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Mini Intersection
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Well finally, here's a shot of the mini intersection I made for a computer hardware class back in high school. I mentioned this a while back but haven't actually gotten around to pulling it out and taking a picture of till now xP.
The lights are controlled using the parallel port on the computer. The program I wrote for it included a simple graphic which showed which lights were on using the computer screen along with controlling the lights.
If I remember correctly the program cycled through the two traffic phases unless the left turn was activated by pressing a button on the circuit board on the top left (the circuit board also had the resistors for the LEDs). This added in a left turn phase by flashing the green ball on the light with the "Advanced Green When Flashing" sign.
The streetlight (a silver shoebox lol) used a white LED and was only for show, I believe it ran off a 9V battery and was separately switched. Oh and the poles are made from copper tubing while the arms are made from wood skewers. The traffic lights are supposed to be 8-8-8s with backplates and was made using cardboard, LEDs, and yellow electrical tape.
See below for the circuit diagram:
(Click to enlarge)
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Back then, I didn't have formal training. But, with my father and the Don Lancaster's TTL Cookbook [Paperback] training, I was able to build the required circuit. I didn't get a formal training until I attended the Digital I class at Summer 2010 at the University with my Computer Engineering major.