OT-ish... what to do with > 400 relays...

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Thu Feb 19 21:40:42 2004

>
> Polling list wisdom here...
>
> Hmm, any suggestions for anything creative to do with around 450 or so
> 5V relays? I have a bucket full here (literally).
>
> I can't help thinking I should be able to wire up some sort of
> interesting computer-esque demonstration with them! (Something nice and
> power-hungry, noisy, and with plenty of obligatory status lights :-)

A few random thoughts...

You say they're mostly SPDT types, IIRC. You can. of course. parallel the
coils of several relays to make more poles if you need them.

Traditionally, the thing to build would be a tic=tac-toe machine :-)

See if you can find 'We built our own computers', perhaps on an
inter-library loan. It describes a few simple relay computers...

My guess is that with 450 relays you could make a simple 4 bit ALU, a
couple of registiers, etc, and sequence the whole thing using a home-made
paper tape reader.. Sounds like a fun project...

-tony
Received on Thu Feb 19 2004 - 21:40:42 GMT