[sdiy] Varying gate lengths (using a 4017 counter) for a simple sequencer?

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Sunday 01 August 2004 01:12 am, harrybissell wrote:
> Have you given any thought to adding a clock that produces very narrow
> pulses... then imposing these on the capacitors for each stage ?   This is
> a method that was used for syncronizing timers in the days before digital
> counters...   This would allow you to get times that are multiples of the
> clock... so each stage could be one, two three... n pulses long.
>
> If you use the clock, the outputs WOULD be rhythmic but still have variable
> times. Turn off the sync pulses, and your original circuit is back...

Way back in 1974 I bought a "color bar generator" to assist me in servicing 
color TV,  and it used that setup,  basically three trimpots which were (good 
thing!) accessible from the back of the unit,  forming part of a "frequency 
divider" chain that was analog!

The thing was a real bear to keep in tune,  and I was always having to fiddle 
with it...