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Light Emitting Diodes (LED) Circuits
LEDs:   #'s - B     C - G      H - L       M - P       Q - T     U - Z 
 

Last Updated: November 29, 2017 05:40 AM


Circuits Designed by Dave Johnson, P.E. :
  • Miniature Lighthouse Light Simulator -  The circuit I came up with is shown below. It uses two dual low power op Amps. The first two devices form a classic oscillator circuit whose output is a triangle waveform signal. That signal is routed to a current regulator circuit, which converts the triangle voltage signal to a triangle current signal through the lighthouse LED. A third op Amp generates pulses timed so they occur at the peak of the triangle waveform. The result is a LED, which gradually grows brighter, then flashes even brighter before dimming again. This should produce a light, which simulates a rotating lighthouse light . . . [Circuit Solution by Dave Johnson P.E.,  05/07/06]

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  • Model Airplane Wing Tip Flasher -  The circuit below is designed to flash two white LEDs mounted at the wing tips of a model airplane. The flasher unit is powered by a 4. 5v supply made of three AA or AAA 1. 5v alkaline battery cells. The average current is about 2ma so a set of batteries . . . [Hobby Circuit designed by Dave Johnson P.E.,  10/18/09]

  • Model Train Lighthouse Flasher Revisited -  HO train sets often have authentic looking scale model homes and buildings.   A while back someone asked me to design a flashing LED light, which he could mount inside a model lighthouse and have it operate so it would appear to rotate and flash.   I designed a working circuit but I was never pleased with the results.   I’m still not 100% pleased but the revised circuit below seems to operate a bit better than the older circuit. … [Hobby Circuit designed by Dave Johnson P. E. , May 2012] . . . [Hobby Circuit designed by David A. Johnson P.E.,  12/20/12] 

  • Modified LED Night Light -  I bought some night lights a few months ago from Walmart here in Denver. The devices were made by Elumina Lighting Technologies Inc. (www. eluminalighting. com) , their model LED-6200A. I think I paid about $15 for a pack of three lights. I wanted a light . . . [Hobby Circuit designed by Dave Johnson P.E.,  05/21/07]

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Magic Lamp -  You have probably seen "magic lamp" circuits in which an ordinary incandescent bulb is lit by a match. These circuits rely on a hidden temperature or light sensor and are not particularly interesting. I decided to make a magic lamp, . . .  [Copyright © 1998 Wenzel Associates, Inc.]

 

Mains Operated Christmas Star -  . . . 

 

Make a Joule Thief -  It's a little wisp of a circuit that allows you to drive a blue or white LED from a low voltage. Normally, if you want to light up a blue or white LED you need to provide it with 3, 3.5 V, like from a 3 V lithium coin cell. But a 1.5V battery like a AA cell simply will not work. But using the Joule Thief, it works like a charm. Not only does it work with a brand new battery, but it works until the battery is nearly dead-- down to 0. 3 V. That's well below the point where your other toys will tell you the battery is dead, so it can steal every last joule of energy from the battery (hence the name). To learn how to make one, watch the video, which is available in a variety of formats. . . .  [Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories]

 

Make your own LED Headlamp -  I have submitted here my process for constructing an LED headlamp. I originally attempted to fit the battery holders for 3 AAA cells along with a tiny PC board for the three LEDs and current limiting resistor all in a tiny altoids tin. No go. I ended up buying a 3 cell holder with switch from Mouser electronics, gluing an elbow/ball joint pivot from a desktop pen set I had pieces from to that battery holder, then bolting the pivot to a Walgreens tiny mint tin (the sugar free ones come in a small oval shaped tin). The LEDs . . .  [Contributed by: John Evans]

 

Making an Amplified Color Sensor from an LED and an Op Amp -  . . . 

 

Marx Flasher -  File contains several designs, please scroll to find this circuit. Here is a strange-looking flasher that uses an unusual form of the Marx high voltage multiplier. The traditional Marx multiplier uses spark gaps to repetitively charge capacitors from a high voltage supply (in parallel) then to suddenly connect them in  series to generate a much higher voltage, near N times the supply voltage where N is the number of capacitors. This multiplier uses Lumex gas tube transient suppressors (GT-RLSA3230D) as the spark gap, providing reliable and repeatable triggering at about 250 volts (much lower than the typical spark gap). The 120 volt line voltage is rectified and doubled to provide enough voltage to trigger the suppressors and to reduce the required number of stages. . . .  [Charles Wenzel (unless otherwise noted)]

 

Matrix LED Display -  A mini display using an array de 5x24 LEDs using Microchip PIC 16F628. . . .  [Jose Pino designer]

 

Measure Zener Voltages and Test LEDs -  06/10/10  EDN Design Idea   You can use this circuit to measure zener voltages as high as 40V. To measure a zener diode's breakdown voltage, you need a dc voltage source whose voltage exceeds that of the zener voltage. In Figure 1, resistor RSER provides voltage drop between VIN and VZEN. In any case, VIN should exceed VZEN. Resistor RSER must provide current, IZEN, that can keep the zener diode in reverse breakdown. That is, the current must be more than IZEN-IZENMIN and less than IZEN-IZENMAX. You also need to consider the current that flows through the load. Otherwise, VZEN will be unregulated and less than the nominal breakdown voltage. Also, the power that the zener diode dissipates should not exceed the manufacturer's specifications. Except for the value of IZEN-IZENMIN, all necessary data appears in zener-diode data sheets. . .  [by Vladimir Oleynik, Moscow, Russia]

