Flip flops
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Added: 5 years ago
From: brdavis5
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  • Reminds me of a board game called Dr. Nim

  • @bearandwoot Take a look at my video of Digicomp II (an even more complicated 'computer' than Dr. Nim, produced by the same people). I've wanted to duplicate Dr. Nim for a while, but haven't managed to get a gate that functions in quite the same fashion (at least not reliably enough).

  • @bearandwoot where do u get gbc balls and could u do instructions bye :p

  • @floorpopsicles what is this, Minecraft?

  • @Legodude349 Better. It's real :)

  • Yeah... Well.... I can make a house!

  • its a good work but you could do somenthing who get the balls back to the start

  • @ArthurLocatelli I have - lots of times. These are just small sample prototypes, I incorporate these into much larger constructions.

  • I find this very interesting, as I had just recently been learning about sequential logic in my Computer Engineering class. I'd be interested to see something like this could do even more. That is, have a high and low input, the output of which is dependent on the previous output, etc.

  • @TNortac I'm not sure what you mean precisely. You can certainly build a mechanical gate that can be both set, and read (without resetting or toggling). And you can of course cascade multiple gates into much more complex systems (see my DigiComp II video here on YT for an example). Can you describe in more detail what you'd like to see?

  • If I was a marble I'd want that as my personal rollercoaster...

  • whats the point of this?

  • @DarknessPr0w Originally this was just a quick test of one method of making mechanical flip-flops. In this case, there are three: the first two select every fourth marble (dumping the rest to a lower layer in the mechanism), and the third can be toggled by the fourth marble, but can be "read" by the marbles on the lower level. So here, it allows you to direct a number of marbles left (on the bottom), then a number of marbles right.

    Yeah, it's trivially simple. And sort of pointless. But fun :)

  • how long is the clock frequency? I cant believe that I'm asking this question in youtube

  • @MegaWYU And I can't believe I'm trying to answer it on YT :). Well, technically this is asynchronous - the flip-flops are not clocked with an external signal, which makes building conventional gate assemblies difficult. As to the speed of the gates here, hard to say exactly. 1 Hz is reliable, while at 2 Hz you start to see problems. I have gate designs that can reliably handle a line of rolling balls, in which case they are doing at least 8-10 Hz or so. Does that answer your question?

  • @brdavis5 yes. thanks.

  • I came here for Lego shoes and all I got was a guy making a mess of things.

  • @wallcrawler50 So... at least two people, who are educated enough to use the internet, and so are familiar with computers, and presumably electronics... assume that the primary meaning of "flip-flop" is a cheap piece of footwear, not the electronic component that seems to form the basis of the technology they are immersed in.

    Interesting.

  • @brdavis5 Youtube is a cesspool of uneducated half-wits. Few people have enough respect for someone who has achieved something as impressive and fantastic as a doctorate degree. I'm extremely impressed with anyone who has achieved their doctorate in one of the Hard Sciences. Anyway, flip-flops are very interesting. I work with them in class and use them sometimes to create up-down counters etc., I'd like to see you expand on this and make a counter. That would be interesting. Maybe have

  • @Nadrealis "I'm extremely impressed with anyone who has achieved their doctorate in one of the Hard Sciences" Thank you [blush]. Although I have to add that for some of us, while it certainly was very difficult... it was also something we *love* doing. So a PhD can be a labor of love... but yeah, it certainly is a lot of "labor" too :)

  • @brdavis5 4 balls go in at once but only allows one ball per flip-flop and have them exit parallel to each other.

  • @Nadrealis "I'd like to see you expand on this and make a counter. That would be interesting. Maybe have 4 balls go in at once but only allows one ball per flip-flop and have them exit parallel to each other." I'm not sure what you mean. You can easily cascade a bunch of binary flip-flops into a binary counter, but I don't think that's what you mean. When you say four in at once, and four out in parallel, that can be done... but generally asynchronous (not simultaneous). Can you describe it?

  • @brdavis5 I'm not sure if it can be done mechanically but it should be able to.. if you were to pretend that the marbles you're using are electrons. Anyway, I meant like with a synchronous counter using J-K flip flops, you would set all the flip-flops to a clock (I assume you could set up some type of servo or motor that would automatically flip your gates at a specified frequency.) Then let's say you sent in a serial data line (your 4 marbles) that would be sent at a different frequency

  • @brdavis5 (to account for propagation delay.) You would then have these marbles travel through the flip-flops 1 by 1 in a cascading fashion. You could have a light sensor couple with a laser(photoresistor or some other type of sensor that would measure the light interruption that the marble is causing) which would turn on a MOSFET to light an LED when it passes by.

