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[SpecialKizzle]

supposedly i can buy "premade faders" or find tutorials on how to make some, so far, i've found german ones. which i translated...here. Or can u just simply purchase one online? i haven't had much luck with that...so uh yea. HELP i guess?

[Glycerine]

and a quick search of the bit tech forums turned this up.  http://www.zapwizard.com/led_Changer/

[dank42]

just read this post but dam i gotta say somethin...........
a2h you are a  fukin dum ass
twisted knows his shit when it comes to circuits
i guess you aint been around the scene long enuff to know that

shit forgot the real reason i posted:
on the matter of the "breathing xbox"
i added a second fan and used a fabric softner as a filter (just to see if i could make my room smell sunshine fresh while i was playin my box:)) and it created some kind of air current where the filter would pop in and out to the rythmn of a heart beat and you could see the fabric softner thumping on the side of the box like a heart in some kind of science documentary i added a red led to it so now it looks like a heart:)
ill see if i can get a video up here in alil bit

This post has been edited by dank42: Nov 6 2003, 08:30 PM

[SpecialKizzle]

...right...ok Dank  

Anyways...here is the revised version of my "breathing" x-box. NOTE: This hasn't been created so for all you noobs, I too am a noob and don't try what I have created...YET . Anyways, so what I have created is LEDs in parallel the four controller ports and the two bottom LEDs on the eject button. What I will do is disconnect 8 &6's power (2nd picture) and place those in the parallel. After doing so, I will connect all these to a resistor and then to a ground. (do I need to put a resistor on all LEDs? because I heard you could just use one Resistor at the end of the parallel). And the "cool feature" of this is that it has an option to turn off, and when you turn it off the eject button will remain on but not breathing (with a knife switch...or something). So the two questions are:

1. Which electrical source do I use (5v, 12v, ?) and what color wire is that?
2. For LED 7 & 5 to suit my idea, where is the main power supply for those two LEDs? So I could simply rewire it to my knife switch?



So if all goes well, the only thing holding me back...is my "fader" :sigh:

[vona_a]

Ok, I have to be quick but heres my take on this:

1) The German tutorial you found deals with a sort of 2-Opamp Function Generator.  Its basically a Schmitt trigger followed by an integrator (do a yahoo search, you'll see what I mean).  THIS IS A PERFECT CIRCUIT FOR YOU.  Only problem is, I've never gotten that circuit to work.  I mean NEVER.  My friend next to me using the same parts could do it, but not me . You'd have to create a 6V middle and use that as a GND, so that your real GND becomes -6V and the 12V signal becomes 6V.  sound like fun?

2) We can "fake" the integrator buy using a simplified R2R ladder and a few capacitors (see my pic below).  You'd run the whole system from 0V to 12V.  As you can see, the voltage Out isn't a perfect line, but its linear enough that you'll notice it fading in and out.  In my schematics Im using a LM741 opamp, but you can replace with a LM324 with better results.

[twistedsymphony]

I got a similar circuit to work using a dual opamp... remember it was one of the circuits I built and took a pic of in palmore's post....

... anway I built one with 2 leds that faded oposite each other... then I slowed it down and added a relay to pause between fades and added a 555 timer and decade counter to fade in and out 10 LEDs one after the other...



I didn't build it exactly like that diagram I had to make due with the parts I had. so I used 2 separate audio opamps and whatever transisters I pulled out of my toolbox (I couldn't tell you the values if I wanted to)

anyway it worked pretty well...

[SpecialKizzle]

Sweet. so i gotta be lucky in making my "fader" so what about my other 2 questions? And does it look right? i mean is this idea of mine going to work? and if you can (sorry if i sound demanding, i'm not can someone take my noob schematic and make it "work" technically?

[Heet]

A2H, your an ass for trying to flame Twisted.  He is one of THE electronics wizards on this forum and respected.  Young member suits you.  

Thanks for helping yet again Twisted Symphony.  Ive learned a lot by your suggestions.

