LED circuit for 1/6 scale diorama

[JDGafford]

First time posting here.
So, I'm wanting to recreate a scene in the movie Spaceballs where Dark Helmet puts his ship into Ludicrous Speed.
There is 3 illuminated signs in the scene.
The first sign illuminates, stays illuminated and then about 2 seconds later the second sign illuminates.
In about 2 seconds the third sign illuminates. But the third sign blinks on and off.

Would it be necessary to use and program a micro controller to achieve this?
Or can it be done with simple components?

I've never used a micro controller in a circuit before. So it will be a learning experience.

There will be a total of six 3mm LED's in the circuit powered by 5v USB.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[ZipZapOuch]

If you want to do it quickly and easily, I'd use a decade counter and an LM555 chip to pulse the decade counter.

The decade counter has 10 outputs (Q0 to Q9). When you turn the circuit on, it lights the first pin, then pulses to light the second, then third (all three I'd these are connected to light your first sign) Q1, Q2 and Q3j. Q0 wound be connected to anything as the dark starting point. .

Then the fifth, sixth and seventh pins (Q4 - Q6) light up the second time for about 0.6 seconds each for a total of 2 seconds. There will be no flash as one turns off and the next turns on.

Finally, for the third sign, flashes the second sign in, (Q7) makes the first flash, then Q8 not connected to anything means everything is dark, (Q9) flashes the third sign on again.

Now, you can make it stop there until you switch it off and on again, or you can have it continuously cycling back to the dark before the first sign and repeat.
Let me know what you prefer.

There will be a few more wires with this method but no installing software, writing a program and loading into the microcontroller. Just two chips. One that makes pulses, and one that takes those pulses and energizes ten different pins.

 

[JDGafford]

That definitely sounds like what I need.
And I would prefer this to continue the cycle over and over again until I power the circuit down.
Not have used components like this before, where would I get info or schematics to complete this wiring between the 555 and the decade counter?

 

[ZipZapOuch]

That definitely sounds like what I need.
And I would prefer this to continue the cycle over and over again until I power the circuit down.
Not have used components like this before, where would I get info or schematics to complete this wiring between the 555 and the decade counter?

Here

I modified my original description a bit to allow an extended (4-6second) pause at the start of each cycle. Otherwise, it looks like it is just another flash if the "all dark restart" is the same amount of time as the all dark between Ludicrous flashes (0.66 seconds). To do this, Q8 charges a capacitor that the Q0 discharges. At the beginning of the discharge, the 4017 is paused in reset until it discharges enough.

I haven't breadboarded it yet but let me know if it works (or not).

 

[danadak]

Use Arduino Nano board, ~$3, and write program (as shown) in mBlock. mBlock
takes your block configuration and generates Arduino code from that. Quick and
dirty solution, timing accurate as board has xtal on it.

Load of fun programming in block language. Many variants, like Tuniot, NodeRed, Scratch, Snap4Arduino
make it easy, 2 minutes, to bring up a simple server for example.

An example of a talking volt/freq/pulse width meter -

https://www.edaboard.com/threads/gui-codeless-processor-design.397358/#post-1708529

Sophisticated timer - https://www.electro-tech-online.com/articles/pulse-sequence-generator-smart-timer.938/

Post # 5 https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/help-please.162836/#post-1416676

The board cant drive high power LEDs directly, so use a NPN interface to pin like -

Use ~ 1K in base, Rc will set current thru LED, and add a 10K R from base to ground to insure
LED stays off when design first powers up and sets output pins floating.

Note I did not show debounce of trigger pin (lazy), easy to add simple blocks to do that.

 

[shokjok]

If you want to do it quickly and easily, I'd use a decade counter and an LM555 chip to pulse the decade counter.

The decade counter has 10 outputs (Q0 to Q9). When you turn the circuit on, it lights the first pin, then pulses to light the second, then third (all three I'd these are connected to light your first sign) Q1, Q2 and Q3j. Q0 wound be connected to anything as the dark starting point. .

Then the fifth, sixth and seventh pins (Q4 - Q6) light up the second time for about 0.6 seconds each for a total of 2 seconds. There will be no flash as one turns off and the next turns on.

Finally, for the third sign, flashes the second sign in, (Q7) makes the first flash, then Q8 not connected to anything means everything is dark, (Q9) flashes the third sign on again.

Now, you can make it stop there until you switch it off and on again, or you can have it continuously cycling back to the dark before the first sign and repeat.
Let me know what you prefer.

There will be a few more wires with this method but no installing software, writing a program and loading into the microcontroller. Just two chips. One that makes pulses, and one that takes those pulses and energizes ten different pins.

While a microcontroller provides the lowest parts count for this idea, the 555 with a 4017, 4072 and LED driver circuits is a design starting point.