I read the article here, co-authored by Windell:
http://www.make-digital.com/make_halloween/halloween2007/?pg=62

What interested me was this comment:
"For a giant Cylon, replace each LED with 4 in a series, and omit the 330 Ohm resistor."

I admit to being a beginner with these kits, so I apologize if these are simple questions. But if you have 4 LEDs in a series for each existing LED in the original kit, would all 4 light with the same intensity? So it would just look like the 'eye' moving back and forth would be made of 4 lights rather than 1?

I saw another comment by Windell here:
http://www.make-digital.com/make_halloween/halloween2007/?pg=62
that said:
"You could do it if you put two LEDs in series at each normal LED location; you would need to increase the system voltage from 3 V to (say) 4.5 or 5 V, with a corresponding change in the resistors as well.

Much better would be to just to mount two of our kits, and mount them side by side. It wouldn't be a difficult programming change to sync them together."

Does that mean that if I did the first mod (4 LEDs replacing each LED in the kit) that I would need to increase the voltage in addition to omitting the 330 Ohm resistor?

And what does it mean to increase the system voltage? Just using a different battery,, or multiple batteries? And, if I were to use 2 kits, how would you hook them together and change the programming?

Also, has anyone done this mod and can provide any additional insight / instructions / pictures?


Sorry for the newbie questions.

Sorry, the second quote should be a link to here:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/larsonkit

But if you have 4 LEDs in a series for each existing LED in the original kit, would all 4 light with the same intensity? So it would just look like the 'eye' moving back and forth would be made of 4 lights rather than 1?

There was not an "original kit" -- this was just a design that we published, not a kit. Yes, all four of the lights in series light with the same intensity. The video that we show of the circuit working that way shows what it looks like.

I saw another comment by Windell here:

Not sure what you meant to be linking to there, but since you quote me about programming, you should recognize that it's talking about the new Larson Scanner, which has a microcontroller in it.

The original Larson Scanner-- the one with six LEDs and no microcontroller -- is a *very* different circuit from the new Larson scanner that has the microcontroller. You cannot mix and match mods to these two circuits-- it won't work. Each of these discussions of particular modifications is particular to one particular circuit, so you might want to go back over this and look at the context a bit more.