics and break them out into a light control circuit, and a power control circuit. While doing this, I was looking at the datasheet of the 4017 again…... and there it was! Staring me right in the face. I had my sequence off! Originally I had thought that pin 3 was the last in the sequence, but it turns out that it was the first. So this explained why you had to hold the button down until the second tick, because I use the last output pin to shut off the power supply to the light control. This means that when it started, it started with pin3, which I had wired to shut off the lights.

Passive circuit component Circuit component Hardware programmer Engineering Electronic component


As far as the lights not going through 3 times, this was because when I had drawn the original schematics, I had put down the sequence order (or what I thought was the order :), and not the alternating order. A typo on my part, that I dutifully transferred to the soldering :) So silly. So here it is when it is working as it should.



The rest of the day was making the face piece, and the hoods for the lights. For the face I put a rabbit along the face to have it set down inside of the box. I wanted to keep this thing as light as possible, but the lid had to be thicker to support mounting the lenses. Which I plan on mounting by gluing them into a 45 degree chamfer on the inside.

The rabbit… This is 1/4" deep, and 1/4" inside, as the box walls are 1/4" oak.

Table Rectangle Wood Electrical tape Circle


The chamfer… This was done so that the lenses will rest inside more or less flush.
Blue Paint Wood Gas Tints and shades

Automotive lighting Wood Gas Bumper Eyewear


The hoods… These are made with 4" to 4" sewer adapters. I'm not really sure what the different pipes are, but one fits inside of the other. And the lenses are exactly 4" wide, so this worked out perfectly.
Dishware Serveware Automotive design Wood Gas
 

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#6 ·
Finally some progress....

Today marked two days in a row of progress on my light project. This, after over a week of beating my head on the bench with the electronics on the lighting. But….. finally I have the basic light circuit wired and working, and tested with the actual lights that will be mounted in when it's complete. Now I'm waiting for the paint to dry, and assembly of the "lamp" portion tomorrow. I'll post as soon as I can get it together, and post a video as soon as I can (although my work week starts tomorrow night, so it may be a few days). Also, I'll get a schematic of the traffic light wiring up on here soon. I chose to wire the light separate from the clock, so that if something happens to go wrong with one part the other will continue to work.

Now, here's some details to share…....

First off, I'll show a little video of what was driving me crazy for the last several days. This is what my lighting circuit was doing until yesterday when I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. What I wanted it to do is to press the button, and the lights would cycle through green-yellow-red. After doing this cycle three times, then it would shut itself off. And then you could adjust the knob to make it cycle faster or slower.



So as you can see….. this isn't what was happening :) I redid this stupid thing something like 5 times. I'd build it out on a breadboard and it would work just fine, but on my soldered board it would do this. So I'd re-solder it, and the same thing would happen. Over and over this stinkin' thing was killing me. I actually lost sleep on this part. So yesterday morning the wife had an appointment, and that pulled me out of the garage to watch the little ones. So I thought that I'd re-draw my schematics and break them out into a light control circuit, and a power control circuit. While doing this, I was looking at the datasheet of the 4017 again…... and there it was! Staring me right in the face. I had my sequence off! Originally I had thought that pin 3 was the last in the sequence, but it turns out that it was the first. So this explained why you had to hold the button down until the second tick, because I use the last output pin to shut off the power supply to the light control. This means that when it started, it started with pin3, which I had wired to shut off the lights.

Passive circuit component Circuit component Hardware programmer Engineering Electronic component


As far as the lights not going through 3 times, this was because when I had drawn the original schematics, I had put down the sequence order (or what I thought was the order :), and not the alternating order. A typo on my part, that I dutifully transferred to the soldering :) So silly. So here it is when it is working as it should.



The rest of the day was making the face piece, and the hoods for the lights. For the face I put a rabbit along the face to have it set down inside of the box. I wanted to keep this thing as light as possible, but the lid had to be thicker to support mounting the lenses. Which I plan on mounting by gluing them into a 45 degree chamfer on the inside.

The rabbit… This is 1/4" deep, and 1/4" inside, as the box walls are 1/4" oak.

Table Rectangle Wood Electrical tape Circle


The chamfer… This was done so that the lenses will rest inside more or less flush.
Blue Paint Wood Gas Tints and shades

Automotive lighting Wood Gas Bumper Eyewear


The hoods… These are made with 4" to 4" sewer adapters. I'm not really sure what the different pipes are, but one fits inside of the other. And the lenses are exactly 4" wide, so this worked out perfectly.
Dishware Serveware Automotive design Wood Gas
This is coming along really nice! The sewer adapters make excellent hoods for the lights. You are in the home stretch now and it looks like it will come out wonderful!

Sheila
 

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#7 ·
Light Controller Schematic...

Here is the final (as of this point) wiring on the light controller circuit. I'll get the power controller for this part added shortly.

