Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Well done - good exercise and well made.

Andrew Gabriel expressed precisely :
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

I had one similar at that age - traffic light, coloured bulbs and using
a purpose made rotary switch to operate the phases, I spent hours
occupied playing with it.

Nicely executed - will you be releasing the software and circuit?

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
k...
Andrew Gabriel expressed precisely :
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

I had one similar at that age - traffic light, coloured bulbs and using a
purpose made rotary switch to operate the phases, I spent hours occupied
playing with it.

Nicely executed - will you be releasing the software and circuit?

Buy some lego and let the kid make his own.
Including the programming, its quite easy if you have the programmable
brick.
Its not cheap though.

Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Andrew Gabriel expressed precisely :
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

I had one similar at that age - traffic light, coloured bulbs and using
a purpose made rotary switch to operate the phases, I spent hours
occupied playing with it.

Nicely executed - will you be releasing the software and circuit?

A brilliant bit of work. Best however to warn the littl'un what a
nightmare puffin crossings are. One near me if you stand ready to cross
the pedestrian bit cancels itself after a while and you never get a
green man. The detectors must be lined up wrongly and do not believe you
are waiting to cross unless you stand about 6 feet away!
The local authority recently changed a puffin to a pelican near us after
at least one fatal accident apparently because some elderly persons are
lost without a red or green man the other side of the road. In busy
areas it is often impossible to see the lower level signals if there is
a crowd waiting to cross.

In article ,
"dennis@home" writes:


"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
k...
Andrew Gabriel expressed precisely :
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

I had one similar at that age - traffic light, coloured bulbs and using a
purpose made rotary switch to operate the phases, I spent hours occupied
playing with it.

Nicely executed - will you be releasing the software and circuit?

Buy some lego and let the kid make his own.
Including the programming, its quite easy if you have the programmable
brick.
Its not cheap though.

Interesting -- we have boxes full of lego which is 40+ years
old stored away, but no "programmable brick". I guess my
knowledge of lego is 40+ years behind. ISTR we have some
bricks with tiny festoon lamps in them, and a motor module.

He has some giant lego, but I don't think he's shown any
great interest in it. OTOH, it's actually a lego look-a-like
which doesn't work as well as real lego. We could start
introducing real lego over the next 6 months.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:42:16 UTC, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

Buy some lego and let the kid make his own.
Including the programming, its quite easy if you have the programmable
brick.
Its not cheap though.

Interesting -- we have boxes full of lego which is 40+ years
old stored away, but no "programmable brick". I guess my
knowledge of lego is 40+ years behind. ISTR we have some
bricks with tiny festoon lamps in them, and a motor module.

My younger son is really into the Lego NXT stuff...had more parts for
Christmas! Has entered as part of a First Lego League team for two years
running.

I was given a broken older 'brick' and managed to fix that, so we'll
play with that soon..!

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

"Invisible Man" wrote in message
...
Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Andrew Gabriel expressed precisely :
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

I had one similar at that age - traffic light, coloured bulbs and using a
purpose made rotary switch to operate the phases, I spent hours occupied
playing with it.

Nicely executed - will you be releasing the software and circuit?

A brilliant bit of work. Best however to warn the littl'un what a
nightmare puffin crossings are. One near me if you stand ready to cross
the pedestrian bit cancels itself after a while and you never get a green
man. The detectors must be lined up wrongly and do not believe you are
waiting to cross unless you stand about 6 feet away!
The local authority recently changed a puffin to a pelican near us after
at least one fatal accident apparently because some elderly persons are
lost without a red or green man the other side of the road. In busy areas
it is often impossible to see the lower level signals if there is a crowd
waiting to cross.

I like the crossings in Dublin and parts of the USA where you get a
countdown indicator to when the traffic will stop.

In article ,
"John" writes:

I like the crossings in Dublin and parts of the USA where you get a
countdown indicator to when the traffic will stop.

Yes, I like those too, but many UK crossings are not that simple.
They do gap sensing in the traffic, and so usually bring the traffic
stop forward relative to the timer, which only acts as a backstop to
handle the worse case. This means the traffic stop often isn't
predictable in advance.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"dennis@home" writes:


"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
k...
Andrew Gabriel expressed precisely :
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

I had one similar at that age - traffic light, coloured bulbs and using
a
purpose made rotary switch to operate the phases, I spent hours occupied
playing with it.

Nicely executed - will you be releasing the software and circuit?

