Gremlins

These circuits have proven far more finicky than I have previously imagined possible. The key issue was the fact that the timer is a relationship between capacitance and resistance - generally a simple issue of getting the right parts and tweaking until things preformed the way you desired. At least, thats how it is supposed to work.

The reality of the situation is quite different, and the electricity gods actually do have it out for me. Although, by making offerings to the other electricity gods [Carl] we worked through most of the issues. The most basic issue was the fact that we were using batteries which are an inconsistent power source. That delicate balance of capacitance and resistance that was so critical to the circuit was constantly derailed as power outputs gradually degraded within the batteries - switching to a constant power source solved this. We overlooked the significance of this effect and as a result spent an inordinate amount of time fiddling. That, and the original circuit diagram was WRONG.

If anything I have added some colourful new words to my vocabulary.


After two weeks of fiddling and rebuilding and tweaking, Chelsea and I created functioning circuits. they were essentially the same, with the exception of our resistance settings - I required a 2M potentiometer as I was dealing with shorter timing intervals.