I think I need a tiny sequencer..?

[epicentre]

Okay, so I have this machine and it has buttons. Two of those I would like to somehow automate, add a little switch that would activate them so it would be like I was pressing them very fast (alternating between them), and having a pot to change the speed would be wonderful.

(hope this makes some sense, took me a while to figure out how to explain it in english )

How would I go about doing that?

[Bogus Noise]

Something could be knocked up using a 4017 counter to run the sequencer, and then use two of the switches on a 4016 to activate the buttons on the toy. The 4017 has 10 steps but you don't need to use all of them, you could just use the first two, and have the first output going to one 4016 switch, and the second output going to another. A 555 or a 4011 osc would take care of the clock to the sequencer.

http://sensorsweep.tripod.com/sequencer.html
http://www.sailormouth.org/loopcir.html

[epicentre]

Thanks man

I've never used any chips before, does it make a difference which 4017 I use for example?

Would this work?

[Bogus Noise]

Hmm, I'm less certain of what the letters after the number mean. I think the B stands for buffered, but I don't know if BE means something else, and quite what the implications of buffered/unbuffered are.

However, I had a quick search and found people definitely using the 4017BE in sequencers, so you should be safe

As it's your first chip experiment, I'd also recommend building it on a breadboard first. Would be good to break it down into sections. Start with the 555 circuit using an LED to show you the rate and as an indicator that it's working. Then make the 4011 circuit to trigger one of the buttons and plug the 555 into a 4011 input. If those both work fine, then you can hook up the second button to the 4011 and move on to building the sequencer section.

[epicentre]

Thank you, you've been very helpful, I'll see what happens, it will be quite a challenge for me, I'm such a hack