Vintage disco buckle light. (with schematic)

[@toasty4000000]

"it was 1999" what a year to be a clive

[@JessHull]

oooooh yooou

[@Barolax]

Oh ffs, I almost drowned in my coffee. :D

[@vwegert]

"Voices are just broad-band noise" - oh so true on so many levels...

[@gladiusilluminatus3720]

One of the best videos in a while. Not that the others arent good just that this one was exeptional. I love the sense of nostalgia and seeing how you startet out and hearing these old storys.

[@jkobain]

It's so interesting to learn something from your videos, and it's also very enjoyable to just recognize what you're talking about. Particularly, about this 4017 decimal counter/divider. I remember ordering and assembling a chasing lights kit which has a microphone and works just like this one does. The lamps are only those color changing LEDs each with its control unit inside. The great part of building those kits is not only in learning how to solder properly, but in learning how and why they work (or why they don't, sometimes). The value your channel already has in it is incredible, while every video is calm, fun and easy to follow. Thank you, and thank you again!

[@wimwiddershins]

Bloody good explanation. Videos like this are like a mini lecture.

[@psygn0sis]

1999 was 20 years ago. Gotta love remembering back to a period of time as if it was just a couple years ago, then realizing several decades have passed. Yeah, that doesn't make you feel old as f*** or anything.

[@DavidCowie2022]

psygn0sis "The hours pass slowly but the years pass quickly."

[@Highstranger951]

It’s been extremely difficult for us to advance since all the computers spontaneously combusted on y2k.

[@_Piers_]

1999, aah the golden time to work in IT. "Yes, I think you might be right. Your systems could well be susceptible to the Millennium Bug...my colleagues and I would be more than happy to avert you fears, for an entirely unreasonable fee. Yes, that is quite a lot of zeros isn't it Mr. Banker."

[@steved2136]

I started playing with electronics as a hobby exactly twenty years previous to that twenty year previous.... Now I feel ancient....

[@Lumibear.]

This throws me back to all the flashy lights I used to wear to raves in the 90s to 2000-ish, I’d just collect anything that lit up and did something interesting, Halloween and Xmas was a godsend, I’d cannibalise the innards and stick them in body wear like hats, earwear, velcroed onto t-shirts and attached to gloves, good times!

[@bigclivedotcom]

Typical tech-bear.

[@edgeeffect]

I did electronics at school and got a CSE.... I've bumbled along most of my life, not really learning any more... but KZbin channels like yours have massively boosted my understanding in recent years.... I almost have a clue what I'm talking about..... thanks Clive, and keep up The Great Work.

[@JulianIlett]

I bought my first blue LED in 1993 from Maplin. Still got it - it's on a Z80 PCB. It wasn't very bright (or very blue) and I think it cost about £2 :)

[@bigclivedotcom]

Was it silicon carbide? When Maplin introduced first the silicon carbide ones and then the gallium nitride ones they charged an astronomical price for them. I think it was £10 for each one.

[@snewl5324]

Rest In Peace Maplin

[@klausstock8020]

The first *affordable* "blue LEDs" were...very tiny light bulbs in an LED case. But we also had a chemistry teacher at school, who did electronics projects with the us (in his spare time). He wrote to Siemens to ask for free blue LEDs. Turned out, Siemens had blue LEDs which they couldn't sell because their reverse voltage was outside the specifications. Using my first blue LED as a power indicator (actually, I used it as a voltage reference, but it did double duty as the power light) taught me that blue LEDs make very annoying power lights

[@tsm688]

SiC leds were so weird and dodgy. Imagine a diode with a 5V voltage drop! But at the time seemed magical.

[@MD_Slaine]

I have absolutely no idea about electronics so I can't understand why I enjoy this so much. I find it very pleasing that you nipped of to a corner to check it was working. Again no idea why.

[@redfernsofthenorth]

A Scottish nightclub in 1999. I can see that circuit being overloaded by the bagpipes.

