Arrghh - the cylon pumpkins are coming to get us!
Well done to the team that completed their cylo-veg! It proved to be one of my optimistic evenings so not everyone finished but I hope you'll complete them at home - I tried to make sure all the kits went home with all the bits needed to complete them. Actually, it was a good job we didn't all get to the end as there is an embarressing typo on the handout wiring guide - the picture and the detailed sheet are fine but the resistor wiring locations were wrong on the protoboard guide (ahem!)
I've attached the correct version below. I hope that you can see that electronics can be quite easy (hey - we made cylon eyes in about an hour!) and you can do lots with a few standard IC chips. When I was scout sized I knew all the theory parts but could never actually make any of the cool stuff I wanted to, but my friend had the right book and could... Nowadays now there are lots of great internet sites with good projects. http://www.evilmadscientist.com/ and http://www.makezine.com/ are great and the theory can be checked out on http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/index.htm (which is on my favourites so I can check I don't put any errors in my instruction pages (oops!)). If you check out projects there you'll find lots use the bits that you have - a few resistors and capacitors (you can get more from maplins for a few p), the 555 Timer chip and the 4017 Counter chip, and you have signal diodes and LEDs and a pototyping board (really useful!)! If you make a couple more things you'll have mostly earned your electronics badge...
Uh oh! Here's another... (well done scary pumpkin maker!)
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