 

MEET BLINKER-blinking LED's -  Our BLINKER has many applications; fill your party with blinking BLINKERS. Mount the BLINKER on your bicycle so you'll be more visible and have a safer ride. Mount it on the car dashboard as an alarm flashing light imitator. Or mount it on your room door (i. e. please do not disturb). Place BLINKER anywhere you’d like to draw attention and a smile. The unique small design will allow you to mount it almost anywhere. Operate it with 9V battery 12V car battery, via two 1. 5V batteries, or via one of our battery simulator kits. . . .  [Kit from Elich Industrial Development, Corp]

 

Message Wand -  The message wand is a good PIC introduction as it is a simple project yet illustrates many aspects of the PIC usage. Used at night, the wand is swung around above the head, and to onlookers spells out a short message in the air using flashing LEDs. It could also be used with a handle and spun round like a traditional soccer rattle (can you still get those?) though great care must be taken if you do this. PICs have been popular with hobbyists for several reasons: The development tools are free, cheap programmers are available, and they come in good old fashioned DIP packages that you can solder to without a microscope! They are also extremely versatile of course! The message wand uses a mid-range PIC – the PIC16F627. . . .  [Karen's Microprocessor Projects]

 

Microcontroller drives logarithmic/linear dot/bar 20-LED display -  01/18/07    EDN Design Idea   Do-it-yourself analog-to-LM3914 display driver offers user programmability. . .  [by Dhananjay V Gadre and Anurag Chugh, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India]

 

Mini Strobe Light using LED -  adjustable for flash rates between40 Hz and166 Hz, based on555 Timer. . .  [Sunamura Kazuhiro]

 

Miniature Lighthouse Light Simulator -  The circuit I came up with is shown below. It uses two dual low power op Amps. The first two devices form a classic oscillator circuit whose output is a triangle waveform signal. That signal is routed to a current regulator circuit, which converts the triangle voltage signal to a triangle current signal through the lighthouse LED. A third op Amp generates pulses timed so they occur at the peak of the triangle waveform. The result is a LED, which gradually grows brighter, then flashes even brighter before dimming again. This should produce a light, which simulates a rotating lighthouse light . . . [Circuit Solution by Dave Johnson P.E.,  05/07/06]

 

Miniature Surface-Mount LED Ring Light -  Ring lights provide shadowless all-around lighting that is particularly useful for close-up work such as macro-photography and circuit-board inspection with a magnifying glass. This project also includes instructions on soldering surface-mount electronic components and machining a circuit board into a ring (round/circular/donut) shape. . . .  [Robot Room website]

 

Mini-Beacon miniature programmable LED Flasher that is based around a PIC12F629 microcontroller -  . . . 

 

Model Airplane Wing Tip Flasher -  The circuit below is designed to flash two white LEDs mounted at the wing tips of a model airplane. The flasher unit is powered by a 4. 5v supply made of three AA or AAA 1. 5v alkaline battery cells. The average current is about 2ma so a set of batteries . . . [Hobby Circuit designed by Dave Johnson P.E.,  10/18/09]

 

Model Lighthouse -  This project was designed for a model lighthouse to flash a lamp or LED in a simple sequence: two flashes of 2s with a short gap of 1s, followed by a longer gap of 5s before repeating the sequence. A 4017 counter is used to produce the flash sequence and this project includes information on how to adapt it to give a different flash sequence. . .  [Designed by John Hewes]

 

Model Train Lighthouse Flasher Revisited -  HO train sets often have authentic looking scale model homes and buildings.   A while back someone asked me to design a flashing LED light, which he could mount inside a model lighthouse and have it operate so it would appear to rotate and flash.   I designed a working circuit but I was never pleased with the results.   I’m still not 100% pleased but the revised circuit below seems to operate a bit better than the older circuit. … [Hobby Circuit designed by Dave Johnson P. E. , May 2012] . . . [Hobby Circuit designed by David A. Johnson P.E.,  12/20/12]

 

Modified LED Night Light -  I bought some night lights a few months ago from Walmart here in Denver. The devices were made by Elumina Lighting Technologies Inc. (www. eluminalighting. com) , their model LED-6200A. I think I paid about $15 for a pack of three lights. I wanted a light . . . [Hobby Circuit designed by Dave Johnson P.E.,  05/21/07]

 

Monolithic Converter Drives High Power LEDs -  DN376 Design Notes (Linear Technology). . .  [Linear Technology]

 

MSP430 Interface to TPS60250 via I2C Master Software -  LED lighting designers are challenged with meeting their efficiency and reliability goals faster in advanced LED lighting designs. LED lighting customers seeking the latest in innovative and affordable LED lighting solutions can benefit from TI's broad product portfolio of LED drivers, AC/DC, DC/DC, power management devices, wireless and wired interface control and embedded processors. LED designers have the option of not only controlling the power stage, but regulating LED currents as well, eliminating the need for multiple components and reducing system cost. . . .  [Texas Instruments App Notes, 1-May-08]

 

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LEDs:   #'s - B     C - G      H - L       M - P       Q - T     U - Z 


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