[@handsolo1209]

Or broken Hooch bottles.

[@mcomiskey7]

And ecstasy. Lots and lots of ecstasy.

[@evbobdemon6994]

Nice bit of kit you made clive. I used to ware flashing gloves in my rave days at the sanctuary at milton kynes. Now its a one man rave at home for me lol. You tube and a decca 66 sometimes comes out the closet.

[@GeorgeJFW]

I really love when you look at retro electronics. I find the designs are more clever, they don't just get one chip to do everything like they seem to do today.

[@kraio-sfu]

Junk From Work Isn’t this one chip doing everything?

[@GeorgeJFW]

@@kraio-sfu fair point lol

[@bigclivedotcom]

Ah, but it doesn't need programmed and you can buy it off the shelf.

[@GeorgeJFW]

@@bigclivedotcom always the voice of clarity! Cheers from Canada!

[@FG-Supercharged]

What a wonderful example of reverse engineering and description. I wish you were around (well you were, just not accessible) when I was just learning electronics. You rock! 🤙🤙🤙

[@SeanBZA]

1990 I bought some hyperbright GaAs green led's, which were really bright, and capable of projecting a cone across a semi dark room, with only 20mA of current. I made a torch using one of them and a CR2016 cell, and a current limiting resistor to get it down to around 5mA of current, where it was still orders of magnitude brighter than any other LED available at the time, plus it was easy to see the die and the gold bonding wires inside, as it was the first one ( other than those in transistor cases) that came in a water clear encapsulation. Also found that you could see the light being emitted, even with 1M of resistor and a 9V supply, much better than the regular LED that was barely visible in the dark at 1mA, and still not daylight visible at massive overdrive of 50mA.

[@channelsixtysix066]

In this retrospective episode, it's 1999, Clive takes to testing LED lighting modules at the local disco and washing down cider. All in the name of science and technology. What a great video, showing the basics of reverse engineering and circuit analysis.

[@Chef_PC]

I want to believe that in 1999, you had a magnificent mustache instead of the magnificent beard...

[@tin2001]

I'm fairly sure Clive was born with a large beard.

[@williamarmstrong7199]

@@Okurka. Aaaah so young ;)

[@Jamal_Tyrone]

Damn it! Now I want to know how to blow up Smarties!

[@muh1h1]

The part where you described how you actually didn't ever use it was really funny, could have totally been me! Haha

[@Nandru85]

@@Okurka. That was an ibteresting read..!

[@griff5476]

Isn't it horrible that 1999 is 20 years ago. Also 1999 was the waning/beginning of the end of decent dance music. Great video as usual mate!

[@Zodliness]

Cool project Clive. I was surprised to learn that the average condenser microphone was easily capable to detecting even minute barometric pressure changes caused by opening a window or door, even in another room of a building. They were used as the main sensor inside portable volumetric security alarms, that were manufactured in the UK in between the 80s~90s and were used mostly on building sites.

[@rowgli]

Do you think this principle could be used as an early warning system for our flatulent puppy? I think something may have died inside it.

[@Zodliness]

​@@rowgli There's only one remedy for puppy farts, I just wouldn't want to be the one to remove the cork after.

[@SeanBZA]

@@Zodliness When the pressure has built up to a suitable level it is self removing, though you might not want to be in line when it does reach critical pressure, as there will likely be more than the cork and some gas going in a straight line till it hits the wall.

[@Zodliness]

@@SeanBZA You sound like you're speaking from personal experience, I honestly didn't know puppy raising could be so hazardous! LOL

[@kjsud5546]

Somewhere out on the interwebs there HAS to be a picture of Big Clive in a leisure suit :)

[@bigclivedotcom]

Nah. Always Jeans, sweatshirt and baseball cap. I didn't go to posh clubs.