This is a really simple circuit with only two IC's. One is a 555 timer chip that will create a pulse at an interval determined by adjusting a potentiometer (from about 2 a second all the way to about 4 or 5 seconds). This pulse is sent to a 4017 decade counter chip that will cycle outputs after each pulse received. So it basically counts from 1 to 10 and then resets back to 1. What we do with this is set each of the outputs to trigger a transistor and turn on a set of lights. With three lights (red, yellow, green), I chose to cycle through each light 3 times. This leaves me with one output to turn the circuit off. I'll show how this works on the next schematic post. But for now, you can see that this is a very simple circuit with many other applications. You could even choose to use this to control a two way intersection of lights on say…. a model rail road light.

Rectangle Font Handwriting Line Parallel


Traffic Light Controller Circuit
Hopefully this shows up readable, I'm not sure how to post it with a "zoom". But if anyone happens to want this in the "full size" scan, just shoot me a message with your email. I'll send it your way.

Until next time! Take care everyone!
 

Attachments

#8 ·
Light Controller Schematic...

Here is the final (as of this point) wiring on the light controller circuit. I'll get the power controller for this part added shortly.

This is a really simple circuit with only two IC's. One is a 555 timer chip that will create a pulse at an interval determined by adjusting a potentiometer (from about 2 a second all the way to about 4 or 5 seconds). This pulse is sent to a 4017 decade counter chip that will cycle outputs after each pulse received. So it basically counts from 1 to 10 and then resets back to 1. What we do with this is set each of the outputs to trigger a transistor and turn on a set of lights. With three lights (red, yellow, green), I chose to cycle through each light 3 times. This leaves me with one output to turn the circuit off. I'll show how this works on the next schematic post. But for now, you can see that this is a very simple circuit with many other applications. You could even choose to use this to control a two way intersection of lights on say…. a model rail road light.

Rectangle Font Handwriting Line Parallel


Traffic Light Controller Circuit
Hopefully this shows up readable, I'm not sure how to post it with a "zoom". But if anyone happens to want this in the "full size" scan, just shoot me a message with your email. I'll send it your way.

Until next time! Take care everyone!
Wonderful project.
best thoughts,
Mads
 

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#10 ·
Assembly test (video)

Well, today was a great day for this project :)

I was able to get the lenses and hoods mounted, and the entire circuit mounted on a temporary base for testing. It all works! One change is that I will make the base "box" as a light controller only for now. I am afraid that I won't be able to complete it by his birthday (a week away from delivery). So what I plan on doing is making a box for the base that has the light control circuit in it. And then I can make a "replacement" base box with all of the other features in it. The clock, temperature sensor, and night light circuit. That way I have a little time to get it all right. And then I will (hopefully) be able to just take it over there, and swap out the boxes to add the new features. I've put all of the lights on easily removable connectors to hopefully make all of this possible. So the crunch is on to complete the base, and have a completed and working light by next Sunday. Wish me luck! :)

Here is a video of it working, one change I made at the last minute was to sand the inside of the lenses to diffuse the lights inside. I had test build and planned on using wax paper on the inside. But what I wasn't liking about it was that you could see a "ring" in the center where the lights would hit the paper. This seems to solve that issue, and I'm really happy with the results.



I also completed the schematic for the power controller. This is the push button and relay part of the light controller that latches a relay when the button is pressed. And then pin 11 of the 4017 opens the circuit, and shuts off the light until the button is pressed again.

Rectangle Font Slope Parallel Pattern
 

Attachments

#11 ·
Assembly test (video)

Well, today was a great day for this project :)

I was able to get the lenses and hoods mounted, and the entire circuit mounted on a temporary base for testing. It all works! One change is that I will make the base "box" as a light controller only for now. I am afraid that I won't be able to complete it by his birthday (a week away from delivery). So what I plan on doing is making a box for the base that has the light control circuit in it. And then I can make a "replacement" base box with all of the other features in it. The clock, temperature sensor, and night light circuit. That way I have a little time to get it all right. And then I will (hopefully) be able to just take it over there, and swap out the boxes to add the new features. I've put all of the lights on easily removable connectors to hopefully make all of this possible. So the crunch is on to complete the base, and have a completed and working light by next Sunday. Wish me luck! :)

Here is a video of it working, one change I made at the last minute was to sand the inside of the lenses to diffuse the lights inside. I had test build and planned on using wax paper on the inside. But what I wasn't liking about it was that you could see a "ring" in the center where the lights would hit the paper. This seems to solve that issue, and I'm really happy with the results.



I also completed the schematic for the power controller. This is the push button and relay part of the light controller that latches a relay when the button is pressed. And then pin 11 of the 4017 opens the circuit, and shuts off the light until the button is pressed again.

Rectangle Font Slope Parallel Pattern
Congratulations!
Now there will be chaos in the street.
Cool little helper you got.
Best thoughts,
Mads
 

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