There are several posts about build it yourself lights. Ive been following this post:
trying to build the board and lights from scratch. Problem is, it doesn’t work. I got the boards made up at http://www.expresspcb.com/ from the lighting plans on this post. Bought boatloads of parts as listed from various sites.
Built the whole thing last night and it doesn’t work. Ill post photos of the boards later today but Im wondering if anyone out there can offer advice or help trouble shoot.
Basically the power cell lights light up fine but then stop. They dont repeat. And the cyclotron lights dont light up at all.
A few notes.
The schematics on the board spec LED, but the parts list specs regular incandescent. Im using the incandescent.
When I used the expresspcb site to upload the lighting schematic file, if came back with an error. Several other people noted this error. I fixed it by removing some redundant holes (sorry dont know tech terms) There were a few places where a blank connection was on top on another one. It came back and said that two connections where too close together to make the board. It appeared as if they were just extraneous icons on the program used to make the board. When finished the board LOOKED just like the schematics.
Wiggling the 4015 register does cause the lights to flicker. SO there could be a problem there. But as mentioned the cyclotron lights never came on.
I omitted the last two power cell lights. The schematics label them as optional.
Ill post photos of the boards and my wiring later today. Im just hoping anyone out there can help trouble shoot.