[@atomipi]

Nice, in the early to mid 90's, I was using 555's and 4017's to clock a stepper motor (via 1N4148 diodes to get the sequences right), making the motors zip back n forth at speeds changing to the music. With two of these, and a small mirrors of the shaft, I made a xy scanner for an old 1.7mW HeNe laser tube from a barcode shopping scanner. This is well before laser diodes were cheaply available. I used to hire it to nightclubs for $100 an hour, and was overbooked with many clubs all night long 4 days a week. Saved enough money to buy 2 new 17mW HeNe tubes, and an argon blue/green laser, hired them out for years, with free bar-tabs included in the hire.. and made a fortune having fun for a young fellah in his 20's :)

[@matthewday7565]

Now I'm remembering the craziest device ever seen at my old radio club constructors cup... It was an automated Morse sender clocked by a CR relay oscillator driving uniselectors with the Morse code wired to them, the sight and sound of it running was quite something

[@bigclivedotcom]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3yugHiIasmUp8k Pleasing neon controlled relay sequencer.

[@Mark1024MAK]

bigclivedotcom - ahh, uniselectors. BCC technology! [Before cheap computers]. No sleeping in the equipment room / exchange during the day with people using the systems... kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZSpoZR_Zr6Siac

[@mattsadventureswithart5764]

More of this type of video, please, Clive. Excellent supplement to your usual :)

[@Wenlocktvdx]

Gallium Aluminium Arsenide, rather a whitish blue, appeared in Australia in the early 90s. I bought one at Dick Smith Electronics and it's still acting as the power led for a joule thief I built later on. Forward voltage was rather high at 4.7V and expensive at around $8

[@bigclivedotcom]

Are you sure that wasn't a silicon carbide LED? The washed out blue sounds like that.

[@Wenlocktvdx]

I wonder, DSE could have got the specs wrong. They’ve stuffed up worse than that.

[@SeanBZA]

I got the green and red hyperbright water clear LED's then, and they were expensive, around $2 each, compared to the regular LED at around 20c each, and a price drop if you bought more than 20, and again at 100.

[@ALurkingGrue]

Blue LED's were available in 1999 they were just very expensive. You could get them in the early 90's for about $20 each.

[@jamesgrimwood1285]

I bought a second hand PlayStation sometime in the early 2000s and swapped its power LED for a bright white one because they were new and cool. Now I actively seek out and deactivate/cover up blue and white LEDs in the things I buy :)

[@DrathVader]

@@jamesgrimwood1285 I swapped the blue LED for a red one in my FiiO E10K DAC. Looks far more pleasing to the eye.

[@Whigu]

It's really interesting to see these things what you have done yourself. Now a days so many hobbies are just 1. Buy two things and put them together with connector 2. Download ready code and then think that you have done something.

[@imqqmi]

Good to see a non led light or battery bank reverse engineering subject, I'd like more of this! Thanks for sharing memories!

[@nabarnes]

Was wondering how you managed to get hold of two flux capacitors before you pointed out they were only the cell holders.

[@RFC3514]

You mean until he _pretended_ they were cell holders.

[@handsolo1209]

Can you imagine how powerful Mr Fusion would be if it was fed Surströmming?

[@kasnitch]

I can . it would create a supermassive black hole .

[@Chuckiele]

@@kasnitch More like brown hole :D

[@elitearbor]

That ring-light on your phone takes simply crystal-clear photos. Excellent!

[@bigclivedotcom]

It's not actually on the phone. It's an improvised mini studio just for little PCBs.

[@elitearbor]

@@bigclivedotcom Well, the ring-light certainly fooled me. It does provide good lighting, however you did it. Very even and clear. Thanks for taking the time to take such good photographs while explaining things!

[@phonotical]

As someone who has been supplying the Internet with schematics for decades, have you ever found any companies, Chinese or not, who have copied your designs or used your pcb layouts, maybe even with your name still on there?

[@uzaiyaro]

Phonotical I’d like to know this, too. It’s also possible that they could just feed data into a layout program and just autoroute something, I suppose. I’m still quite new to electronics and have not laid out a board yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this is what they do sometimes.