Buy some lego and let the kid make his own.
Including the programming, its quite easy if you have the programmable
brick.
Its not cheap though.

Interesting -- we have boxes full of lego which is 40+ years
old stored away, but no "programmable brick". I guess my
knowledge of lego is 40+ years behind. ISTR we have some
bricks with tiny festoon lamps in them, and a motor module.

http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Overview/The_NXT.aspx

http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Overv..._Software.aspx

http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Overview/nxtreme.aspx

On 29 Dec, 23:05, (Andrew Gabriel) wrote:
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures athttp://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

Great job! The youngster is lucky to have you around.

Sid

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/


Nice. I really wish I could do that stuff - but I'm afraid
electronickery is a whole area of "diy" (for want of a better phrase)
which is a complete and utter closed book to me. Over the years I've
often wanted a customised electronic gadget to do some task or other
(invariably some form of timing or switching) but wouldn't have even the
first idea where to start. I've posted here in the past for advice on
stuff and have had well-meaning replies along the lines of "Dead simple,
just get yourself 1 Y65GFD87N thyroidistor and connect it to a flipflop
567-type ICD and vary the gain on the upper pin 4 until the silicomagnet
timing falls..." and it's "Whoosh!" here.

Next lifetime maybe.

David

In uk.d-i-y, Invisible Man wrote:
The local authority recently changed a puffin to a pelican near us
after at least one fatal accident apparently because some elderly
persons are lost without a red or green man the other side of the road.
In busy areas it is often impossible to see the lower level signals if
there is a crowd waiting to cross.

Well, yes. There's a reason why traffic lights are placed so high. It's
a pity that it never occurred to anyone that the same reason applies to
pedestrian lights.

I can't see the point of moving the red/green man from the other side of
the road to this side. I can think of no advantages but *lots* of
disadvantages.

--
Mike Barnes

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

How times change, my old chap made me something similar 50 odd years back
using Meccano.
I turned the little handle which rotated a wooden 'cotton-reel' wrapped with
a piece of tin-can cut to shape to give the correct sequence, with spring
loaded contacts.

In article ,
Mike Barnes writes:
In uk.d-i-y, Invisible Man wrote:
The local authority recently changed a puffin to a pelican near us
after at least one fatal accident apparently because some elderly
persons are lost without a red or green man the other side of the road.
In busy areas it is often impossible to see the lower level signals if
there is a crowd waiting to cross.

Well, yes. There's a reason why traffic lights are placed so high. It's
a pity that it never occurred to anyone that the same reason applies to
pedestrian lights.

I can't see the point of moving the red/green man from the other side of
the road to this side. I can think of no advantages but *lots* of
disadvantages.

Reasons were given in the various Puffin crossing docs I read.
Pedestrians are looking in the direction of the oncoming traffic,
and more likely to spot a vehicle which isn't going to stop.
Crossing only wants to signal to pedestrians which haven't started
crossing. Once they've started crossing, the crossing monitors
their progress and has no need to give them any signals.
There are Puffin crossings with low and high pedestrian signals
on the same pole.

(Remember the crossing scene in "Rain Man", albeit american?)

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Mike Barnes wrote:
In uk.d-i-y, Invisible Man wrote:
The local authority recently changed a puffin to a pelican near us
after at least one fatal accident apparently because some elderly
persons are lost without a red or green man the other side of the road.
In busy areas it is often impossible to see the lower level signals if
there is a crowd waiting to cross.

Well, yes. There's a reason why traffic lights are placed so high. It's
a pity that it never occurred to anyone that the same reason applies to
pedestrian lights.

I can't see the point of moving the red/green man from the other side of
the road to this side. I can think of no advantages but *lots* of
disadvantages.

I only used one for the first time a few weeks ago. What I noticed as a
sort of advantage was when a tall vehicle is stopped on (or partly on)
the crossing - which often blocks the view of the red/green light on the
opposite pavement.

Ironic that high lights are there for vehicles - but it would often be
nice to have French-style repeaters at low level for them! (There are
several sets of lights round here which are effectively unviewable by a
driver stopped at the line - and with no repeaters on the other side of
the junction.)

--
Rod

Hypothyroidism is a seriously debilitating condition with an insidious
onset.
Although common it frequently goes undiagnosed.
www.thyromind.info www.thyroiduk.org www.altsupportthyroid.org

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/


Cool. Next project maybe a crossing road junction on a square plank of
wood, with traffic and pedestrian lights and approaching vehicle detect?
If you get the software down to a fine art, I could recommend marketing
it to a few councils around here.

