Sunday, January 10, 2021

Big Clive Supercomputer


Some time ago the youtuber Big Clive published on his Youtube channelhis "Big Clive's SuperComputer". Several other people build their own version of this device. Some even published it on their Youtube channel. ( e.g. Julian Ilett , Learnelectronics , TheEPROM9 )
I have the parts for it, it gives a nice endresult so i decided to build one. The "Supercomputer" is a display with flashing (led)lights giving the impression of a retro computer.
I wanted to use 5 mm color leds and make it configurable, power it with  9 volt battery and use a 5*7 cm perfboard (as i have several of these boards). On the 5*7 cm board could fit 6*9 leds. However on the perfboard are only holes for 6*8. There is just one row of holes missing for nice distribution of 9 columns of leds with two open holes between each column.
I decide to put 6 rows by 9 columns anyway. I did bend the legs of the leds in the last column in a chair shape and place his leds in the last column. With the zigzag chair legs the 9 led light columns gets distributed equally.
With 6 rows of leds one row with holes is free. I used this row for Dupont male pins with jumpers. Using the jumpers it is possible to enable or disable the power to groups of leds. As i have colored jumpers i decided to use jumpers in the same color as the corresponding leds.
For selecting groups of leds any arrangement is possible. I decided to use the arrangement below:
A rectangle of red blink leds surrounded by blue blink leds and these leds surrounded by a rectangle of yellow blink leds. (R=red, B=blue, Y=yellow the number is the subgroup Jumpers are marked italic)

R1


B1

B2

B3

Y1

Y2

Y3

Y4

Y3Y2Y2Y2Y2Y2Y2Y2Y4
Y3B3B1B1B1B1B1B3Y4
Y3B3R1R1R1R1R1B3Y4
Y3B3R1R1R1R1R1B3Y4
Y3B2B2B2B2B2B2B2Y4
Y1Y1Y1Y1Y1Y1Y1Y1Y1

Using the jumpers selections of blink led can be switched on or off.
With the 8 jumpers 256 combinations can be made (including the all off or all on combination )
This selection determines which leds will be included in a random blink pattern.

To simplify the circuit as much as possible i used one  (470 ohm) resistor for all the leds.. This resulted in a failure due to the blue leds. These leds are different than the red an yellow. When much other leds where switched on the blue leds did not light up or started only blinking when the power was switched on and soon faded out. When i added a second (470 ohm) resistor for all the blue leds the "supercomputer" worked well.

After checking that everything worked as expected  i added a layer of hot glue to the back of the perfboard for protection.

Perhaps i also will post some video's on my YouTube channel of my version of this Big Clive Supercomputer. (Please post comment if you would like this) 


 

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