    It would basically just be a trigger setup that would light 4 different LED's once the marbles pass from 1 flip-flop to another.

  • @brdavis5 Phew. Sorry about that, I don't know if the project is even worth it since it seems pointless. I just like doing weird stuff like that with no aim or direction; I just like to see if I can do things for the sake of doing them.

  • @Nadrealis Also... I've used these sorts of gates to reconstruct a mechanical "ALU" (really more of a calculator) that can add, subtract, multiple, and divide binary numbers (look at my "DigiComp II" video). I currently have a system that counts balls in more of a decimal format as well (in hundreds, and thousands... not just binary), although getting it to work fast & accurate was... tricky. I guess I need to post that :)

  • I was expecting sandals made out of LEGO.

  • {:{

  • So, pointing left is 0, pointing right is 1 (first ball sets to 0). This is a "circuit" that counts from 0 to 7, a large scale simplistic chip! Did you designed it as a binary counter or it just came up? Anyway good job!

  • @georgekosmidis Actually, I've made much larger assemblies of simple flip-flops for counters (and there are more compact ways of doing it as well). This was a prototype to test a bi-level flip-flop. The last (lowest) flip-flop can be "set" on the top (visible) level and is "read only" on the lower (hidden) level.

  • Can u show how to make one?

  • @kennyb0y1597 Well... can you figure out a way to do it from the video? There's a lot of information there. I certainly could show you a step-by-step design for such a thing... but then all you have is my design, not an understanding of why it works (or how to make it better). Try it yourself... and feel free to ask questions. OK?

  • This pretty much demonstrates how computers generate "random" numbers on a very simple scale...I'm not really sure

  • @Neko3Noskire Not exactly. This is a completely "deterministic" system - the pattern is always there, and always repeats. It is not in any way random. Computer random number generators are also deterministic and repeat, but the repetition period is very very VERY long, so that hopefully you *do* have something close to randomness at least in the short run.

  • I already know that @brdavis5

  • Parabéns. Muito bom seu projeto.

  • @Ghizzle1000 and you typed it up....how sad....fuckin looser haha you fail

  • @Ghizzle1000 Sorry you feel that way. I'm a father of three, a university professor with a PhD in physics, survey newly discovered caves, and have been recognize for my "building with LEGO" enough that I co-authored a book on the subject, and that the LEGO corporation has asked me for my opinions on occasion... my life currently involves royalty checks based on things I find fun to do.

    Yeah, I think I'll stick with my life. Thanks :)

  • @brdavis5 ahahah your the man. your life sounds great man,... are u some sort of engineer? i want to be that aswell... and have 3 kids lol.

  • @catbearlol Thanks. No, not an engineer... I just like "playing" with engineering.

  • @brdavis5 and this makes me feel low man...cuz i was like "struggling" with engineering any way you are the man, and a PHD in physics is enough for you to earn my respect.

  • @Ghizzle1000 you big bitch

  • @Ghizzle1000 SERVED

  • @Ghizzle1000

    fail.

  • @Ghizzle1000 pwn3d

  • @Ghizzle1000 retardiño.

  • that looks like one uncomfortable pair of flip flops...

  • what is this black magic!!!!!!!!

  • now you just have to built a ball feeder that can send the balls up and send it back down!

  • I am a computer programmer. i wish, i was a mechanical engineer or something like that to build such interesting and little useless toy-machines.

  • @inam101 Well I'm not a programmer or engineer (mechanical or otherwise). So i wouldn't lament your lack of experience in a field... just go out and try it. You might be surprised what you come up with (I certainly was).

  • @brdavis5 you are right, friend. thanks. i have made several tools via programming but all are serious.

    And it is good to come up with some funny-stuff, like you did. I will try it.

    Thanks a lot. :-)

  • wow, you got many balls

  • Are you aware you just built a 3 diggit binary counter?

  • @Valinxh Sort of - it actually does significantly more than just a 3-bit cascaded counter. And can be used to do much, much more... take a look at my "Digicomp II" video for a mechanical device that adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides, complements... and counts ;)

  • Nice. very creative. very smart. 