OTOH, I've peeked inside the control boxes of various traffic signal
equipment. Horribly complex, but probably is monitoring things like bulb
failure, emergency vehicles and phasing of other signals.

--
Adrian C

Rod wrote:

I only used one for the first time a few weeks ago. What I noticed as a
sort of advantage was when a tall vehicle is stopped on (or partly on)
the crossing - which often blocks the view of the red/green light on the
opposite pavement.

Ironic that high lights are there for vehicles - but it would often be
nice to have French-style repeaters at low level for them! (There are
several sets of lights round here which are effectively unviewable by a
driver stopped at the line - and with no repeaters on the other side of
the junction.)

I find that the pedestrian lights are usually aligned so that
they are clearly visibly from the road. This means that,
initially, one glimpses a red light (a signal to "stop"
overriding one to "go") and then, as the full picture becomes
clear, one realises that traffic has a green light.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

In uk.d-i-y, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Mike Barnes writes:
In uk.d-i-y, Invisible Man wrote:
The local authority recently changed a puffin to a pelican near us
after at least one fatal accident apparently because some elderly
persons are lost without a red or green man the other side of the road.
In busy areas it is often impossible to see the lower level signals if
there is a crowd waiting to cross.

Well, yes. There's a reason why traffic lights are placed so high. It's
a pity that it never occurred to anyone that the same reason applies to
pedestrian lights.

I can't see the point of moving the red/green man from the other side of
the road to this side. I can think of no advantages but *lots* of
disadvantages.

Reasons were given in the various Puffin crossing docs I read.
Pedestrians are looking in the direction of the oncoming traffic,
and more likely to spot a vehicle which isn't going to stop.

That seems pretty flimsy. And it seems to me more likely that the
pedestrian will cross on red, without that warning red light being in
front of them. I've known it happen a couple of times, on both occasions
with people who didn't hesitate at the roadside. Once I think they were
fooled by a car stopping for a green light (the reverse of the problem
you describe). The other time they approached from the right and so had
a perfect view of a green light (for vehicles) but were never in a
position to see a red light.

IMO there's simply no substitute for a red light in the pedestrian's
path.

--
Mike Barnes

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2� year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing.
There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

Very good.

The web page might be enhanced with an animated gif stepping through
the phases?

Owain

"Mike Barnes" wrote in message
...

IMO there's simply no substitute for a red light in the pedestrian's
path.

Just think.. there wouldn't be any need for anything other than zebra
crossings if the stupid drivers weren't around.

"Rod" wrote in message
...


Ironic that high lights are there for vehicles - but it would often be
nice to have French-style repeaters at low level for them! (There are
several sets of lights round here which are effectively unviewable by a
driver stopped at the line - and with no repeaters on the other side of
the junction.)

That is usually because the driver has crossed the line for cars and is in
the green box at the stop line for bikes.

Invisible Man submitted this idea :
The detectors must be lined up wrongly and do not believe you are waiting to
cross unless you stand about 6 feet away!

PIR - if you don't move, you become invisible to the sensor.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Lobster wrote :
Nice. I really wish I could do that stuff - but I'm afraid electronickery is
a whole area of "diy" (for want of a better phrase) which is a complete and
utter closed book to me. Over the years I've often wanted a customised
electronic gadget to do some task or other (invariably some form of timing or
switching) but wouldn't have even the first idea where to start. I've posted
here in the past for advice on stuff and have had well-meaning replies along
the lines of "Dead simple, just get yourself 1 Y65GFD87N thyroidistor and
connect it to a flipflop 567-type ICD and vary the gain on the upper pin 4
until the silicomagnet timing falls..." and it's "Whoosh!" here.

It's one of those barriers where making a start on the learning, drags
you into it, it is knowing how where to start. Tandy/Realistic used to
sell some very basic engineers notebooks, in a series magazine size
editions. They were full of quick simple experimenters circuits, which
often had little purpose other than to allow you to experiment with
devices, mixed in with a few useful items. All of that, along with much
of the supply of components has gone. Even Maplin, who seemed to take
over Tandy's market are stocking fewer and fewer components as the
years go by.

pic's and software seem to be the way to go now.



