C11, but you can't influence them. Adding another capacitor in parallel will increase capacitance. A typical ceramic capacitor has a 10% or even a 20% tolerance. A polypropolyne or polyester film capacitor can be 5% or better, but is larger and more expensive. For timing circuits its always a good idea to measure the capacitance. Even a cheap LCR meter can measure the value to 1 - 2%, or its easy to make one with an Arduino. I recently refilled my ceramic capacitor stock with one of those cheap Chinese 100pF -10uF kits, 50 off each value. Excellent value for money if you don't mind the capacitances being 30 - 50% out! My 470nF 'box' varied from 302 (-36%!) to 590 (+26%), but the mean was about 10% low (420nF).

R9 is the resistor in question (R7 as was). I didn't realise you'd changed the component references.

 

if you don't mind the capacitances being 30 - 50% out!

Thats a lot! I think I mind?

I have ordered 3 values of Polypropylene caps. Nice to learn. Thanks.

R9 is the resistor in question (R7 as was). I didn't realise you'd changed the component references.

When I drew the second version with your improvements I let KiCad annotate it all in the end. I figured you might needed the updated circuit

 

Thats a lot! I think I mind?

I have ordered 3 values of Polypropylene caps. Nice to learn. Thanks.

If you have an LCR meter its not such a big deal to measure a few before use and recalculate resistors as necessary...

 

I thought I'd show you the PCB. And it is working! Thank you so much for all your help.

At first it didnt work. But after troubleshooting and measuring the board for a couple of hours I found out there was a bad soldering at R7 trimpot and after fixing that the servo arms started moving as it should. phew

Oh, and I switched the 5k trimpots with 10k trimpots. Though one of the trimpots needs to be set at zero ohms anyway.

 

Man am I happy. I started over two years ago learning electronics with one of my goals to make a jumping jack santa. Granted I have been taking long breaks from this project due to renovating my house. And after finishing renovating I now have a electronics work shop in the basement where I can continue learning.

 

Man am I happy. I started over two years ago learning electronics with one of my goals to make a jumping jack santa. Granted I have been taking long breaks from this project due to renovating my house. And after finishing renovating I now have a electronics work shop in the basement where I can continue learning.

Well done you! Looking forward to seeing the finished toy There's nothing more satisfying than completing a project of your own design, and learning new stuff as you go (though it still would have been much easier with a low-power microcontroller!)

Enjoy your workshop; having a permanent setup is a good excuse to buy more kit So what's your next project?

 

Well done you! Looking forward to seeing the finished toy There's nothing more satisfying than completing a project of your own design, and learning new stuff as you go (though it still would have been much easier with a low-power microcontroller!)

Enjoy your workshop; having a permanent setup is a good excuse to buy more kit So what's your next project?

Oh boy I have already spent much money on filling up the work shop with components and tools. But you are right! There's a lot of need-to-have for this hobby.

I'm not sure yet what my next project will be. I have also been brainstorming for mouse/rat traps for a couple of years but haven't decided on anything yet.

I am definitely going to spend time on learning new components like sensors and comparators which I haven't been into yet.

 

Thought I'd show you a short video of my Santa Jumping Jack in a bit naughty edition.