Lights and Beeps
The Concept:
LEDs located on the front face of the structure will blink when toggled at will from the ground station. The lights and sounds will also indicate when the COMM system flops between sun and temperature data.
How'd They Do That?
Well, first we went on a little excursion to Toy's R Us where we found a little R2D2 model that made "realistic sounds" when a button was depressed. We totally destroyed the outer shell of the model, to reveal a small circuit board that basically consisted of a small capacitor and a little amplifying speaker. The button was removed and it was apparent that a small metal plate in the button would complete the connection of a small pattern on the face of the bread board. We ran wires to each side of the pattern careful not to complete the connection, and then ran these into a 4066, which would throw a switch whenever the pulse train was toggled. The wires were soldered in place and then secured with hot glue. Whenever the button was depressed, the one second pulse train would throw the switch and the beeping would begin.
The blinking LEDs worked in a similar manner. One more chip was required to insure the function of the LED's however, because of the need for greater current. The signal from the 4066 was run through a ULN2003 (a darlington) to boost current and illuminate one Jumbo Red and one blue LED.