August 18, 2025
Description
This is the Internet. It may look like an ordinary, perfectly rectangular, black box with a small flashing light on it, but don’t be fooled. Within this box lies the sum total of all human knowledge. Emails, shopping, banking, films of cats playing the piano all of it. Very few people have ever seen it in person. In fact, the elders at the highest levels of government loaned it to us only because they trust we wouldn’t, you know, drop it. If you did drop it, there would be widespread panic. Possibly the collapse of society. But otherwise, very safe. Very reliable. And also, completely wireless.
The internet is featured in season 3 Episode 4 of the show IT Crowd:
This prop is basically a simple black box with a red flashing LED-light. Using a microcontroller for such a simple task seemed to be overkill so I opted for a NE555 timer blinking circuit:
The blinking speed of this circuit can be modified by for example change the resistance value of R1. Feel free to use different componets this website calculates the behavior of your the circuit: LINK
The battery is held in place by a rubber band.
Feel free to use a different approach here are some measurements if you want to switch out the PCB-plate.
I used the following parts:
| DESCRIPTION | QTY | LINK |
| 9v battery | 1 | link |
| battery clip | 1 | link |
| NE555 timer IC | 1 | link |
| Red Indicator Light (6mm) | 1 | link |
| 100kΩ resistor | 1 | link |
| 47kΩ resistor | 1 | link |
| Slide Switch | 1 | link |
| PCB 5x7 | 1 | link |
| M4x16 screw | 4 | link |
| M2x 12 screw | 4 | link |
| M2 nut | 4 | link |
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution