Lately, I've been inspired by the little white butterflies flitting around my garden. I used analog electronics and LEDs to animate their flutter patterns. My circuit contains one master 555 timer / 4017 counter that sequences three butterfly (or moth) circuits. The individuals also have 555 timer / 4017 counter circuits that flash their LEDs in rapid sequence. I used transistor inverters on the master circuit to convert the active high logic of the 4017 to active low; and I connected these signals to clock enable (pin 13) of the 4017s on each of the butterflies. That's what causes their blinking to pause periodically. The random appearance of the blinking is thanks to capacitive coupling between signal lines, and without this the "flutter" effect is pretty boring. In other words, nature contains both order and chaos, where the order is by design (who's design? I have no idea) and the chaos happens through simple, recursive relationships that get complex fast.
Animating butterflies /
The animating LEDs are driven by a 555 timer and 4017 counter -- plus one master circuit to sequence the individual butterflies. The clock of the master circuit runs at a 10x slower pace than the individual butterflies. I have used simple transistor inverters to convert the active high signals of the master 4017 to active low; and I connect these to the clock enable pin (13) on the individual butterflies. I'm using diodes and capacitive coupling to create a "natural" animation pattern because a straightforward timer / counter circuit would be predictable and boring to watch.