[@loukashareangas4420]

Imagine random chinese reproductions of the cyber pussy or the fiber optic turd... "Those westerners must like these things, let's make a million of each!"

[@bigclivedotcom]

In the very early days the first version of my RGB controller software was available for download from my website. It ended up in someone else's product. That was when I started only supplying it as pre-programmed chips (with a lot more features) and then people asked for the PCBs and then the full kits. So it actually paid off in the end. A few of my PCB designs have been cloned. There's nothing you can really do about it.

[@davidmcgill1000]

@@bigclivedotcom Did anyone ever clone that replacement pinball board that I believe was for audio?

[@bigclivedotcom]

@@davidmcgill1000 It was made to share on the 'net. But one company did copy the design and changed the date to a year earlier.

[@DisabilityExams]

Big Clive - what the world needs today is a vid of you dancing to disco wearing that flashing belt buckle!!!

[@eugenespeed]

Clive 1999. Wasn't that a Sci Fi programme from the 70s?

[@sircube5917]

That was Space 1999 maybe I would totally watch a show named Clive 1999 though :)

[@johnbouttell5827]

Perhaps you could start a vintage disco buckle residency at The Polo Lounge. It could then claim to be Scotland's biggest and most fabulous electronic lighting module venue.

[@colinoverton790]

Dear Clive, I have enjoyed your videos (particularly the lighting and battery ones) immensely over the last few of years. I prefer not to set up an on-going "patreon" commitment, so have sent a donation direct via PayPal. I wish you an excellent 2019 and I hope your videos continue, regards Colin

[@jlucasound]

Thanks for sharing your engineering with us! I am learning about the different ICs and what they do. I just acquired a Chinese spinny random number wheel DIY that has a 4017 on it. I saw your board and thought, I wonder. Sure enough, same chip. I am also in my mid 50's but I am about 13 in electronics! I built the DIY and it worked. Surface mount and all. Don't sneeze!

[@MacPrince]

A very nice design, Clive, but I think it also needs two fuses, a big fuse and a little fuse. Then put it away in a cardboard box...

[@bubba99009]

Can't wait for these belt buckles to show up on aliexpress for $1.27 with free shipping.

[@JerryEricsson]

Back in the early 1970's when rock and roll was hotter then ever, and I was a young soldier stationed in Texas, we decided to try and build light organs. Now none of us were that great with transistors, or tubes, but one of my fellow soldiers, who was married and lived off Base in El Paso, in a mobile home court decided to build a "mock" light organ. What he did was build a nice wooden box, he lined the back with shaped aluminum wrap, shiny side out, then stapled the mid-sized Christmas Lights, each bulb a flasher using just red and blue lights, arranged in a sort of criss-cross across the back, the aluminum wrap acting as a reflector. Then about four inches i front of the lights he placed a thin poster-board insert, in which he had cut stars, hearts, and letters such as FTA, something that was quite popular with soldiers who had just returned from nam. In front of that, he put the face, made up of translucent plastic with a sort of diamond pattern mesh over that. What came out was some fantastic lights, and when played with very loud rock, the lights seemed to sync with the music, I think it was just the brain trying to make sense of the two sensory overloads at once.

[@nickclark6001]

I used to build projects just like this which were published in Electronics Today magazine in the early 1970s I'm still fascinated by these mini boards with LEDs! I must find them again...

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Great flash back Clive

[@damonbtc9701]

And I went exploring the old structures in Queens park after seeing one of your uploads...... cheers

[@rayceeya8659]

I think I remember a similar project from years ago that used a counter and a 7 segment driver but no 7 segment display. Instead it was hooked up to discreet LEDs to create a sort of psuedo-random display.

[@alexmarshall4331]

ahhh Clive..1999 was the heyday Vox Populi...you and your wonderful diverse creative energy would have been so welcomed...I would have worn it...!! keep it up mate..thank you for sharing ✌

[@Acoustic_Theory]

14:12 The term you're looking for is Low-Pass Filter. It will be a 6dB/octave passive low pass filter at a frequency set by the value of the capacitance and the impedance of the load.

