kaleidoscope

We never fail to be amazed at the things that some of our readers can produce from virtually nothing in terms of bought components. A good idea for the basic project is obviously a head start. The kaleidoscope in this article is an excellent example of something practical and original from next to nothing. J.M. Hainque In this particular article a certain amount of mechanical skill is required with electronics taking a back seat for a change. From the diagram in figure 1 it will be seen that, as far as the electronics is concerned, one 4093 and two 4026 IC"s and five resistors are all that is required. The gates N1 and N3 form two very simple oscillators. When the start button S is pressed, these generate the clock signals for the two counter- decoders, IC1 and IC2. The outputs of the decoders are fed directly to a total of 15 red, yellow and green LEDs which are combined to form a multi- coloured triangular display. The clock frequencies of the oscillator are low to give the impr...