  • the sound reminds me of willy wongka

  • I thought flip flops were slippers.

  • @filmbaKerz No, those are called thongs.

  • Uh ja das fast der jetzt sicher als beleidigung auf ...:) der lacht darüber genau wie ich.

    nimms mal nicht so ernst desert eagle auserdem bin ich ziemlich schlau :D

  • Cool, would've taken an eternity for me to build!

  • ok thankes

  • ok sorry if the coment made you made I still think it was cool

  • @legoboystudio1 Don't worry, it didn't make me mad... I just thought it was sort of funny that, given the stuff I do, you honestly thought this had stopped at this point.

  • boring y dont u make more 2 add on 2 that

  • @legoboystudio1 Well... I have. In several different ways, with multiple switches, and synchronized and different switch forms, etc. Heck, my DC2 video uses bunches of switches. Why haven't I put it on YT? Because I'm still playing :).

  • LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLaaaaa­aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnn­nnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggg­ggggggggggggggggwwwwwwwwwwwwww­eeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiilllllllllllll­lliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggg­gggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • @ArmageddonGhetto15 Entschuldigung. Vielleicht solltest du nicht sehen es dann.

  • HA :D DER EINE HAT NEN GRAMMATIK FEHLER GEMACHT:D

    .."..das interessant sind..."

    HAHA

  • @SchokoSatan Ist dir vll mal aufgefallen, dass der Typ aus den USA kommt und kein Deutsch kann? Der muss 'n Übersetzungsprogramm benutzen, um deine Kommentare zu verstehen, und für ihn kommt da genau der gleiche Scheiß raus wie für dich! Und außerdem, wenn du Englisch könntest, würdest du sehen, dass die Wörter in der englischen Reihenfolge stehen und es im englischen nur "the" gibt und kein der, die oder das! Also DENK erst mal, bevor du irgend 'ne Scheiße schreibst, klar?

  • ALso ich begreif nicht was daran interessant sein soll

  • Das ist OK - ich habe nie verstanden, was interessant war über Menschen, die versuchen, einen Ball zu einem Ende kick oder die andere ein Feld, um es durch ein kleines Rechteck zu bekommen, ohne es zu berühren mit ihren Händen.

    Es gibt etwas, das interessant sind, nur weil sie schwer zu tun, oder tun Sie etwas gut verstanden (binary schaltet zum Beispiel), aber in einer überraschenden und einfallsreichen Weise. Vielleicht möchten Sie auf Begriffe wie "Kunst" oder "Spielen".

  • Wow, mechanical 3-bit counter, cool!

  • @mwgamera It's not *quite* a simple 3-bit counter... watch the bottom gate closely, and you'll see it's doing something different. For a much more complete "counter" (& multiplier, etc.), see my Digicomp II video.

  • @brdavis5 Why not? What happens below is a "read-only" operation ;) The top layer has three chained T flip-flops, it IS a counter. And frequency divider. It only has an additional feature that ball goes to the left when high-bit is zero, to the right when it's set, and jumps forward when it's flipped.

    Digicomp II looks more like complete ALU with registers. Quite impressive indeed.

  • @mwgamera Aarrggh! You are completely correct - embarrassing, but I forgot that this one the third gate is on top and "read only" from below, as some of the variations I'm working with right now are very different. I've even got a series of flip-flops that will act as a triplet counter (frequency divided by three, something I've been trying to do for a little while).

    Digicomp II is, as you point out, a very simple ALU with two registers: a read-only 4-bit "memory" and the larger "accumulator".

  • ich finde das ganz gut, verstehe es aber nicht. n bisschen hilfe bitte?

  • @Dragonicafan Es ist einfach ein Schalter: Wenn ein Ball in der Spitze fällt, wird er zuerst gehen nach links, geht dann aus der rechten Seite. Durch die Verknüpfung der Ausgabe eines Schalters in den Eingang eines weiteren, können Sie bauen sehr komplizierte Systeme. Dies ist nur ein sehr kleines Beispiel.