[@richardturton6900]

"SRBP" is Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I thought it sounded wrong when I said it. These things happen.

[@richardturton6900]

@@bigclivedotcom Generally it was known as "paxolin", a trade name I assume. If it was made with fabric instead of paper it was called "tufnol".

[@joinedupjon]

Guess it dated from a time when it was necessary to differentiate it from natural resin bonded paper or something, think it got used in old valve radios before PCB was invented.

[@manolisgledsodakis873]

There was a type that I recall which was referred to as "random fibre" board (as opposed to woven fibre). It was blue in colour and quite easy to drill and guillotine. Maybe it's still available.

[@Mark1024MAK]

Plain (no copper layers) SRBP was supplied with holes on a 0.1” grid, it was used to mount pins (pushed through the holes with a suitable soldering iron) in a user defined layout. Then you could solder resistors, transistors, capacitors, diodes to it to resemble the schematic fairly closely. SRBP was also used along with metal tags to make tag blocks. Imagine a long strip of brown “plastic” (SRBP) with two rows of metal tags running along. Each tag has a hole in it. So you could fit resistors, axial capacitors, long leaded transistors and diodes on it. This was before PCBs became cheaper. You could also buy SRPB as plain sheets in various sizes and thicknesses.

[@grayonic123]

You should remake this in one of your hour(ish) long Q&A video's.

[@dar3321]

Love to see an updated version with better components. Great channel bigclive never stop!

[@ZeedijkMike]

What would humanity have been today without 4017, 4093 and 555? Great to see your good old designs.

[@ZeedijkMike]

@pmailkeey Then let Electronics be the adventure of your life. It's a "Newer ending story" Have a great new year.

[@ThunderBassistJay]

Fun! I remember building a light show in the early 80's. Part of it was based on the same 4017 chip, also changing lights on each beat.

[@SkyOctopus1]

4017s must be part of a geek's evolution. I recently rediscovered my "electronic eyecatcher" badge that was based on the 4017 and I made when I was about 15.

[@DubiousEngineering]

It would be hilarious to bump into you at a night club wearing this rather nifty belt buckle! ... neither of us do night clubs anymore... so... it will never happen.... but you would have a striking resemblance to a certain ZZ top guitarist!... cracking work Clive! Welcome to 2019! Hugs!

[@electronash]

Something tells me Clive might have gone to a slightly different style of club to you, mate. lol

[@Peter_S_]

Don't assume too much ElectronAsh, I'm straight but I used to work in a number of gay discos in San Francisco doing lightshow art. Most clubs were an eclectic mixture of LGBT and straight partygoers with nights focused on each preference. Our lightshow even made it onto the cover of the San Francisco Gay & Lesbian Yellow Pages and I'm honored to have projected psychedelic artwork on Sister Boom Boom as she received an award for community activism. I could easily picture running into Clive as there were a number of people who created similar LED gadgets and they were always the most fun people to talk with. I love artists. Proud Ally.

[@RFC3514]

Well, there's no reason why a DC electrician can't go to an AC club once in a while.

[@dav1dbone]

Where do you think the tv series "Automan" came from?

[@jasonk9779]

As someone who has worked a ZZ Top show I can confirm the ZZ Top comment :)

[@gbraadnl]

4:26 the geeky and relatable story makes this a very enjoyable video!

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

I once made a chasing light module using the 4017 for my electronics course. I made a circle with 10 green LEDs, and a line in the middle of it with 5 LEDs, and wired them (point to point, inside a wooden craft box) so the light in the line would go back and forth as the light in the circle went around. Quite simple, and I got away without using single resistors for the LEDs because of the way I wired them: a diode for each 4017 output, then the LEDs from the circle in series with the ones from the line, then a common resistor (100 ohms I think). Since there's only a couple of LEDs on at a time, there's no need for separate resistors for each light.

