Modding Knightrider/HDD meter

Right. I've built the circuit and it works fine on two of my PCs, but on my main PC, it doesn't. Great.

When theres no HDD activity I can adjust the pot just fine so that no leds light up. I can't however manage to make them do anything at all when the HDD is active.

No matter how much I adjust the pot, the damn thing won't light up
I switched C2 with a 10uF cap hoping that would do something, but that didn't work either. I really am puzzled.

Any ideas?

 

lm3914 vs 4017

im building the knight rider back and forth led scanner. if i use the 4017 with the op amp instead of the lm3914 will everything still work ok

 

hello, im a n00b here and i have a question about IC1 on the traditional knight rider display. i went to the eletronics store in my town and they sold me this one: MC14558B now im wondering if i am just crazy but isn't the LM4558 supposed to have 8 pins? well the one they sold me has 16. please someone confirm this.

oh BTW the LED strobe mod is SCHWEET!!

 

Vero board configeration

Hi, Can someone Please supply a Vero Board config for the Knight Rider Classic ungated 10 l.e.d version PLEASE! Am so keen to make this thing.

 

from what i have read in the other articles you would need to use the 4017 and a 555 timer or a dual-op amp @ LM3914; i do not think that you can mix the two because of timings and stuff. also i do not think that this will produce the desides knight rider bouncing LED effect if you use a 4017 and 555 timer. from my understanding this will produce the following lighted effect: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc etc. if you use a dual op amp and LM3914 the lighting effect will bounce back and forth properly.

secondly i made the circuit and it appears that the dual-op amp that i have substituted in the place of the 4558n was not the right one or something. anyhow it didn't last long with 12V running through it. i have another post going on here so look there for picies and stuff.

 

ok i feel really stupid...i switched the VCC and Ground on the dual-op amp. at leaset it didn't fry the other IC. anyhow after another trip to the store i got it working and man this thing is sooooo cool! props to macroman

 

I cant seem to find LM4558 anywhere. Accoring to national semiconductor, it doesnt even exist. I did find following opamp: http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM613.pdf

Can anyone confirm the use that particular opamp instead of the 4558 please.

EDIT:
I also asked for the lm1458 which they didnt have either. I'll try the 1558 then.

 

if you don't mind paying for the shipping you can get parts from the US. i know that you can purchase that stiff from www.maplin.co.uk or maybe www.hosfelt.com here in the us good luck!

 

That's been covered a few pages back, but MC1458, LM1458 or LM358 are cheap & common 8-pin DIL alternatives (Maplin do both, get the cheaper LM358) and there are dozens more 8-pin dual opamps that should work but are more expensive low-noise/audio types.

LM613 is a 16-pin package, avoid for that reason.

 

Will a lm3916 work in place of the lm3914?

 

Sweet mod, great job.
Question: can I use instead of the led array a tc07 11gwa. I can't seem to find a led array and this is the closest I can get.
Thanks in advance.
Again, sweet mod.

 

hello all, hope i no cause to much probs as not electridly minded (mechanical)..

i have tryed this circuit and to no avail... so going to try again. i think its probably had smothing to do with my layout on the stripboard..

was just wondering is there ny protection in this circuit as i no want to blowup my £80 PSU??

and has anyone actualy been able to transfer this to stripboard sucessfully, as i have tryed by hand and using stripbpard magic and just get a little confised and end up

hope there some one out there who can help, gaong to get the parts off maplins in a few days (as they have all of them )

darv
P.s will post some pic when done as goinf through a case mod crazzzz again

darv

 

Just check and double check your connections, there's probably something really silly that's keeping the circuit from working. As to protection: my €15 noname PSU turns itself off when I short 5 or 12v to ground so I'm guessing your more expensive PSU should do the same

 

hehe i hope so, will post what i have done on stripboard magic for all to see and to point out pos problems.... hope it helps, just gota find it hehe

 

ok little hosting prob, if you would like a look email me at

Code:

dawie22@hotmail.com

and will send to you, theres a bmp og the board with components, the stripboard save file and a cvs (i think) of the component layout and breaks that exel should open,

thank you darv

 

not to worry about the above look here, manages to get them into images, there are 4 spreadsheet pics, will need to murge them as havent as yet been able to, and a top view of the strip board, have a look and see if all is right...

>>>PICS HERE<<<<

thank you darv

 

Hate to wake up an old thread, but I'm having slight problems with the circuit (HDD version)...
It has no "response" when there's no activity, nor can I really tune the low end. If there's lots of HDD activity I can see the effect of both tuning pots quite clearly but can't get the low end to work (thus the meter really only ligths up at heavy activity nad almost instanty goes to all 10 on) I've checked, double checked and trible checked all solders and component valuea and everything is correct. Only difference is my op-amp which is a LM358N. What I gathered from reading data sheets it's less sensitive than the 4558 and 1458. Could it be the problem?
TIA,
mikael

 

I'd say yes

If you see no animatio nat all, try replacing the chips for known good ones.

-Joel

 

Problems also

I’m also having problems with this but I’m at the building stage, I am very new to building circuits and went and bought myself a breadboard so I could learn. I’ve had the parts to make this for ages but never got round to it, and now I want to, but can’t see how to connect all of the part together from the pictures available. Also the circuit diagram doesn’t make sense to me, why is their 11 connections on one side on IC2 and only 7 on the other? If anyone could help me on this I would be thankful.

Regards

Bulb66

 

Many integrated circuits have standard symbols that are designed to show what they do or to mesh neatly with other components, not to show what they look like in real life. So in the case of the LM3914, all the 10 outputs are shown in a row, on the actual chip 9 are on one side, one on the other. The 4017 chip shown in post#201 is even more mixed up if you check the pin numbers corresponding to outputs 1-10. An op-amp is shown as a triangle, 2 inputs on the LH side, output from the RH corner. Power connections are often not shown at all, especially with logic ICs.

It makes it easier to draw and follow a circuit diagram. Trust me on this.