    Entschuldigung. Deutsch ist nicht meine erste Sprache (danke Google Übersetzer) :)

  • 111 - 7

    000 - 0

    100 - 4

    010 - 2

    110 - 6

    001 - 1

    101 - 5

    011 - 3

    111 - 7

    ich verstehe das system nicht ganz ... aber sehr gut arbeit, das prinzip geht auf, baue doch mal einen prozessor mit sse1, damit kann man dann windows xp benutzen, wenn auch extrem langsam, aber sicherlich lustig

  • @stonix1992 Dies ist nur ein Beispiel. Für eine komplette Computer der Ball-Flip-Flops, besuchen Sie meine "DigiCompII" video.

  • @brdavis5 lol ich sehe es, da haste aber RICHTIG arbeit drin gesteckt, ASTREIN

  • molto bello potresti fare un modulo !

  • cool

  • LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGWEIL­IG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!8aber du hast dir mühe gegeben und deshalb verzeihe ich dir für deine nicht-UInterhaltung)

  • @TheKiwiFilm Wenn es so langweilig ... Warum haben Sie sich die Mühe, es zu sehen? Nicht viel für ein Leben? Es wäre langweilig für Sie. Auf der anderen Seite, dem Lesen der Kommentare, so scheint es den meisten intelligenten Menschen sehen, das ist interessant. Ich denke, es ist etwas anderes zwischen dem, was sie sehen in diesem ... und was Sie in dieser zu sehen.

  • I think this is so cool. I think that makes me a geek

  • WT? o-o"

  • By clicking this video i thought I'll see Flip Flops made of Lego xD

  • @Andersweltler ahaha that just made my day!

  • its like a mini binary counter in a way huh?

  • @Tannersvan It can certainly function that way. Look at my other videos, specifically the one on "DigiComp II" to see a true marble-based binary 'computer'.

  • @WNxLone Fair enough. But in that case... why did you bother watching it :) ?

    It's not actually fake - in fact, the "big brother" of this, a working model of a simple 'computer' called Digicomp II, was not only fun to build, but ended up getting me a commission from a museum to build them a replica. So... it may be "gay" to you. In my case, I learned something, and made a profit in the process, and have my work on public display.

    Not bad for something 'gay'. :)

  • @brdavis5 This person has fallen for a troll and made a serious reply. Do not be this person.

  • @Kezza237 Thanks for the concern, but I didn't "fall for the troll" - I just used their post to clarify things for others who might read it, before blocking them completely (useing a troll is fun :) ). I'm used to USENET; in comparison, YT has an amazing amount of user control.

  • @brdavis5 thats what im talking about... gay pride! =]

  • pretty cool ..."brain buster"couldn't ........ think of anything else to call it

  • It's a three bit counter, isn't it?

  • @enzosaba Not exactly. Yes, there's three flip-flops there, with one cascading to the next, but if you notice the "discarded" balls from the first two gates are combined and fed to the lower level, where they "read" the state of the third gate. There's actually a lot going on here besides just counting.

  • massive break down

  • No, not yet :)

  • 5 hours later..

    Clik clak clong....

  • Often, while testing with larger arrays, it was a lot more than 5 hours...

  • I know that I've studied logic gates in college, when it came to flip flop, I understood shit, if this is related to logic gates, you surely made it a lot more interesting than the bloody lecturer and his awful books.

  • If you like this, take a look at my "DigiComp 2". Video. With enough flip-flops, you can do a lot...

  • i admire you for your free time!

  • now that's useless, but creative :P

  • wow! how did you even think this up?

  • A little bit at a time ;).

  • you should make SR, D, JK..ect flip flops doing this! =D

  • Nice =D

  • That is really fantastic

  • Thanks - one of my other videos uses this to make a simple "computer" called DigiComp 2

  • i will have to check it out

  • wow

  • Thats fantastic!

  • Thank you. There's a lot more I've done with this sort of thing, and I'll try to get some better examples together for YT.

  • LEGO FTW!

  • can you make design plans? this looks pretty cool, and fun.

  • Well, I don't have any plans immediately handy... but I'll bet you could figure it out from just watching the video closely. If you need more help, take a look at my Digicomp 2 video, and the URL that's in the information for it.

  • Is that there all is to this?

  • Yep. Some of my videos are "productions", and some are simple video captures to show somebody something specific we've talked about (such as this one). If you look at my other videos, the "Digicomp II" video is the logical (or pathological?) extensions of this to produce an ALU.

  • Too bad theres no contraption to put the marbles back on so you can watch the glory...