[@Jk-yb4nk]

The way that this channel can be sumed up is "wow, that's cool as shit" glad I've found it

[@rounakdutta6211]

This kind of circuits remind me of "Talking Electronics" website... Nostalgia :-)

[@kevinjbakertribe]

I lost track of the number of things I did with a 4017!

[@SlyPearTree]

A 4017, a 555 and some resistors, capacitors and LEDs could be the basics of a N Experiments in One Electronic kit, I'm surprised I've never seen one.

[@manolisgledsodakis873]

Me, too. I recall making an LED chaser for my father after he set up business as a hypnotherapist. He used it on his patients, too!

[@Chuckiele]

@@SlyPearTree I still have one of those. a 4017, a 555, an opamp package, transistors, a shit ton of resistors and caps and a huge book with in depth explanations of hundreds of circuits. Learnt a lot from it and still use it occasionally for prototyping.

[@JerryEricsson]

cool device, always room for another light organ type device in my book!

[@Black3ternity]

I would love to see a modern take on this module. Make it with the same purpose but with new knowledge and components - like you said: Lithium cell, brighter LEDs etc. Would really be nice.

[@PIXscotland]

Back in the day. I remember those days. Making mechanical time switch light sequencers and the "ultimate light controller" was the Pulsar Zero 4000. I made pretty much the same circuit as this but with diode steering for 7 triacs to give a night rider effect. Darn I feel old now...

[@bigclivedotcom]

I made a few of the 6 channel 4017 and diode array night rider units for friends cars.

[@PIXscotland]

@@bigclivedotcom Yeah. 6 way... Not 7.... Such a long time ago...

[@licensetodrive9930]

Can you make a KZbin playlist of some of the music you listened to 20 years ago? I'm quite intrigued.

[@BBC600]

licensetodrive Clive should make Spotify playlists

[@Shaun.Stephens]

@pmailkeey I'm curious about what the "pecora (sp?) on the way home" was that he mentioned.

[@0briang0]

@@Shaun.Stephens Pakora: Small indian snacks. Very nice :) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakora

[@petersage5157]

@@Shaun.Stephens I was wondering about that as well. I know what the word usually means, but in context...?

[@Hairy_Takoyaki]

@@Shaun.Stephens Perhaps he means scoffing a lamb kebab?

[@richardsandwell2285]

I love how you have put your name on the PCB and the date, its something I have always done, mine is just my initials and the date. I have boards going back to 1986. I remember at school people were making something similar to this with two chips and the LEDs normally plain red would just light in sequence making it look like the LED was moving around the circle. Those ones were not sound sensitive though.

[@AttilaAsztalos]

Base detector design, 1999: "Well, this capacitor should only let the base through..." Base detector design, 2019: "Let's take the first DSP we can find and slap a standard audio front end on it..."

[@rich1051414]

Thank you for confirming that dry rosin is NOT corrosive. I have argued with so many people about that. Sure, it is ugly, but it is simply cosmetic, and is perfectly safe to leave on.

[@PaulSteMarie]

The phrase you were looking for was "low-pass filter" 😁 Been a while since I saw 4000 series CMOS in use. When I was in college the 4000 series chips were the go-to logic family. 74LS was rather finicky about it's power supply and output load.

[@jonlaws4493]

Blimey, I did a similar thing when I was in Glasgow back in the early 90’s. Single large red LED with a lens to focus the beam and a low pass filter all mounted in a project box. Tried it down “The Tunnel” a few times but the results were less than impressive. Still, it was fun making and trying it out.

[@tncorgi92]

At first 1999 doesn't seem all that long ago, I remember working on Y2K projects like it was yesterday. But then I realize how many developments have come since then and it's overwhelming.

[@Biped]

Does anybody else think that the chip sitting on a picture of itself right at the end is kind of trippy?

