I want to build lights for my pack and i have a few questions

the green circuit board that you solder all of the parts, could you use something called a pc board?

in the ciruit board, does it matter which hole you put the electonics in? if you do, how do you know which holes to use?

do u REALLY have to solder the pieces on the board?

for the power cell, i am using lights and not LEDs. I should buy the lights with the two prongs on the bottom and not the ones that you screw in, right?

Thanks for reading this.

i guess this depends on what you want to do, you can use a pc board, but then you need an etching kit $15 dollars at radio shack, you draw the pattern out on the board and then dip it in the supplied acid solution.. then you drill it out and sauder evertying on…

yes saudering is required… get some practice at it before you try it on the board…

if you buy lights with sockets you have to eithier buy the matching socket, or sauder the wires directly to the sockets not reccomended…

i still havnt got my board working correctly it takes a lot of time and patience…

good luck with it.. post some pics when you got it working…

THanks for the info. But does it matter which hole you put the electronics in?

PC Board = Printed Circuit Board. Which as Wingnut said you get at Radio Shack. It is almost something that is required, unless you solder your traces yourself. (Don't Recommend).

What holes you put stuff in depends A LOT. If you put some resistors where some chip was susposed to go in won't work, or if you put something in backwards and such.

Soldering is required, there is no way to do it without.

You can't just buy lights and expect them to work. You need to look at the voltage, and other info to see how much they drain.. if they require resistors, or are fine.

What circuit are you making?

I am trying to make a board that i saw on some website. http://www.hyperdynelabs.com/gb.htm
I am talkign about the first picture on the page. I dont feel like paying $100 for the kit, so I want to make my own.

Then how do you know which hole to put it in?

I'm just really confused as to what you are doing. What schematics are you going by?

*salutes Rado Shack* Radio Shack Will be your best friend throughout the making of your props!
im gone.

I'm not really going by any plans. I've done some research on this site and other GB sites. I just want to build the thing i showed you on the website on my previous post and i dont know jack-shit about electronics and circuit boards. That board look simple enough to build, but i dont know what board to put those electonic pieces on and on which holes.

Is there a simple way to tell me what to do?

Stop. Just Stop.

That board uses a PIC (Programmable Interrupt Controller). It is customly programmed to have each output trigger a light. It is something that not even I know how to do yet. Don't try to recreate that board. It just won't work. If you are new to electronics, start out small, gain some knowledge about everything first. Learn how to solder.

Radio Shack actually is getting out of the small electronics business. They are only selling TVs, VCRs and Other finished electronics.

if you dont know jack about electronics then you dont want to do your own light board…

You can just look at a board you see on a website and make that…. it doesnt work that way…

You have to get the schematics for the board, thier are some schematics available for a board that does the same thing on ectomans site www.gbprops.com go to Proton Packs then go to Lite Guide to Lights…

I have a good understanding of electronics and I am still struggling to get my board to work correctly…

I suggest you do a lot of research on the internet on basic electronic principles…

Once you get a good underlying backbone of elecrical principles you should get
an understanding of what the following things are, and what they do, and how they do it,

555 Timers
4017 Cmos Decade Counters
4015 Cmos
Transistors
Resistors

If you dont understand how they work then you probably wont beable to properly insert them into your circuit…

and you better get some practice at saudering… it is not hard to do, but it just takes time, and again, its easier if you know the underlying principals off it…

Again this is not a circuit to try if you dont know jack about electronics… If you just want something quick and easy, try pulling lights out of other things like toys and putting them into your pack… even to do that will require some wiring and elecrtronic knowledge…

I have spent many many hours on my board, and its still not fully functioning…
Potentiometers