man...i so with i knew how to do both those things but unfortunately i don't know how to get amperage readings off my multimeter and i'm still trying to learn the schematic part in fritzing. might take another couple days. i was thinking this was an amperage issue also. i can hopefully find another wall wart with more amperage. but 1.7 already seems like more than enough to run 6 LEDs, some transistors, 2 relays and an IC, no?
also now i am noticing it's mostly the timing that is off. this program i wrote is a very time specific thing (timed to be in sync to a video) and currently the circuit has been running for awhile but the timing is changing a lot. could this mean something is off with the crystal?