[@jp-um2fr]

Clive's first words were either 'Real Lead Solder' or 'Warm White'. The 60's - 'If you remember them you weren't there' (George Harrison). Girls were liberated by 'The Pill'. I used to fall asleep at work. Now I can't even remember what goes where. Good days.

[@jlucasound]

Yes! Rebuild it! All new parts. Modern Li cells. Clip in bat holder. Brighter (and cheaper) LEDs. You could make it on a breadboard and mess with different LED colors and anything else that you could "tweek". Maybe response to different freq.?

[@stevenlein4772]

Now you have a prop for a twenty year throwback themed 2019 new years eve "Clive" cast.

[@christastic100]

Never mind bang-good, Bang-Clive retro. Tonight we’re going to party like it’s 1999 and if we give it any more it’s going to buckle!

[@WaveformWanderlust]

Late nineties in Glasgow ... were these clubs playing house music? Great video by the way I like the idea of revisiting old designs. Cheers.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Polo Lounge.

[@jonlaws4493]

Glasgow clubs in the 90’s were the best! SubClub, Tunnel and Slam at the Arches. Ah such delightful memories !

[@blingking501]

I've noticed ive clocked more into Clive's backstory than the electronics. Don't get me wrong I'm loving the he electronic talk, but the story of medium Clive intrigues me.

[@twocvbloke]

Funny to think that you built this 20 years ago, and today there are loads of people making LED wearables for night club excursions... :P

[@andygozzo72]

i made a knight rider moving light thingie when i was about 12, intending it as 'wearable' , but was too bulky!

[@andygozzo72]

i can beat Clive in terms of how long ago, this was around 1984 😁

[@andygozzo72]

and i still have it, at least the 'trial' version..

[@kjpmi]

I have a string of christmas lights that I got this year that which are battery operated and they will respond to music. It has different modes I believe but it normally stays partially lit and then when it hears a loud enough beat it increases in intensity or turns on more of the lights. I should send them to you, Clive.

[@Jjosh1358]

9:09 I built a simple treble boost circuit for my guitar based on a regular boost circuit and there is a 2M resistor across the base and collector. I always wondered what it was for.

[@avejst]

Those were the days. Simple light, love it 👍😀

[@johnrobinson357]

I had a thought Clive. A simple LC network for audio pre selection - a band pass filter. You would need to " fiddle " with values to attain values that are useful however. It would work. Gain may suffer a bit. Years ago i got a bunch of Panasonic back electret elements from digi key. Very good audio quality, even at high levels.

[@2ndTester]

This takes me back... I designed and built 250 "Light Chasers" for a mate and his model Fairground rides about then. The design was straight out of the 4017 datasheet plus transistor array of npns in a dip package to drive 8 grain of rice / wheat bulbs in parralel. Oh the 14017 was 1 pin different and very annoying! Cut and mod wiress needed to make it work the same!.

[@peregrine1970]

Hrm... use a remote battery. "Is that an 18650 in your pocket or are you glad to see me?"

[@user-pi5xz5je4y]

*26650

[@lochinvar00465]

The feedback resistor inserts negative feedback. Helps to keep it stable.

[@piperfox74]

This calls for a follow-up video where Clive builds a new version of this with brighter LEDs that light in sequence around the circle.

[@NytedeGt8]

I have one similar to that one but the LEDs are all red and you push a button and LEDs light up like a spinning wheel and will slow down and stop on 1 LED. I use to get a ball point pen and short out the chip pins to make crazy effects for example there these 2 pins that made it spin so fast that all the LEDs look lit

[@6F6G]

The 33K/100nF capacitor combination should form a low pass filter with a cutoff frequency of around 50Hz. To drive the transistor properly at these low frequencies the electret mic-transistor base coupling capacitor would need to be a relatively high value.

