traffic light project

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi all.. complete and utter newb. Apologies in advance.

So, I breadboarded a traffic light project with a pot to control the speed at which it changes the light. I am getting help from kiddo to put it in an altoids tin and paint it up as a traffic light for (driving instructor) as a decoration.

Rather than use an arduino (I'm working with leonardo). I figured I'd pick up some atTiny45's and make that work. I picked up some little round pcb's from radio shack and am planning to mount the attiny45 to the pcb (don't think I need a mount for it?) , and maybe 1 LED,and run wires to the other two.. I found 16 oz water bottle caps look like they will work nice to cover the LEDs outside.

I've seen tutorials online for the traffic light (which I adjusted to my needs), and for using arduino as a programmer for attiny.

Do you experienced folks see any big flaws in the plan?

Thanks!

2

If the chip of your choice has enough pins to support your project, than I think it makes sense to keep it small, budget friendly and 'to the point'..

IMHO.. whatever you have available to you to complete the project and works is 'ok'. :slight_smile:

3

You might post a circuit and your sketch for a better review. Otherwise, there's no fatal flaw in your plan. Well.. maybe the mount.. you don't want a board flopping around in a metal case without being secured somehow.

4

There are some really tiny Arduino clones that would take care of the PCB mounting and additional hardware needed to run the microcontroller and give you pin headers to connect the LEDs to - given how tiny, inexpensive and nicely made they are it's hard to justify making your own unless you specifically want to DIY it.