--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

In article ,
Harry Bloomfield writes:
Lobster wrote :
Nice. I really wish I could do that stuff - but I'm afraid electronickery is
a whole area of "diy" (for want of a better phrase) which is a complete and
utter closed book to me. Over the years I've often wanted a customised
electronic gadget to do some task or other (invariably some form of timing or
switching) but wouldn't have even the first idea where to start. I've posted
here in the past for advice on stuff and have had well-meaning replies along
the lines of "Dead simple, just get yourself 1 Y65GFD87N thyroidistor and
connect it to a flipflop 567-type ICD and vary the gain on the upper pin 4
until the silicomagnet timing falls..." and it's "Whoosh!" here.

It's one of those barriers where making a start on the learning, drags
you into it, it is knowing how where to start. Tandy/Realistic used to

I don't think there is still any magazine which was at the level
of Everyday Electronics, although I must admit I haven't checked
the magazine shelves for many years now. Elektor was somewhat more
advanced, and not really beginner stuff.

I wonder if there's much interest in this area by today's youth?

sell some very basic engineers notebooks, in a series magazine size
editions. They were full of quick simple experimenters circuits, which
often had little purpose other than to allow you to experiment with
devices, mixed in with a few useful items. All of that, along with much
of the supply of components has gone. Even Maplin, who seemed to take
over Tandy's market are stocking fewer and fewer components as the
years go by.

I mostly use CPC, Farnell, and Rapid now.
I still use Maplin for emergencies (non-mail-order), and the odd
thing they still stock which others don't, but their reduction
in components stocked is probably around the point where they
can't keep critical mass, sadly. I did buy quite a number of the
components for the crossing from Maplin in Farnborough, but for
each of the LED types I wanted, I took all their stock (in some
cases having had to chose a different part as they were out of
stock in the first place).

pic's and software seem to be the way to go now.

For logic, yes.
I also do analogue.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 30 Dec 2008 22:53:40 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

I don't think there is still any magazine which was at the level
of Everyday Electronics, although I must admit I haven't checked
the magazine shelves for many years now. Elektor was somewhat more
advanced, and not really beginner stuff.

I wonder if there's much interest in this area by today's youth?

Sadly I think not. Most of today's youth seem to expect any electronic
gadgetry to be prebuilt for them (probably by Far Eastern
manufacturers), and to have 'scores' displayed on an LCD screen.

Basic electronic skills such as soldering, measuring voltages and
currents etc are rarely nurtured or taught in schools nowadays, and
frankly most simpler projects such as crystal sets are becoming
obsolete in the wake of DAB and so on. It's so much easier too, to
pick up a mobile phone than build a pair of walkie-talkies...

However, your pedestrian crossing project sounds very interesting.
I've heard of all these different types of crossing, and used them,
but I still couldn't identify them by name - the only one I know by
name is the good old-fashioned zebra crossing :-)

--
Frank Erskine

dennis@home wrote:


"Mike Barnes" wrote in message
...

IMO there's simply no substitute for a red light in the pedestrian's
path.

Just think.. there wouldn't be any need for anything other than zebra
crossings if the stupid drivers weren't around.

That's not really the whole picture though is it. It might work for the
pedestrians, but on a route with lots of em arriving in a non stop
stream, it would cause traffic gridlock. The lights controlled crossing
at least allows batches of cars to pass every so often by forcing the
pedestrians to wait occasionally.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/

Very nice job that man!

What sort of development/debugging environment do you use for PIC stuff
like that?

(There are times where I often fancy doing something on a similar scale
of complexity, but most of the traditional embedded systems kit I work
with is way OTT for that sort of application, not to mention silly money)


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Frank Erskine wrote:
On 30 Dec 2008 22:53:40 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

I don't think there is still any magazine which was at the level
of Everyday Electronics, although I must admit I haven't checked
the magazine shelves for many years now. Elektor was somewhat more
advanced, and not really beginner stuff.

I wonder if there's much interest in this area by today's youth?

Sadly I think not. Most of today's youth seem to expect any electronic
gadgetry to be prebuilt for them (probably by Far Eastern
manufacturers), and to have 'scores' displayed on an LCD screen.

Sadly I would tend to agree. You only need look at the growth of Maplin
and its need to deviate from what was once its core business in order to
sustain that growth to see that electronics as a hobby is nothing like
it once was.