[@VisaoNocturna]

More old school videos like this please! :)

[@lochinvar00465]

In all of my electronics studies, from grade school, Jr High, High School, the Radio Amateurs Handbook and even the Navy, we never used "nano". I believe what you described is a 0.1 uF capacitor? We always used micro(uF) or pico(pF) to describe capacitor values. The only place I've heard of nano is on the internet.

[@nigeljohnson9820]

The 4017 is one of my favourite ICs, coming second only to the quad Schmitt hand, I first used it in a crystal controlled radio scanner. This in the days before frequency synthesis became common p!ace, early 1970s. The 4017 was used to switch up to 10 pairs of Tx/Rx crystals. I also used one as the basis of a digital lock, stepping forward on matching a binary sequence. I still have one a few in a UV PCB exposure unit digital timer.

[@bigclivedotcom]

4093 quad nand schmitt trigger? I used that as the clock in many of my circuits because it gave other options with the spare gates too.

[@nigeljohnson9820]

@@bigclivedotcom oh I agree, the other gates are great for additional signal processing, implementing all types of monostable. I think I have posted about this before. I have used the 4093 as a stroboscope circuit, with one gate acting as the oscillator and two gates giving pulse width control, leaving one free as a buffer, just adding the power transistor to drive the super bright LEDs. I have also used it as the basis of a pulse count discriminator in an infrared audio link receiver. The transmitter was just a modified version of the stroboscobe circuit, with a transistor in the oscillator feedback loop to make it into voltage to frequency converter. I have used it in endless alarm systems and tone generators, even used it as a basic switch mode power supply. The 4017 is not so flexibly, but I have used it with a set of weighted resistors as a pseudo sine wave tone generator, it also makes a simple keyboard multiplexer. Most of these circuits date back to when there was considerable fewer MSI and ACIC devices to preform these functions. Now there is always a dedicated IC to do the job, if not a PIC or an Arduino will perform the logic.

[@urugulu1656]

one thing that my professor told me when i put a capacitor across the backup battery of an rtc chip is that the leakage current through that capacitor could easily discharge the battery faster than intended. tldr this cap maybe more harm than good. i dont know why you choose a such strange value for your lowpass filter resistor i would use a 1k6 and a 1u for that this will filter at about 100hz so perfect for the bass

[@RadioJonophone]

Forget the hankie code, coloured flashing lights are the way yo go.

[@itsjamierawr]

Ahh Polo, I've heard many things but it's still on my list of places to visit (including Glasgow)

[@forwardsdrawkcab]

This may come in handy when encountering the splooshmeister disko shart.

[@Northern5tar]

Had disco lights as a kid that needed to be set manually (with a turn knob, probably just a pot resistor). Had such high expectations but proved to be a huge letdown. Kinda the same principle with simply registering bass/pressure. There is no universal sweet spot so as the music changes the lights would stay off or on all the time. Also the bulbs were simply painted or coated clear glass and they got so hot the paint just started melting off. Was nothing like in the commercial.

[@johnmccanntruth]

I say rebuild it the way you would today, just for fun...

[@matthewmiller6068]

"damper" I believe "low pass filter" is the words you want but damper is a good description of its function

[@mranthonye]

Good morning Clive. Here’s one for you. Can you have a look at the JML Handy Heater that retails for £39.99 please.

[@matakaw4287]

I'd love to see an updated version with bright LEDs flashing to your song "So Much KZbin".

[@Ghozer]

The first Blue LED was in the 70's (the first in 71 by Jacques Pankove and Edward Miller), I even have an old analog Pioneer Tuner (TX-520) with a Blue LED, was made in 81-82

[@bigclivedotcom]

Silicone carbide?

[@Ghozer]

@@bigclivedotcom Nope, Zinc-doped GaN

[@PhilXavierSierraJones]

Now it's about time a SMD variation could be made. 😄

[@seabreezecoffeeroasters7994]

I made a 555 / 4017 demo board a while ago for a little educational job. Fun for all the kids :)

[@rimmersbryggeri]

A Johnson counter? Might be useful in those clubs you have been talking about. Just to keep track.