What do I do about this circuit discovery?
I recently began fiddling with transistors and discovered a way to create a neat IC-less circuit. My problem, however, is that my supplies are limited and therefore I am limited in my abilities to test a theory to increase the circuit's abilities. My current circuit is small (in a sense) and it's setup inevitably takes more parts that I don't have, nor have my substitutions worked, so I can't really thoroughly check my theory for expansion and function. Because I can't be sure of my findings I have so much limited information to give to people through an instructable and i can't quite afford the parts as of now. So what should I do? Should I create an instructable/forum topic explaining what I know right now and later expand the information when I can finish my experiments, or should I wait for the time when I can afford to test it all thoroughly to check my results, which may scrap my current work (which is still kinda cool) or have it possibly discovered by someone else? (At the moment I sorta consider what i found to be brand new because I haven't found any remote similarities in google searches, therefore i sorta consider this my idea.) (As of now i may just post a video of my findings on youtube to "seal the deal" but i really don't want to come off as cocky)
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Post us a circuit-diagram to look at, it'll be interesting and we can advise whether it will work. Someone with bits might even test it.
I doubt that you'll have something worth protecting in real terms, but I'd like to see it.
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It uses three NPN transistors linked up as a transistor oscillator, working first from left-to-right and then returning with a right-to-left hook up. I got my inspiration from the 2 transistor oscillator (seen below) and simply hooked up three leds. The caps between the transistors are all the same, 4.7uf/35v, and the two end capacitors, which are the same, at 100uf/35v hook up the two opposite capacitors. I can definitely make a schematic of my circuit, but the way it would be laid out would be a little more confusing than describing it. My LED-To-Collector resistors are each 1k Ohm and the Power-to-base resistors are all 100k Ohms.
I have already tried replacing a 4.7uf cap with a 1 uf cap and then switching out 100k ohm and 1k ohm with 470k and 4.7k resistors with nonequivalent results. Any suggestions or comments? (P.S. thank you to all of you who answered my question. You've all been a real help!)
That looks just like an astable multivibrator
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There is the building of it, people use different techniques and people do ask "how do I-"
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Otherwise, Ork's response is on the mark.
If you aren't concerned about that and want to open it up to the pubic for critique, collaboration, and use, posting it may make sense. As to whether Instructables is the right place to do so, and where on Instructables... I'm really not sure. It isn't really a how-to so I wouldn't consider it an Instructable yet, unless you're showing us how to use it to do something interesting. If you have specific questions, Answers might be the right place for that. If you want an extended discussion, the Forums might make more sense.
It's worth noting that your "neat IC-less circuit" is likely to be something well-known to more experienced folks. But you might have found a particularly elegant way to do it, or a use for it that others haven't considered.
However depending on what it is you are working on, it is likely quite a few on here have played in that area.
We will be glad to help, but only for the collective good.
What does your circuit do?