The plasma is a staple of the demo scene effects. You can find it on all platforms: PC, C64, Amiga, Atari… So why don’t we code one ourselves? We base our program on the Fire effect done in an earlier episode, so if you missed that, please check it out, too. We simply replace the draw function with an appropriate algorithm for drawing… the plasma! It’s actually pretty simple.
Month: November 2020
The TTL Graveyard Clock
The 74 series of ICs is one of the longest running IC series. They encompass all basic logic functions and more. It is (almost) possible to build basically any digital circuit from chips of this series, without needing to use a micro controller. However it quickly becomes expensive as the transistor density of those chips is not very high. But they are a great way to learn about transistor-transistor-logic, or TTL. Today we’ll build the „TTL Graveyard Clock“, named as such because it… looks a bit like a graveyard, and this is also where 74 series chips go to die…? Kidding aside, this clock is an impressive design by Sergey Kiselev and a great way to learn soldering as well as to learn how 74 series ICs work. Plus in the end you get a fully functioning 24 hour clock with seconds!