Sunday, April 19, 2009
Descrete Multistage Light Sequencer Circuit
The drawing below illustrates a multistage light sequencer using
descrete parts and no integrated circuits. The idea is not new
and I hear a similar circuit was developed about 40 years ago
using germanium transistors. The idea is to connect the lights so
that as one turns off it causes the next to turn on, and so forth.
This is accomplished with a large capacitor between each stage
that charges when a stage turns off and supplies base current to
the next transistor, thus turning it on. Any number of stages can
be used and the drawing below illustrates 3 small Christmas lights
running at about 5 volts and 200mA. The circuit may need to be
manually started when power is applied. To start it, connect a
momentary short across any one of the capacitors and then
remove the short. You could use a manual push button to do this.
The circuit below uses a hex Schmitt Trigger inverter (74HC14)

60 Light Sequencer Circuit using a Matrix
The circuit below illustrates using a 10x10 matrix to sequence up
The LED circuit is drawn showing 25 LEDs and 10 transistors but

more
LED sequencer
The model 4017 integrated circuit is a CMOS counter with ten
Labels: led
Descrete Multistage Light Sequencer Circuit
The drawing below illustrates a multistage light sequencer using
descrete parts and no integrated circuits. The idea is not new
and I hear a similar circuit was developed about 40 years ago
using germanium transistors. The idea is to connect the lights so
that as one turns off it causes the next to turn on, and so forth.
This is accomplished with a large capacitor between each stage
that charges when a stage turns off and supplies base current to
the next transistor, thus turning it on. Any number of stages can
be used and the drawing below illustrates 3 small Christmas lights
running at about 5 volts and 200mA. The circuit may need to be
manually started when power is applied. To start it, connect a
momentary short across any one of the capacitors and then
remove the short. You could use a manual push button to do this.
The circuit below uses a hex Schmitt Trigger inverter (74HC14)

60 Light Sequencer Circuit using a Matrix
The circuit below illustrates using a 10x10 matrix to sequence up
The LED circuit is drawn showing 25 LEDs and 10 transistors but

more
LED sequencer
The model 4017 integrated circuit is a CMOS counter with ten
Labels: led
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Transistor LED flasher Circuit
This circuit has a lot going for it. For one thing, it only consists of two
transistors, two capacitors and four resistors. That also means it
consumes very little power. You can control the flash rate by changing
the size of the 100k resistors (100k makes for a pretty slow rate).
You can also control the duty cycle by using resistors of different
values on the two sides. The 470 ohm resistors control the current
through the LEDs. Normally you want to limit this to 20mA, but to
conserve battery power, you may need to limit it even further. You
can also connect several LEDs in series, instead of using only one
for each side. With red LEDs (1 per side) and the values shown,
the circuit draws about 11mA. more
Basic LED flasher circuit using NE555 timer IC
This circuit consumes more power, but it's advantage is when

4 Parallel LEDs flashing circuit
Nominal flash rate: 1.3 Hz. Average IDRAIN e 2 mA
General Description
The LM3909 is a monolithic oscillator specifically designed
to flash Light Emitting Diodes. By using the timing capacitor
for voltage boost, it delivers pulses of 2 or more volts to the
LED while operating on a supply of 1.5V or less. The circuit
is inherently self-starting, and requires addition of only a battery
and capacitor to function as an LED flasher.
Packaged in an 8-lead plastic mini-DIP, the LM3909 will operate
over the extended consumer temperature range of
b25§C to a70§C. It has been optimized for low power drain
and operation from weak batteries so that continuous operation
life exceeds that expected from battery rating.
Application is made simple by inclusion of internal timing
resistors and an internal LED current limit resistor. As
shown in the first two application circuits, the timing resistors
supplied are optimized for nominal flashing rates and
minimum power drain at 1.5V and 3V.
12 LED Flasher
LED flasher in this circuit use 12 LED it can show 2 style .

more
1.5 volt dual LED flasher Circuit
This 1.5 volt led fasher runs more than a year on a single 'd" cell
Labels: led
Transistor LED flasher Circuit
This circuit has a lot going for it. For one thing, it only consists of two
transistors, two capacitors and four resistors. That also means it
consumes very little power. You can control the flash rate by changing
the size of the 100k resistors (100k makes for a pretty slow rate).
You can also control the duty cycle by using resistors of different
values on the two sides. The 470 ohm resistors control the current
through the LEDs. Normally you want to limit this to 20mA, but to
conserve battery power, you may need to limit it even further. You
can also connect several LEDs in series, instead of using only one
for each side. With red LEDs (1 per side) and the values shown,
the circuit draws about 11mA. more
Basic LED flasher circuit using NE555 timer IC
This circuit consumes more power, but it's advantage is when

4 Parallel LEDs flashing circuit
Nominal flash rate: 1.3 Hz. Average IDRAIN e 2 mA
General Description
The LM3909 is a monolithic oscillator specifically designed
to flash Light Emitting Diodes. By using the timing capacitor
for voltage boost, it delivers pulses of 2 or more volts to the
LED while operating on a supply of 1.5V or less. The circuit
is inherently self-starting, and requires addition of only a battery
and capacitor to function as an LED flasher.
Packaged in an 8-lead plastic mini-DIP, the LM3909 will operate
over the extended consumer temperature range of
b25§C to a70§C. It has been optimized for low power drain
and operation from weak batteries so that continuous operation
life exceeds that expected from battery rating.
Application is made simple by inclusion of internal timing
resistors and an internal LED current limit resistor. As
shown in the first two application circuits, the timing resistors
supplied are optimized for nominal flashing rates and
minimum power drain at 1.5V and 3V.
12 LED Flasher
LED flasher in this circuit use 12 LED it can show 2 style .

more
1.5 volt dual LED flasher Circuit
This 1.5 volt led fasher runs more than a year on a single 'd" cell
Labels: led