Building chasing airport lights -- Attn: Jim Weir?

Jay Honeck wrote:

Well, ok but the little mcu I'm thinking of will run at 8 mips,
needs no xtal, has 16 i/o lines, has an 8 chan 10 bit a/d,
2 high speed pwm channels, timers, power supply monitoring,
is a 20 pin dip, costs $1.50,
can be programmed "in situ", and will support high level
language!

Even for really simple devices, it seems the days of
discrete logic are over! 8-)


You call this "relative ease," Tom? I don't even know what the hell you're
talking about!

Tell you what -- you build this thing, and when you bring it to Iowa City,
your night in any suite (whichever era you prefer) is free!


Whoo Hoo! Methinks I'll have to take you up on that! If you would,
drop me an email with the Radio Shack part# of the lamps you bought
so I can check one out, and we can work out some technical details
of the MRALS configuration.

Tom Pappano, PP-ASEL-IA

Jim Weir wrote:

WAIT A MINNITT...

I just told them how to do it. Somebody said they can follow my plans and they
can do it.

And you give THEM a free room?

What is wrong with this picture?




"Jay Honeck"
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-
-
-Tell you what -- you build this thing, and when you bring it to Iowa City,
-your night in any suite (whichever era you prefer) is free!

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

HeHeHe...

"John Galban" wrote in message
om...
| "C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
|
| If the lights are too bright they will indeed induce seizures in the
| susceptible. Red lights and white lights are worse than the blue lights
you
| propose. This is a problem at theme parks where a lot of rides have
flashing
| and chasing lights. You will often see signs warning epileptics of the
| danger, but under the right circumstances these lights have induced
seizures
| in persons not known to have had epilepsy. I suspect that having the
lights
| overhead will increase the level of discomfort.
|
| The city of Las Vegas must require one whoppin' big disclaimer
| before they let you off the plane :-)
|

Presumably someone who was that susceptible to flashing lights would know
enough to stay away from Las Vegas, or Times Square, or the Ginza district
of Tokyo, etc. Actually, there is so much light there that I would think all
the flashing tends to even itself out.

Back in the late '70s I remember reading in an Air Force safety magazine
about a pilot who was watching the setting sun through the windmilling prop
of a C-130. He had a seizure on the ramp. He never suspected that he had
epilepsy.

I just told them how to do it. Somebody said they can follow my plans and
they
can do it.

And you give THEM a free room?

Hmmm. I've checked and re-checked the thread, and all I see here is Tom's
post detailing the construction of said chasing lights.

Did my ISP eat your post, Jim?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Whoo Hoo! Methinks I'll have to take you up on that! If you would,
drop me an email with the Radio Shack part# of the lamps you bought
so I can check one out, and we can work out some technical details
of the MRALS configuration.

Tom Pappano, PP-ASEL-IA

Haven't bought 'em yet, pending the final design specifications. If you
have a way to use LEDs instead (and remember, the prime directive is that
they must be easily installed so that they stick out below - and through -
the suspended ceiling tiles.), all the better!

So when do you plan to do the installation? :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"John Galban" wrote in message
om...
"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

If the lights are too bright they will indeed induce seizures in the
susceptible. Red lights and white lights are worse than the blue lights
you
propose. This is a problem at theme parks where a lot of rides have
flashing
and chasing lights. You will often see signs warning epileptics of the
danger, but under the right circumstances these lights have induced
seizures
in persons not known to have had epilepsy. I suspect that having the
lights
overhead will increase the level of discomfort.

The city of Las Vegas must require one whoppin' big disclaimer
before they let you off the plane :-)

Can someone have a seizure watching the wheels spin in the slot machines?

"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
...
|
| Can someone have a seizure watching the wheels spin in the slot machines?

Do slot machines even have wheels any more? I don't know; I haven't taken a
close look at a slot machine in 20 years.

C J Campbell wrote:

"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
...
|
| Can someone have a seizure watching the wheels spin in the slot machines?