(As I have commented here before - I grew up living close to the
original Maplin shop. It was a place of wonder in some respects those
days. People would wander in off the street, and describe some
electronic wizardry they fancied constructing. The shop assistant
(electronics graduate typically) would retrieve a pencil from behind his
ear, sketch a quick circuit design, grab the shop calculator and do some
sums to work out component values etc, before wandering off and finally
returning 5 mins later with a plastic bag containing all the components
required having found them in all the various (non self service) racks
and bins!) It ain't the same now.

Basic electronic skills such as soldering, measuring voltages and
currents etc are rarely nurtured or taught in schools nowadays, and

I get a feeling that may have changed a bit with the younger generations
now. Our 8 yo has done a fair bit of basic circuit theory in class, and
they have done practical stuff with switches, and lamps and simple
circuits. Far more than I remember being taught until starting physics
in secondary school.

frankly most simpler projects such as crystal sets are becoming
obsolete in the wake of DAB and so on. It's so much easier too, to
pick up a mobile phone than build a pair of walkie-talkies...

That is true. The impact of low cost imports from China etc has also put
pay to many projects - it used to be you can have fun building something
and make a big saving on buying a complete item. These days electronic
kit from the far east is so cheap as to render that part of the argument
a non starter.

However, your pedestrian crossing project sounds very interesting.
I've heard of all these different types of crossing, and used them,
but I still couldn't identify them by name - the only one I know by
name is the good old-fashioned zebra crossing :-)

Wot, not even a pelican?

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In uk.d-i-y, John Rumm wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On 30 Dec 2008 22:53:40 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

I don't think there is still any magazine which was at the level
of Everyday Electronics, although I must admit I haven't checked
the magazine shelves for many years now. Elektor was somewhat more
advanced, and not really beginner stuff.

I wonder if there's much interest in this area by today's youth?
Sadly I think not. Most of today's youth seem to expect any
electronic
gadgetry to be prebuilt for them (probably by Far Eastern
manufacturers), and to have 'scores' displayed on an LCD screen.

Sadly I would tend to agree. You only need look at the growth of Maplin
and its need to deviate from what was once its core business in order
to sustain that growth to see that electronics as a hobby is nothing
like it once was.

Why so sad? Today's inquisitive kids learn how to construct their own
PCs or web sites rather than their own doorbells/amplifiers/etc, but the
engagement and rewards are just the same. In my youth I'm sure there
were some old codgers around who rued the fact that we didn't make our
own resistors.

--
Mike Barnes

In article ,
John Rumm writes:

Very nice job that man!

What sort of development/debugging environment do you use for PIC stuff
like that?

I built this using a PICAXE-28X1 Chip (which is way over-kill for
this application, but that's what I have a prototyping/programming
board for), and it's very fast/easy to program. All you need to
program it is the PICAXE-28X1 Starter Pack (and the ability to add
8 LEDs and resisters to its outputs so you can see it working), a
Windows system with a serial (or USB) port, and some spare chips.
Rapid sells all the stuff, and it's not expensive.

(There are times where I often fancy doing something on a similar scale
of complexity, but most of the traditional embedded systems kit I work
with is way OTT for that sort of application, not to mention silly money)

PICAXE is just a standard PIC chip, preprogrammed with a serial
boot loader and run-time environment, which you can use over and
over again (providing you don't trample on the boot loader), so
you don't need an expensive programmer.

I've attached the program below, so you can see how simple it is
to program.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

*
* Copyright Andrew Gabriel, 2008. All rights reserved.
*
* Outputs:
symbol PON = 7 * Power-On output
symbol RED = 6 * Red Traffic light
symbol AMBER = 5 * Amber Traffic light
symbol GREEN = 4 * Green Traffic light
symbol DONT = 3 * Red man pedestrian light
symbol WALK = 2 * Green man pedestrian light
symbol STAND = 1 * Wait pedestrian light
symbol BEEP = 0 * Beeper

symbol counter = b1

high PON * Latch power on
setint %00000001,%00000001 * Enable interrupt on input 1

go: * Initialise with Green light
high GREEN
high DONT
if b2 = 1 then goto stopping
pause 60000
if b2 = 1 then goto stopping
low PON * Nothing for a minute, power off
goto go

stopping:
pause 5000

low GREEN
high AMBER
pause 2000

low AMBER
high RED
pause 2000

low DONT
low STAND
high WALK
let b2 = 1
for counter = 1 to 18
high BEEP
pause 150
low STAND
low BEEP
pause 150
low STAND
next counter
b2 = 0 * clear call flag
setint %00000001,%00000001 * reenable interrupts

for counter = 1 to 5
low WALK
pause 500
high WALK
pause 500
next counter

low WALK
high DONT
pause 2000

high AMBER
pause 2000

low RED
low AMBER
goto go

interrupt: * Call button pressed
b2 = 1
high STAND
return

On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:33:34 UTC, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

