[vcf-midatlantic] das blinkenlights

[Bill Dromgoole]

On the Battleship New Jersey, some of the digital displays appear to have a random pattern of lights.
I was told that they used the seven segment display driver outputs from a digital clock randomly connected to the register lamps to get that appearance. So that’s 42 semi random looking bits available, especially if the clock is still running.

Bill
From: Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic
Sent: Wednesday, August 5, 2020 7:47 PM
To: vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org
Cc: Jeffrey Jonas
Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] das blinkenlights

I have some front panels that I'd like to blink like in the movies.
Since the human brain likes to find patterns, I suspect that
pure random numbers are nowhere as satisfying as some patterns.
Has anyone done research on that?

Of course, I'll have multiple modes such as Conway's Life,
counting in various ways, ring counters, etc.

-- jeff jonas