Author: Peter Jones

Art is done. Badly. But done.
Started transferring the circuit over to done perfboard. Soldered my fingers multiple times. Made a mess of everything. I need to find the shorts now. I lit the LED, but back to no blinking. Progress.

Found a video. Again. Built the circuit. Again. Went to wiki. Read the entire entry on wiki. Connected pin 5 though a capacitor to ground. Nothing. Connected pin 1 to ground. Blinks. Now to get it to a happy rate.

Still does not blink. It seems to be taunting me. I will try following along with a video soon.

Oaked Hooligan Stout – wanted a blood orange wheat beer, but they had killed that keg. This is thick like a stout, but has she great berry hints. I give it two burps.

Maritime Nightwatch – smooth crispy bite. I feel like I’m a cool member of the Night’s Watch. Not that pussy Jon Snow.

Last night the Wif needed to do a little bit more studying when I cane up the hill to commute home. Knowing full well that the minute she walked into the house that she would loose all motivation, she wanted to go to a coffee shop. She was thinking the nearby one, the one with junkies and crackheads, the loud one, the one with show service. Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly good coffee, just a crap place to study. With my inability to estimate distance, I recommended we go to Ada. In every way it’s a more conducive place to study.
As always even we get there, I end up wandering through and looking at all the kits and books. The Wif loved the Useless Machine. Definitely glad I showed get that one.
The important thing is I got me one of the Sparkfun Parts Boxes. I needed a small parts box, and I needed a grab bag of parts. I had just been looking online at them, figured they had everything I needed and other things that might be fun at a later date. So I payed a bit more, didn’t have to wait, didn’t have to pay for shipping, supported independent business, supported local business. In other words, win.
Now I knew there was a 555 in the box, and I figured that the 555 was the root of my problems, especially seeing as how, without anything hooked up I should see continuity from pins (3 to 5? I wrote it down somewhere), and I wasn’t. When I got home, I took a look at my new treasure and did a fast invento… there’s two 555s. And then I realized. In a previous useful part pack, the Mintronics Survival Pack I believe, I thought I had gotten multiple 555s. I hadn’t. My reading comprehension failed. When I get home tonight, think I’ll swap out an LM358 for a 555.
I need to build a illuminated monocle.

Tried using a different breadboard and a more spread out circuit. Still didn’t blink. I did use a terminal block thing and a potentiometer. Made everything much easier.
I’m currently of the mind that 555 is toast. I should probably do the math on how fast it should be blinking.
No rest for the wicked.

Tried being the operative word. After building roughly the same circuit three or so times, from bare breadboard, I’m assuming something else is up. With the markings faded, am I sure that’s a 555? Is my capacitor burned to hell? What about the 555? Is my breadboard jacked?
Tomorrow I’m going to chart out the pins for the 555, and figure out where I should see continuity.Luckily, it should be well documented. That’ll be a good start. Maybe I’ll grab a different breadboard first. Decisions.

This time was a failure of course. I was just trying to get an LED to blink using 555 chip. One failure gave me an LED that pulsed once when power was removed. Reversing a couple pieces have me an LED that was turned mostly on. I’m thinking…
I need to use a bigger breadboard
I should check the components that I’m using to make sure I have them turned the right way
…yeah, those would be good starts.
Maybe I should try again while watching the appropriate According to Pete. My eyes keep crossing when I do this stuff. Maybe a walk thru would help. Or at least a magnifying glass.

Again. Turns out I have too many pockets filled with too many broken pairs of headphones in my bag. Who knew. I should build my wireless headphones soon. Maybe do the full spec this weekend while the Wif studies.
On the other hand, think I’m gonna build a couch. I’ve got lumber; got heavy canvas, thank you failed art career; got an idea. Gonna do this shit.
Gonna be hardcore old school. Use spare screws as furniture tacks and what not.
Just had some wicked Mexican breakfast at Lost Lake cafe and lounge. Started with a shot and a beer.