PLX08 Project - Knight Rider Car
Knight Rider
This Project was created by Frazer Fyfe, Mark McGowan, Christine Orr and Lynn Wiseman
Concept
For our project we decided to replicate the light sequence from Kit, The Knight Rider car. The lights flash in a linear sequence from left to right, and then back again. The dashboard piece would require a sound to light converter so iut could flash when kitt spoke and for the front we would need a running set of leds.
after consultation with the venue techs we were pointed to the wonders of maplin - we bought a Velleman MK107 LED Running Light Kit. (See Photo 2 and 3)
The Kit consists of 8 Led's which have a changeable speed and pattern.
Running LED Kit
The running led kit contained three main components that are responsible for the flashing sequence of the lights and the time they take to flash through. These were - 555 timer - dual 4 bit shifter - variable resistor.
The variable resistor - this came before the 555 timer in the circuit. It was followed by two other resistors then a capacitor. As you increased the value of the resistor you lowered the current getting through to the capacitor so therefore it took longer to charge, which changed the speed that the LEDs flashed at.
555 timer - ours was an 8pin v package rather than the 8 pin t package. In this component is the equivalent of over 20 transistors, 15 resistors and 2 diodes. This component waited for the capacitors to charge and then bumped out the current as it was needed to make the LEDs flash.
At the center of this circuit is a CD4015 Dual 4-bit Shift Register
A shift register contains various storage locations and during each clock cycle the data stored in each register is moved along the chain to the next register. This process continues until the cycle is complete. This is displayed in the diagram.
This is what causes the LED's to light up sequentially and in turn follow a pattern.
Obstacles
the front lights on kitt flash backwards and forwards, unfortunately we were unable to make the sequence run in reverse. after talking to Jim we now know that in order to do this we could have connected the LED's in pairs. By doing this one input from the shift register would light the LED's in the first sequence, and the other connection would light them on the return.
We also tried to recreate the voice recognition monitor from the interior of the car.
We attempted to do this using an LED Sound to Light Unit. (See Pictures 4, 5 and 6) Unfortunately, due to a combination of faulty soldering and a bad soldering iron which burnt the circuits and bad components as you commonly find in kits like this - it didnt work.
