I'm trying to create a small device that is basically a button that controls a series of LED diodes (or other small light source) as basically a sort of turn indicator. Turn on, press button, LED1 lights up, indicates it's Person 1's turn to go. Turn ends, press button, LED1 goes out, LED2 turns on, and so on. Minimum 3 LEDs, max 6 (probably just keep it to 3) - It's the first project of this sort that I've tried. I need some advice on what materials I need and how to assemble it - or just resources that will point me down the path of getting said item built. It's meant to be a Christmas present for someone. I realize it's not quite a robot, but it's a start, and I wasn't sure where else to ask.
Hmm… although I suppose
Hmm… although I suppose you could go with a programmable microcontroller I think a classic 4017 decade counter chip would work fine for this application.
Linky to a fine 4017 page to get the conceptual
In the case of your setup where you want to use three LEDs only, you have the output of the 4th channel hooked up to the RESET pin. This will turn what would be 4 back into 1 and the whole thing repeats.
I would suggest …
a decade counter. It will be way overkill, because, it would let you cycle through up to 10 outputs, but, it should be very easy to make it work for your purpose. Otherwise, if you want to use a microcontroller, take your pick of micro and add a few leds, resistors, and some programming.
+1
JAX described how to make it work for you. I only thought of the decade counter. I hadn’t researched how to actually only make it count to 3 or 6 or anything between 1 and 10. 