Build your own "Internet"

By now you've probably seen this sketch from the TV show "The IT Crowd"?  Jen is fooled into believing that a small black box with a flashing light on the top is in fact what the Internet looks like.

I gave a talk recently at a gathering of Shortwave radio listeners. I decided that I would demonstrate the "Internet" as part of my talk so I set about building one of my own. It's incredibly simple and requires just a few $$ of parts and a black plastic box.

I got the above circuit from the real Internet. Note that the circuit has 2 LED's. To make a clone of the original "Internet" one needs only to use a single LED however, the two LED's gave me an idea ..... build a second device which would use both LED's into a smaller box and call it "The Internet V2.0". After all, Moore's Law dictates that everything becomes smaller, cheaper and has more facilities.

My boxes had a 9V battery for power and the circuit was stuck onto the inside of the lid with double sided tape.

It you want to make one of your own you can buy a board from Oshpark

As usual, here are the files in Eagle format along with GCode for your CNC mill ...

555 Internet Flasher.pdf
555 Internet Flasher.sch
555 Internet Flasher.brd
555 Internet Flasher.bot.etch.ngc