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Task:
To blink an LED.
A blinking LED is required on a control panel to indicate
a warning condition.
Therefore it must be extremely reliable.
Hardware engineer:
Easy, I'll use a 555, a few resistors and a capacitor; or LM3909 chip.
Done. Did I win a prize?
DIY Maker:
Easy. I'll use an Arduino with the blink sketch and a resistor.
Done. I have more billable hours than the first guy.
Senior Software Engineer:
You guys have it all wrong.
Such a system would never be flexible enough for a real application
where a blinking LED indicator is required.
Consider the inflexibility of the 555 approach.
What if the marketing people change the requirements from a simple
on/off blink to a different blink pattern.
The simplest example would be the double blink.
Blink, Blink, long pause, Blink, Blink, etc.
Then consider the lack of sophistication that the Arduino has.
With a simple microcontroller you can't have a web interface
to configure the LED's blink rate.
You would have to re flash the firmware.
With a more sophisticated controller, like a Raspberry PI, or
even better, a Beagle Bone, the system could automatically
check on the internet for software updates; and automatically
download and apply them.
For security, downloads could be signed with 4096 bit keys
using private certificates from the manufacturer.
(This also ensures ongoing contracts since no other vendor
would have the private certificates.)
Higher end boards provide more flexibility.
The LED controller could have it's own WiFI connection to
not burden the rest of the system to provide its
internet access.
And even better . . .
(lightning bolt strikes in mid sentence)
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 25 2019, @09:04PM
Easy enough fix, just needs a lightning rod as well.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday March 25 2019, @09:33PM (1 child)
Finally, at least *someone* learned how to do things from how Gates ran Microsoft all these years.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:02PM
Gates would not have included my favorite 6.3 VAC filiaent transformer.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2019, @09:37PM (1 child)
Hacker
Buys a flashing LED.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 31 2019, @04:50AM
For small values of hacker.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday March 25 2019, @10:47PM
Sales
Easy, our excellent team of solutions specialists will be able to assist you. We believe very highly in Agile and Six Sigma processes.
six weeks later, after the contracts are all signed...
Oh, you were asking for a blinking LED. No, our agile support teams exist to support LCD applications, sorry! But you'll love the blinking LCD we can craft you!
Legal, Contracting
So exactly how mission critical is this LED circuit? If testing does not have the MTBF data we can't issue any kind of reliability guarantees, but we can restructure our risk pool in a way that we end up charging a 22 factor multiple cost and outsource the replacement contract to China so that having a temporary failover/failsafe system and the replacement part will cost a 2 factor multiple over the 5 year contract term. Then we up the support fees after the first term to an untenable level, or just EOL the product.
IT Manager
I'm afraid we've never tried blinking LED's before. What's the business use case for this - do we really need it to blink?
CIO
Sure, sure, we can do the blinking LED's, no sweat. We'll outsource if we have to.
Legal, Risk Management
Yeah, I'm afraid we can't do any soldering on the shop floor. Lead inhalation risk, you know.
CFO
No, blinking LED creation is not in the engineering budget this first quarter. Let's try to work it into next year's budget.
COO
Has anyone looked at this from an optimization standpoint? We probably need to get in a $20,000 study as to the best method to achieve the project goals.
C Procurement O
Um, I'm afraid that the current administration has placed LED's on the tariffs list. Talk to the CFO to make sure we can absorb the increased cost.
Chief of Security
This won't blind anyone working on the floor, will it?
Chief Web Officer
Yeah, that shade of red doesn't render terribly well in HTML 5 video on IE although it does OK in Chrome. Can we get the engineer to bring down the hue of the LED by a few semitones?
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by drussell on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:11AM
The LM3909 has been discontinued for many years and is not generally available, however there are self-blinking LEDs widely available, which would certainly be the most sane option for a single panel indicator. :)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 26 2019, @03:35AM
Me:
Here's a momentary button, an LED, and a power supply. Push the button however fast you want it to blink.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Farmer Tim on Wednesday March 27 2019, @12:00AM
An astable multivibrator based on a 12AU7 tube. EMP resistant, and the blinking will be warmer than an integrated circuit (though you won’t get the best quality with an LED, ideally a Nixie tube or small neon should be used. And don’t forget all point to point wiring with Monster cable).
Came for the news, stayed for the soap opera.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Sunday March 31 2019, @03:26PM
Mechanic
Put a disk with holes in it on a shaft attached to an electric motor that is in series with the LED such that the LED shines through each hole as the disk turns. You can alter the mark-space ratio or pattern of blinks by having disks available with different patterns and sizes of holes in them.
Hardware hacker
Put an LCD display in front of the permanently lie LED. Drive the LCD to occlude the LED to whatever intensity and pattern you feel like.
Physicist
Put a Crookes Radiometer [wikipedia.org] in the beam path.