[twistedsymphony]

Thanks it's nice to have your support, I enjoy going around the forums and helping people learn how to do stuff, and be creative with their mods past just following tutorials.

lately XS has been really overflowing with flames after flames and it's getting annoying. I've already jumped and started do this stuff and writing all my tuts for another forum mostly because I'm sick of not being able to get on the forums here from them being overloaded. But if this flame shit on this forum keeps up I'll probably move there exclusivly. Which really sucks because there are a lot of really cool people here that I will miss if I leave...

it's my opinion that no one should get flamed for any reason, even if they "deserve it" nothing will burn them more than if no one responds or acknowledges they exist.
....just my opinion....
------------------------------------

on a happier note.... Special Kizzle this can definilty be done. I would do it myself if I had the time (it is a really cool idea).  basically use this fader circuit http://xoomer.virgil...elle/Page51.htm this is the one I built last week and similar to the one you and vona were talking about. basically get a bread board and built it on it (be sure to use a socket for the IC incase you blow it   )

you'll want to build it slightly different though. if you look at the transistor. remove the resistor LED part from the bottom completely. then the top of the transistor should be connected to ground instead of 5V (it says 4.5 but 5 works just fine   ).

now go to your front pannel  and clip off the ground legs of the LEDs by the board , get some wire and solder them together. now take the ground lead of the LED and attach that to the bottom of the transistor in that diagram. I dont think you'll need a resistor at all because it's built into that front pannel already. that should work. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I'd recomend searching around for some electronics sites for help with reading circuit diagrams and build the circuit on a ProtoBoard (exactly how it is in the diagram), once you have it working on the board rebuild it soldered in place on a breadboard (With the modifications to the circuit) and wire it up. once you know it works wrap it in electrical tape to keep it from shorting out inside or your xbox (or hot melt it to something).
if you need anymore help let me know.

good luck

[SpecialKizzle]

horray! i'm getting somewhere! ok so i guess ms paint is my best friend these past couple days, so i've done a lil something to that picture. so uh...how's it look?

i'm pretty sure i messed up somewhere! i got confused with your words. so i have yet another question...

1. Which wire DO i use (or suggest to use) for my 5 volt power supply?
2. and the question about "switching" from fader to just the eject button...i'm still not clear about that part.

thanks for everyone's input! can't wait to take pics for this one.

[vona_a]

Well, you need to add a resistor after the LED's to ground, so that you dont blow your LEDs....  

And the safest place to steal voltage is from your HDD power plug.  Just buy a simple Y adaptor at your store, and use the spare end as any source of 5V or 12V you need. (Red is 5V, yellow is 12V, black is your GND)

[twistedsymphony]

yeah what vona said but if you're using the LEDs on the front pannel you dont need resisters beucase they have a resisted signal going to them.. I edited your diagram:



I the switch in the middle of the circuit... by putting the switch there the LEds will finish what ever fade there on (up or down) and stop. so if you break the connection mid fade out... it will just fade out and stop... and as soon as you click it back on it will pick up where it left off...

hope that helps

[SpecialKizzle]

So based on our newly created (or old...hehe) blueprint...

could i put 10 LEDs? as long as it were in a parallel, so it won't BLow up or short circuit it? k thnx much love the Twisted! and everyone else that helped.

[vona_a]

QUOTE

I just skimmed through this thread, but I saw someone mention to add a resitor for each led when you should only use one. Using multiple resistors in parellell would be pointless because the more resistors you use the less resistance you would get. If you attach 2 10ohm resisters in parallell you get 5ohms, 4 10ohm and you get 2.5ohms and so on, but if you only use one however many ohms resisistor you can hook up an infinite number of leds and your circuit would still be at least as many ohms as your resistor, thus never overloading your leds. Actually now that I think about it I guess you could add one directly to each led as long as the resistors weren't directly paralell with each other, but what would be the point when you only need one.

Whoa, I think someone had a bit too much sugar with their coffee this morning.....

I always recommend using a single resistor per led.....  why?

well, for a few reasons:
1) if you wanted to add/subtract LED's from your project you dont have to recalculate all the exisiting LED's.. just pop on the same size resistor and your good to go
2) if your adding lots of LED's, then you have to worry about the power rating of each LED, whereas for a single led, 1/4W resistors are enough
3) An led costs only 1cent.... not exactly the bank breaker in any case.
4) multiple resistors lets you use different colour LED's without a problem... one resistor and certain LED's will be brighter than others....