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Menorah: Rheostat or other switching mechanism?

justkellyjustkelly
edited November 2012 in Larson Scanner and Menorah
OK, so I actually made a very similar LED menorah last year with Arduino and a prototype board, flickering lights and all. In fact I was shopping for a battery pack to use on this year's model when I came across y'alls kit and--hey, you had a battery pack and a cute little stand and all! So what the heck. The main difference I see (besides yours being objectively nicer looking) is that mine had a rheostat I could use to control how many "candles" were lit. It was kinda nice, actually (I was toying with getting a wifi shield to connect to an NTP server, convert the date to Hebrew, and auto-light the candles at the appropriate time, but at that point I was into some serious scope creep).

Anyway. I know that working in a rheostat or similar on this model wouldn't work, but maybe consider it for next year's model? Or possibly a switch for each candle so you're "lighting" them yourself? Just a thought. Either way, cute little booger. Can't wait to assemble it.

Comments

  • Windell OskayWindell Oskay
    I suppose that you could do that, but you'd need to use a different chip that has an analog input.   
    Our kit does light the LEDs in order, and advances "nights" automatically.  If you want it to be more "manual," my first-pass approach would be as follows:

    - When you turn the power on, only the shamash is lit.
    - For each button press, one additional candle is lit.
    - Done?
  • justkellyjustkelly
    Ooh yeah, didn't even notice the pushbutton option. Yeah, that works good. Anyway, just finished assembling it and it works great, thankya.

    Just out of curiosity, what are the unused points on the board for, 31 and 32 and that? I'm guessing they're for the Larson scanner functionality?
  • Windell OskayWindell Oskay
    I'm not sure which you mean by "31" and "32" -- there's a J1 and a J2, which are the ports for programming and communication, respectively. 
  • justkellyjustkelly
    *peers at the board a couple minutes* Hmm.. OK, I guess those could be Js, but I coulda swore they were 3s.

    Think my ol' eyes are giving out :P

    Anyway, thanks.
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