Lighting a Vader Chest Box

First off, if this issue has been addressed in a previous post, I apologize for cluttering!

A question for anyone with tech/electrical skills:

I have come across numerous sites on the Internet that show how to make a 3-bit binary counter, but the majority require a 4017 chip, which I have had trouble finding- Radio Shack doesn't seem to carry them. I dont; feel like having to order one online; is there any way to wire up three 555 timers to get a similar effect? I am not too concerned about "screen accurate" sequencing. I simulated a schematic using a program and it worked fine, but when I set it all up on a breadboard for testing the LEDs would only light solid- no blinking at all. Anyone know of a way to do this?
Thanks!

I built this circuit for my Vader chestbox. It is indeed a 3-bit binary countdown but it uses a 4027 instead of a 4017, even listing the Radio Shack part number for it (of little use here in Romania, LOL). Even just aping the breadboard diagram onto perfboard and driving each output with 2 LEDs in parallel instead of one, this circuit has performed flawlessly for probably 50 hours total so far on the same 3 AAA batteries.

- Ken -

Thanks, Volguus!
This is the one I was going to go with, since the 4027 is available at Radio Shack. The schematic shows a bargraph LED- how difficult is it to swap that out for the red single LEDs?

BTW, your scratch-buitl chest box thread is outstanding! It has served as inspiration throughout my own project.

Sorry, I didn't know there was a reply to this! The bargraph LED is just a row of tiny normal LEDs all housed in one plastic case. No difference (electronically) from supergluing 10 LEDs together. So the two leads coming from any single "element" of the bargraph are just the normal two leads that go into any LED.

I am currently working on the next chestbox, and at this very moment, the coinslot circuit is front and center on my plate. Thanks to the magic of BluRay, I've just done a complete frame-by-frame analysis of Vader's coinslot blinks whenver they appear for any substantial time in ROTJ. My thoughts are as follows:

1. There is a pattern, but it's not 3-bit binary or Gray code. There are several scenes in ROTJ for either one of these codes to cycle at least one full time and they just don't.
2. It's well-known that several different chestboxes were used on Vader in ROTJ, including at least one revamped from TESB. It's not far-fetched that each box might have a different pattern just from the variables in the circuit construction.
3. One thing for sure: The lights are not independent of each other (as you might get with 3 isolated 555 timer circuits). Their transitions are synchronized, meaning they change from on to off (or vice versa) at the same moment other lights do.
4. The slots may display only 3 steps of a larger counter circuit, such as bits 1,3 and 5 of a 7-bit counter.
5. In "Star Trek: First Contact", an in-joke emerged that the blinking lights on each Borg spelled out, in Morse Code, the names of one of the effects team. Something similar may have been afoot with the coinslots.

In the absence of any other data, the 3-bit binary counter seems perfectly fine, and better than many other options, at approximating Vader's coinslot blinks (at least in ROTJ). My only suggestion would be to switch the 1st and 2nd LEDs when installing, so that the middle slot blinks fastest, the top slot more slowly, and the bottom slowest of all. This is the most consistent with the analysis I did of the film.

- Ken -

Wow, pretty insightful analysis. Based on this, it seems the 3 bit will fit the bill. I found out that Radio Shack no longer carries the 4027 or the 4017 in-store, so I am forced to go online. My chestbox (heck, my whole suit!) has kind of sputtered in terms of progress this summer, but I may kick into high gear to try to finish for Halloween. Thanks for the good info!

-Justin

I am happy to report that the self-taught circuit board production is a success! I just etched my first working board for Vader chestbox:


The whole board is less than 2.5 x 5 inches and the LEDs line up perfectly with the coinslots. No more perfboard kludges for THIS geek! :-)

Very cool!