Well, the world failed to end. Again. And the mountain at that French place called Buggerit or something can go back to being a lump of rock. The Mayans failed to end the world. You can’t rely on anyone these days. If you want something done properly you just have to do it yourself. Construction of the Doomsday Machine begins tomorrow.
Okay, on to the point of this post. Robert the Biker has received the little Santa model and has stopped laughing long enough to let me know it’s there. So now I can reveal what it looks like. Santa is, at a guess, roughly 1/20th scale.
I have bought another of these Santas and am watching that shop for more. All the rest are standard electronic and modelling bits available anywhere. I’ll post the construction details for Christmas Day. This is one Santa ornament that applies to every day of the year except Christmas Eve.
underdogs bite upwards 
Looks bloody great.
Remember that old Hornby system, where you shoved a dose of oil down the smoke stack of the engine, and it gave of “smoke” as it ran?……:-)
LikeLike
I used to have one. It was an 0-6-0 tank engine. The ‘oil’ was probably the same stuff that’s now used in Electrofag. There was a metal box under the chimney with wadding, a tiny heating element and a piston that puffed ‘smoke’ as the wheels turned.
I wish I still had that. It could be put to very good use now.
LikeLike
Excellent LI, excellent! You have hidden talents!
LikeLike
Hey that’s a scream, old fella! What’s the going price for one? (I’ll see if I can afford it after the family have bankrupted me this month…)
LikeLike
I managed to grab another of those Santas and I’ll be checking that shop in case they have any more. I’d have to check the real cost of putting it together because apart from the Santa, everything was already in the spares collection! Bet I can do it for less than £20 though.
LikeLike
Several LEDs flashing at different rates. Are these those LEDs with built-in flash? I commend to you the “triple five timer”; an ancient, yet still extant and indispensible, IC, friend of the hobby tinkerer. Very easy to use and seriously cheap.
For an oscillator-
Negative on pin 1,
positive on pins 4 and 8,
LED (and rsstr) from pin 3 to (pos or neg).
ResistorA from positive to pin 7, ResistorB from pin 7 to pins 6 and 2, capacitor from pins 6 and 2 to negative.
LED “off” time (in seconds) is roughly (resistor A plus resistor B) times capacitor. (in megohms and microfarads)
LED “on” time is roughly resistor B times capacitor.
Or vice versa, depending on whether you take the output LED to positive or negative.
The output can drive a relay instead, (with a reverse diode!)
For example, you could supply the power to the existing circuit via a 555 running at, say, 5 seconds on, ten seconds off. Power it direct, you won’t need a relay.
If you can solder a LED, you can use 555s. Don’t bother with a PCB, just solder up a “dead bug” lump.
LikeLike
Don’t do this to me! I have had a bottle of Lambs navy, after shift end, and……
Nooooo. In the new year….PLEASE! 🙂
LikeLike
LikeLike
They are Maplin’s built-in flashies.
I’ve used many 555s in the past and might have a few in the shed, you never know. I no longer have the PCB-making stuff but probably have a few scraps of Veroboard around the place somewhere…
I’ll have to store that comment. A couple of those circuits would be great for the crowd scene I’ve been thinking about.
LikeLike
I have lots of 555s, I will send you some if you like, for no money. I use them for GCSE electronics students. They are “taught about the NE555”, but actually have no idea what it does or why: it is a mortal and unconscionable tragedy. They “have to build a project using the 555″….and most of the marks are for producing a neat wooden box…which they have to make as the main part of the “project”. They get marked down if the wooden box is untidy or innacurate. (Trust me on this one…)
LikeLike
Truly, modern British “GCSE Electronics” is terrible: they even have trouble reading the colour codes of resistors, which they have to represent circuit-wise as a rectangle. What a nonsense.
LikeLike
I first picked up electronics in A-level physics. We learned to etch PCBs, to solder, what the various bits and pieces did and why (we only got as far as transistors, no ICs at that time, it was a sort-of aside from the real syllabus). We never put anything in a box…
LikeLike
WE did “valves”! (I am the only fella in Lancashire who “knows how to fix” guitar amps … (God help me…)
LikeLike
I used to pick up non-working valve radios in junk shops, see which valves didn’t light up and replace those. There was a good demand for those radios, they beat the tinny transistors of the time hands down. I never really understood how valves worked, but they conveniently light up to tell you they’re working.
LikeLike
Well, LI. It isn’t often that I LOL at something I see on the net, but I did this time. The video is a cracker.
LikeLike
And the little rat, don’t forget to tell them about having a little rat!
Mines currently sitting on his boot.
LikeLike
There should have been litter. If only there had been more time. If only I’d found a model of a passed-out elf…
LikeLike
Try warhammer type shops, you know the kind of thing. They have “elves”, I think. They are called “Eldar”. The scale is 1/65, I am told by an afficionado of the genre. It might do as they will be small with respect to your model.
LikeLike
Oho. I used to have some of the Dungeons and Dragons figures. Couldn’t be bothered with the game but liked painting the figures. Anyway, I couldn’t ever lose because I had the Angel of Death.
LikeLike