  • There is - I've built a variety of "lifts" that work with this as well, so you can watch it cycle for... well, hours, if you wanted. I just never put up a video of it.

  • lol nice must have took long to make that thing

  • Only about a day - the toughest part was getting the ramp right from the upper to the lower level, honestly. The gates I'd figured out how to do previously.

  • foolish

  • No, fun. This sort of design is used in a number of very profitable rolling ball sculptures, and is an excellent teaching example of a bistable mechanical device. Beside which, as I said... it's fun. I suppose there are better things to do with my time, but there should always be some time for fun and experimentation, for new learning experience.

    After all, didn't you find this while spending time in an even less "useful" way (YouTube)?

  • This

    Is

    GREAT!!!!

  • Thank you :)

  • whats the vid lego digicomp II thats a bigger version of it

  • Well, this is an example of a couple of simple "gates" (a binary flip-flop, and a "latching" flip-flop). My DigiComp II is a much larger assembly using elements like just like this. Essentially, this is a "part", while DCII is a finished machine.

  • MM can make a binarie counting mechanism of it :P connect a nxt with sensors and you've made a ball menu Every ball gives an other option

  • a como le hacen a la mamada, pinches pendejitos, no tienen nada mas productivo que hacer?

  • Tengo un montón de "productivo" cosas que hacer - pero como usted navega a YouTube, yo también hacer las cosas para la diversión.

  • wat kind of flipflops it supposed 2 be JK, D or RS flipflops??

  • These are flip-flops in a very basic sense; not the modern type that actually take power (note, essentially no clock signals here). These are bi-stable mechanical devices, although if you want to assign them to electronic versions, most of these are T flip-flops with the last in the series being an SR flip-flop (set or reset on the lower level).

  • JK is a rail-road crossing application.

  • my god you have have found the elusive "2"! the ball went right over the top, hence a third number!

    nice lego contraption btw i want to make one

  • impressive.

  • Hey I think a bit dropped on the floor, lol

    Nice video.

  • Nice... has 3 diffrent ways.

  • really cool. but heres an idea. make a marble switch maze. you could even put RCX motors into it to make small internal lifts. the goal would be to get a marble to the very bottom with the switches in the exact same states as when you started.

  • Well, again... this has been done. More than once, actually. And since it ends up being a fixed sequence, it's not to interesting after you've "solved" it once. I'll probably work out a Dr Nim type machine next (although that too is pretty simple, it's less obvious).

  • check out the digicomp II

  • hey how do u connect the switch things to the actual base/model?

  • The Y-shaped switches have an axle that is directed down, between the rails, through various different types of pieces.

  • binary counting (Y)

  • thanks man! your stuff is genius I like it keep on good work ;)

  • man I would make a mechanism in order to return the balls to the top point :D

  • I have - many times. Something like this coupled with a lift makes for a lot of fun play, and with the LEGO community we can link many of them together in a seies to make what we call a "Great Ball Contraption", or GBC (search for it here on YouTube, you'll find some examples). I'm one of the folks that started it & worked out the standard.

  • Fun! It reminds me of some of my early engineering classes where we learned all about flip flops.

  • Well, if you like a flip-flop trip down memory lane, take a look at the DigiComp II version on YouTube. All LEGO as well.

  • thats nice

  • lol, the  balls roll back to you. Very nice

  • Very interesting.

  • The same reason most people look at YouTube; for fun. I enjoy it. and, in the case of these mechanical flip-flops, I can use what I've learned to learn more (like building Digicomp II).

  • I assume you are in your early teens (based on your writing, using "u" as a substitute for "you", and "y" instead of "why" - typical early teen slang), I suggest that you should go play with some Lego, too. It's really educational, especially when you implement advanced TTL logics, as brdavis5 does. I'm 33, and I'm impressed.

  • very creative :) Thanks for posting this video.

  • nice!

  • tight

  • nice work kid

  • Thank you. Especially for the "kid" comment (I'm 39) ;)

  • Nice

  • impressive.

  • Thanks. It's one of the tests for a larger mechanism I'm trying to build. It turns out that it works rather well with a few flip-flops, but has problems (due to vibration) with scaling it up to 30+ flip-flops. Oh well, it gave me some ideas, and is really useful in smaller mechanisms.

  • usles but cool!