I built this using a PICAXE-28X1 Chip (which is way over-kill for
this application, but that's what I have a prototyping/programming
board for), and it's very fast/easy to program. All you need to
program it is the PICAXE-28X1 Starter Pack (and the ability to add
8 LEDs and resisters to its outputs so you can see it working), a
Windows system with a serial (or USB) port, and some spare chips.
Rapid sells all the stuff, and it's not expensive.

Yes...we have some of that stuff too. My son's first soldering project
was building a PICAXE-08M board.

We did traffic lights! The latest was a prototype for an epee (fencing)
score/hit box.

PICAXE is just a standard PIC chip, preprogrammed with a serial
boot loader and run-time environment, which you can use over and
over again (providing you don't trample on the boot loader), so
you don't need an expensive programmer.

If the chip is damaged, it's usually only a pound or two for a
replacement anyway.

I just bought a PICkit 2 Debug Express board for £9.99 inclusive
(special offer, normally 40 quid plus carriage) via a special offer in a
magazine...
--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

Mike Barnes wrote:
In uk.d-i-y, John Rumm wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On 30 Dec 2008 22:53:40 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

I don't think there is still any magazine which was at the level
of Everyday Electronics, although I must admit I haven't checked
the magazine shelves for many years now. Elektor was somewhat more
advanced, and not really beginner stuff.

I wonder if there's much interest in this area by today's youth?
Sadly I think not. Most of today's youth seem to expect any
electronic
gadgetry to be prebuilt for them (probably by Far Eastern
manufacturers), and to have 'scores' displayed on an LCD screen.
Sadly I would tend to agree. You only need look at the growth of Maplin
and its need to deviate from what was once its core business in order
to sustain that growth to see that electronics as a hobby is nothing
like it once was.

Why so sad? Today's inquisitive kids learn how to construct their own
PCs or web sites rather than their own doorbells/amplifiers/etc, but the
engagement and rewards are just the same. In my youth I'm sure there
were some old codgers around who rued the fact that we didn't make our
own resistors.

I did wind a resistor or 2. First radio I built used 2 valves and LT and
HT batteries. First FM tuner I built was on a tin plate chassis and took
forever to adjust.
Now can't even add a socket in my kitchen. Back to gripes about Part P!

Mike Barnes wrote:
In uk.d-i-y, John Rumm wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On 30 Dec 2008 22:53:40 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

I don't think there is still any magazine which was at the level
of Everyday Electronics, although I must admit I haven't checked
the magazine shelves for many years now. Elektor was somewhat more
advanced, and not really beginner stuff.

I wonder if there's much interest in this area by today's youth?
Sadly I think not. Most of today's youth seem to expect any
electronic
gadgetry to be prebuilt for them (probably by Far Eastern
manufacturers), and to have 'scores' displayed on an LCD screen.
Sadly I would tend to agree. You only need look at the growth of Maplin
and its need to deviate from what was once its core business in order
to sustain that growth to see that electronics as a hobby is nothing
like it once was.

Why so sad? Today's inquisitive kids learn how to construct their own
PCs or web sites rather than their own doorbells/amplifiers/etc, but the
engagement and rewards are just the same. In my youth I'm sure there

Nothing wrong with that, although it does move them a step further away
from understanding what they are actually doing. Building stuff from
"black boxes" is fair enough, you you gain added insight if you have at
least seen inside a few.

were some old codgers around who rued the fact that we didn't make our
own resistors.

more than likely ;-)

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

John Rumm wrote:

That's not really the whole picture though is it. It might work for the
pedestrians, but on a route with lots of em arriving in a non stop
stream, it would cause traffic gridlock. The lights controlled crossing
at least allows batches of cars to pass every so often by forcing the
pedestrians to wait occasionally.


Yes, zebra crossings don't work in high pedestrian traffic densities.

It looks like they're only used in less than 40mph zones too.

If Andrew wants to scale up his design we've been quoted GBP90k for a
pedestrian controlled crossing onto the public open space here. It's daft
really because a zebra crossing would do but the traffic moves too fast for
one.

