My Father was an Aeronautical Engineer & an Electrical Engineer having worked on computer electronics for Apollo's 7 - 13, Avionics on several contracts like the F-15 and having followed the advice of the professors who graded his masters thesis to build it! produced the first Video Poker Machine and later developed the formula for the Random Dice Generator for the Nevada State Gaming Commission.
There are much more but growing up wanting to launch rockets and R/C planes and slot cars with my dad and kites, oh the kites, always won first place as he was so talented with his hands as well. But my father was almost always working or designing circuits which left most of our projects unfinished.
Now 84 and his hands shake terribly (not from Parkinson's) he tells me that if I want to do something then do it, don't wait! or it will be too late. He had many hobbies but never got to enjoy them. And me at 55 having been retired by the VA due to a service connected disability (PTSD) which I have to keep my mind occupied I busy myself with lots of projects and got my first UNO with the hopes of making a several axis stepper motor device that my father can hold which will steady a spoon or fork even though his hands shake terribly.
Although I was not blessed with my fathers genius and bothered with a disability I decided to start out small to get the hang of things. I will be launching rockets and flying drones and R/C planes soon so I wanted a controller to operate my projects. My first one is the Launch Pad Countdown Sequence Display.
I use an UNO with a 7 Segment display and a breadboard. since I did not have a timer or a register, I had to be creative with my code and borrowed some ideas from a few tutorials I found on you tube.
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