Do slot machines even have wheels any more? I don't know; I haven't taken a
close look at a slot machine in 20 years.

Only on old machines, all the new ones are video displays, though it will
be years before all the mechanical machines go away.

The trend seems to be away from the classic 3 wheel machine to more
interactive games.


--
Jim Pennino

Remove -spam-sux to reply.

Roy Smith wrote:
Tom Pappano wrote:

Well, ok but the little mcu I'm thinking of will run at 8 mips,
needs no xtal, has 16 i/o lines, has an 8 chan 10 bit a/d,
2 high speed pwm channels, timers, power supply monitoring,
is a 20 pin dip, costs $1.50,
can be programmed "in situ", and will support high level
language!



Sounds cool. Is that price for Qty 1? Got a part number?

Hi Roy,

This particular one is an Atmel ATTINY26, 1pc $2.58 from
Digi-Key. Much less in quantity from more major suppliers.
Atmel has a large family of these things in 8 pin to 64
pin packages, with internal flash memory from 1 to 128k.
They call them "AVR" RISC controllers. Atmel provides free
development software, really cheap development and programming
hardware, and freeware "C" compiler suites are available that
support the devices and the programmers. These things are
much faster while requiring less power than 8031 products.
They can be programmed "in system" so the devices do not need
to be socketed to allow program development or upgrading.
Check them out at www.atmel.com

Tom Pappano, PP-ASEL-IA

Ray, I'm shocked!! 1 timer, 2 16-bit shift registers, and 32 LED's

Maurice


Ray Andraka wrote in message ...
Jay,

There are inexpensive christmas light sequencers available. They generally use
3 circuits with every third bulb on the same circuit. I had one a few years ago
that had a switch to select chase, random or all on, and a knob to vary the
rate. Cost no more than 3 or 4 bucks and came with the lights.

That is a little bit different than the rabbit, which has only one light on at a
time, so it may not achieve the effect you are looking for. A possible low
tech solution would be a motor driving a cam that closes a series of
microswitches in sequence...easy enough to produce by someone with a little bit
of mechanical talent and not much electrical know-how. A higher tech solution
would be to use electronics consisting of a programable logic device and a set
of solid state switches to switch the current. Could also be done with a
computer with a relay card plugged into it, but would need a little bit of
programming to make it work (such relay cards are available from electronics
firms like Jameco). The computer solution would be a bit of overkill, but could
be done with off the shelf stuff.

Jay Honeck wrote:

Today a pilot-guest had the coolest idea for the side-entrance to our lobby:
"Chasing" lights recessed in the drop-ceiling tiles, leading to the main
lobby area, that look just like the "rabbit" lights that lead to the
approach end of a runway!

(Background: Over half of our guests come in the "wrong" door to our lobby,
which leads more directly to the pilot's lounge than to the reservation
desk. As a result, we've often got people milling around looking "lost" in
the pilot's lounge. These chasing lights would "lead" them to the correct
area, and be really cool looking, too.)

So, I stopped at the local Rat Shack, and found the perfect little 12 volt
blue lights, 1/2 inch in diameter. (Blue would be a bit toned-down from
white strobes!) It would be a simple matter to drill 1/2 inch holes in the
ceiling tiles, every 12 inches or so, and push them through the tiles from
above so that only the blue "dome" was sticking out through the hole. I
think 12 volt lighting would be safer in the ceiling than 120 volt Christmas
lights, as a couple of people have suggested...

Here's the problem: How to sequence them? The guys at Radio Shack had NO
advice at all -- they were all stumped. The lights should flash
sequentially pretty fast, but I think they'd look pretty stupid if they
weren't coordinated properly. I'd also want to incorporate a motion
detector on/off switch, so that they weren't running all the time.

Anyone got any ideas? Are there affordable electronic "sequencers"
available? Is this something RST Engineering could build for me, Jim?

Thanks!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759