AJH

In message , John Rumm
writes
Frank Erskine wrote:
On 30 Dec 2008 22:53:40 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

I don't think there is still any magazine which was at the level
of Everyday Electronics, although I must admit I haven't checked
the magazine shelves for many years now. Elektor was somewhat more
advanced, and not really beginner stuff.

I wonder if there's much interest in this area by today's youth?
Sadly I think not. Most of today's youth seem to expect any
electronic
gadgetry to be prebuilt for them (probably by Far Eastern
manufacturers), and to have 'scores' displayed on an LCD screen.

Sadly I would tend to agree. You only need look at the growth of Maplin
and its need to deviate from what was once its core business in order
to sustain that growth to see that electronics as a hobby is nothing
like it once was.

(As I have commented here before - I grew up living close to the
original Maplin shop. It was a place of wonder in some respects those
days. People would wander in off the street, and describe some
electronic wizardry they fancied constructing. The shop assistant
(electronics graduate typically) would retrieve a pencil from behind
his ear, sketch a quick circuit design, grab the shop calculator and do
some sums to work out component values etc, before wandering off and
finally returning 5 mins later with a plastic bag containing all the
components required having found them in all the various (non self
service) racks and bins!) It ain't the same now.


Exactly the same with Watford Electronics

--
geoff

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,

He has some giant lego, but I don't think he's shown any
great interest in it. OTOH, it's actually a lego look-a-like
which doesn't work as well as real lego. We could start
introducing real lego over the next 6 months.

When he is a bit older, there is the RCX stuff, and the
newer version (I've not got one yet :-( ) - the NXT.

Then of course you can head off with things like
http://www.mindsensors.com/index.php...position=24:24
and get as sophisticated as you want :-)

Darren

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
John Rumm writes:

Very nice job that man!

What sort of development/debugging environment do you use for PIC stuff
like that?

I built this using a PICAXE-28X1 Chip (which is way over-kill for
this application, but that's what I have a prototyping/programming
board for), and it's very fast/easy to program. All you need to
program it is the PICAXE-28X1 Starter Pack (and the ability to add
8 LEDs and resisters to its outputs so you can see it working), a
Windows system with a serial (or USB) port, and some spare chips.
Rapid sells all the stuff, and it's not expensive.

(There are times where I often fancy doing something on a similar scale
of complexity, but most of the traditional embedded systems kit I work
with is way OTT for that sort of application, not to mention silly money)

PICAXE is just a standard PIC chip, preprogrammed with a serial
boot loader and run-time environment, which you can use over and
over again (providing you don't trample on the boot loader), so
you don't need an expensive programmer.

I've attached the program below, so you can see how simple it is
to program.


You know what you've forgotten don't you ?

The button for pedestrians to press which just beings on the "wait"
light


--
geoff

On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:17:40 UTC, (dmc) wrote:

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,

He has some giant lego, but I don't think he's shown any
great interest in it. OTOH, it's actually a lego look-a-like
which doesn't work as well as real lego. We could start
introducing real lego over the next 6 months.

When he is a bit older, there is the RCX stuff, and the
newer version (I've not got one yet :-( ) - the NXT.

I expect you can borrow one at work!

Son has the NXT, and a load of extra Lego. I have an RCX brick which
I've repaired, but nothing to go with it...I fancy a bit of Java
programming for it..

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:25:35 UTC, geoff wrote:

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
John Rumm writes:

Very nice job that man!

What sort of development/debugging environment do you use for PIC stuff
like that?

I built this using a PICAXE-28X1 Chip (which is way over-kill for
this application, but that's what I have a prototyping/programming
board for), and it's very fast/easy to program. All you need to
program it is the PICAXE-28X1 Starter Pack (and the ability to add
8 LEDs and resisters to its outputs so you can see it working), a
Windows system with a serial (or USB) port, and some spare chips.
Rapid sells all the stuff, and it's not expensive.

(There are times where I often fancy doing something on a similar scale
of complexity, but most of the traditional embedded systems kit I work
with is way OTT for that sort of application, not to mention silly money)

PICAXE is just a standard PIC chip, preprogrammed with a serial
boot loader and run-time environment, which you can use over and
over again (providing you don't trample on the boot loader), so
you don't need an expensive programmer.

I've attached the program below, so you can see how simple it is
to program.

You know what you've forgotten don't you ?

The button for pedestrians to press which just beings on the "wait"
light

!!!

and the little rotating thing underneath...

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com