Engineering on Friday Halloween: A Circuit to DIY For
Rise skull circuit! Blink your scary lights!
Yes, that's all it does. It blinks the “eyes” like a flickering candle.
It’s a simple attempt to create randomness in the blinking, like a flickering candle, as I said. But if you watch long enough, you might see that it’s fairly stable. Two different frequencies are combined to simulate the effect. I was thinking of adding in some sort of floating transistor lead that might react to ambient conditions. A photodiode or microphone might do the trick. But the circuit would be a bit more dense.
Someone told me this was a scary image.
I asked whether it was the cat playing with the flame embers?
The grid/tile floor?
The fact that the schematic can create a blinking light circuit?
They never told me. The mystery remains.
Truth be told, it’s actually the circuit below from another Halloween drawing challenge I was in years ago. I wanted to do something more with it for you all, since I have a digital drawing tablet and all.
Today starts the countdown to the end of my cartoon series “Engineering on Friday” here at Electronic Design. It was fun to share. The drawing time ranged from 30 minutes to 16 hours, depending on the complexity. That time is the main reason for it ending.
Since I don’t get paid for drawing or posting these cartoons, I’m thinking my time might be better spent getting a second job. A side hustle. Something along those lines. Sad state of affairs that most everyone I know, engineers included, needs a side hustle to get by.
Not sure how many I will still post here. Maybe 4. Or maybe just 2 or 3. Who knows, could be just one.
This is week 4 of the Halloween series. One remains!
See the rest of my toons at the Engineering on Friday comic gallery.
About the Author
Cabe AtwellCabe Atwell
Technology Editor, Electronic Design
Cabe is a Technology Editor for Electronic Design.
Engineer, Machinist, Cartoonist, Maker, Writer. A graduate Electrical Engineer actively plying his expertise in the industry and at his company, Gunhead. When not designing/building, he creates a steady torrent of projects and content in the media world. Many of his projects and articles are online at element14 & SolidSmack, industry-focused work at EETimes & EDN, and offbeat articles at Make Magazine. Currently, you can find him hosting webinars and contributing to Electronic Design and Machine Design.
Cabe is an electrical engineer, design consultant and author with 25 years’ experience. His most recent book is “Essential 555 IC: Design, Configure, and Create Clever Circuits”
Cabe writes the Engineering Life & Engineering on Friday blog on Electronic Design.
See Cabe's cartoons & comic strips here.
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