06/02/2008
BCD Clock
The people at my Dad's work think I'm geeky.
They might also have evidense to support this.
When I saw this my face lit up, my eyes shone, I lost all power's of speech and valid communication and trails of green smoke trailed across the room. It is sooo soooo cool! I mean REALLY cool. As in just *the best* idea ever. It's just pretty :D And cool... and .... and ... and I WANT ONE!
Actually... screw that. Having seen that website, I want to make one. But I'll settle for buying one at the moment as I don't have the time or parts or time... really it's just the time.
Apparently... liking my decimal clocks to be coded in base two is somewhat geeky. Apparently this is a characteristic that is of significant note in any Homo sapien with two x chromosomes. Apparently I became a talking point at his work for a few days after this revelation.
I also like logical/maths puzzels and do them for fun. I think xkcd is hilareous. OOTS isn't too bad either. I play dungeons and dragons and have dipped into various other role-play games. I need to know how things work. I am more than happy to read copious volumes of Sci-Fi, and then point out all the physical impossabilities and how it could have been made more accurate. The most entertaining game I have played in the last 18 months is one that involves leaning magentic pieces up against each other so that the the repulsice forces balance and they stay upright (I need to practise seeing magnetic fields on the playing area). I am happy to spend hours looking over the schematics for a light confocal microscope trying (sometimes in vain) to understand. I will grin inanely once I have solved a difficult problem. And I will shout at youif you give me the answers first (unless it is tiresome integration and I am in a bad mood).
Have we cleared this up now :P
xXx
10:02 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
Comments
I strongly suspect that this is a cheap American reproduction rather than true British ancient geekery!
The CD4040 device would appear to be genuine 1970s. I remember buying them in 1975. Similar ancient components include CD4071, 1N914, 1N400X. However, the 74HC devices are from a later period.
An interesting if somewhat naive part of the deception is the use of crude RC/Schmitt Trigger circuits to shorten count lengths. No true British electronics engineer would countenance this aysynchronous (spit!) technique. He (and it was mainly he) would be much more likely to use
something like SN74LS163 (Synchronous 4-bit Binary Counter with Synchronous Clear) and dispense with RC/Schmitt Trigger. And here is another clue: Engineers in this era were unlikely to use CMOS parts when the power-hungry LS devices were much cheaper.
Finally, the use of single LEDs is a bit of a giveaway. It's much more likely that the engineer would have used cheap and reliable 7 segment displays
So, I doubt it would fetch much at auction but it's amusing nevertheless.
Posted by: Steve | 06/02/2008
My friend got a new one for his birthday so they have obviously been reintroduced to the market... I just liked the site :P
Posted by: Ruth | 06/02/2008
Post a comment