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Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

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Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#11

Post by jabedude »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #2

The juxtaposition between the cleanliness of the software and the absolute travesty of a schematic is jarring. But it still works! I applaud the author for wading into analog electronics. Pretty much everyone nowadays would just put a timer on a micro and be done in 2 minutes. No fun in that. There is something to be said about the minimal elegance of purely analog designs, and a special rewarding feeling for wrangli…

I haven't touch anything like this in a good while, how cheap could I get a simple Arduino style chip with a few gpio to drive a yellow LED in 2025?

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#12

Post by roboror »

jabedude wrote: post #11
Workaccount2 wrote: post #2

The juxtaposition between the cleanliness of the software and the absolute travesty of a schematic is jarring. But it still works! I applaud the author for wading into analog electronics. Pretty much everyone nowadays would just put a timer on a micro and be done in 2 minutes. No fun in that. There is something to be said about the minimal elegance of purely analog designs, and a special rewarding feeling for wrangli…

I haven't touch anything like this in a good while, how cheap could I get a simple Arduino style chip with a few gpio to drive a yellow LED in 2025?

Like $2 if you're patient

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#13

Post by diggan »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #2

The juxtaposition between the cleanliness of the software and the absolute travesty of a schematic is jarring. But it still works! I applaud the author for wading into analog electronics. Pretty much everyone nowadays would just put a timer on a micro and be done in 2 minutes. No fun in that. There is something to be said about the minimal elegance of purely analog designs, and a special rewarding feeling for wrangli…

> Pretty much everyone nowadays

I think it depends on the ecosystem. It's true much of the "maker" community tends to embrace whatever solution is the cheapest, fastest and easiest to get something working out the door, but on the other hand, the DIY synth community tends to be the opposite (in my experience at least), favoring simple schematics and "back to basics" building, even sometimes going as far as trying to skip any sort of prebuilt ICs.

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#15

Post by behnamoh »

I hold a BSc in electrical engineering and even I still don't fully understand how circuits work, especially the ones that involve transistors. I tried various mental models to think about the "flow" of current/electrons, but nothing works 100% of the time. Maybe that's just how my brain works: I like algorithmic thinking (A → B → C) as opposed to holding the entire circuit in my mind and solving for V or I.

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#16

Post by bee_rider »

Fireflies flash in response to lights. I wonder if a photoresistor sensitive enough to respond to his “firefly” can be found. Then he could rig it up so his fireflies communicate with each other. And maybe real fireflies as well.

It would have to be pretty danged sensitive I guess.

Extra points if the circuit can be rigged up to respond to changes in brightness, so that it doesn’t constantly trigger in daylight….

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#17

Post by yojo »

Only tangentially related to the enthusiastic circuit hacking: the reason the author stopped seeing living fireflies may be the drastic, worldwide decline in insect populations, with biomass declining in the range of 2-10%/year[0].

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_population...

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#19

Post by alias_neo »

This takes me back. I remember learning all of this in high school, some decades ago now.

I distinctly remember the first time I hooked up a 555 timer, then it was decade counters, 741 op amps, logic gates and such, then learning the resistor colour codes and blowing up electrolytic capacitors on the bench supplies for fun.

For my 6th form Electronics project I built an 8-bit ADC, parallel to serial converter, then serial back to parallel and an 8-bit DAC as output all from discreet components and logic ICs.

The first half (input stage) was enough for the top grade, but I enjoyed it so much I spent most of my lunch times in the lab building more and more onto it.

I can feel that joy in OPs post.

I later went on to do my degree in Electronic Engineering.

Thanks for that piece of nostalgia and sharing the fun with us with such a wholesome project!

Re: Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

#20

Post by alias_neo »

jabedude wrote: post #11
Workaccount2 wrote: post #2

The juxtaposition between the cleanliness of the software and the absolute travesty of a schematic is jarring. But it still works! I applaud the author for wading into analog electronics. Pretty much everyone nowadays would just put a timer on a micro and be done in 2 minutes. No fun in that. There is something to be said about the minimal elegance of purely analog designs, and a special rewarding feeling for wrangli…

I haven't touch anything like this in a good while, how cheap could I get a simple Arduino style chip with a few gpio to drive a yellow LED in 2025?

You could grab any Atmega328p or similar DIL on eBay for a couple of quid, maybe less in batches.

I've got dozens of them in my electronics drawers I don't really use anymore since ESP32 dev boards are so cheap and capable for home projects.

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