Xenon Lamp, Strobe Lights Electronic Circuits

Xenon Lamp Circuits
Last Updated on: Friday, March 12, 2010 12:07 PM

Circuits Designed by Dave Johnson, P.E. :

9v POWERED XENON PHOTOFLASH Controller
This 9v battery powered circuit is designed for remote control flash needs. A charge control circuit turns off the high voltage generator when the photoflash capacitor is fully charged. A neon lamp is included to indicate when the system is ready to flash.

AIR TRANSPARENCY MONITOR, XENON FLASH TRANSMITTER
This is the matching transmitter for the above receiver. The transmitter launches powerful 1000-watt light pulses that last about 20 microseconds.

LINE POWERED XENON FLASH TRANSMITTER
This line powered xenon flash circuit drives a small camera type flash tube. It has an optical isolator to allow the flash to be safely triggered from some remote device. A flash rate of 2Hz is possible with the circuit.

Xenon Lamp Flash Amplifier
This circuit has a very low standby current requirement yet has very high sensitivity toward the light flashes from a xenon lamp. When connected to a flip/flop it can serve as an on on/off Controller.

XENON LAMP FLASH DETECTOR
This circuit uses a small 2.5mm square photo diode in conjunction with a 100mH coil to detect the short light flashes from a xenon lamp. The coil makes the circuit immune to normal room lights. Its 10mv sensitivity can detect light flashes from a range of over 100 feet. Reflections from a room’s walls and ceiling is usually enough to trigger the circuit. The entire circuit draws only 3 Microamps from a 6 to 9 volt battery.

Links to electronic circuits, electronic schematics, designs for engineers, hobbyists, students & inventors:

3 Xenon flashing circuits found in flash for disposable cameras - You are going to like this project. It costs less than $3.00, contains six BUILDING BLOCKS, re-cycles a disposable flash camera and you are going to learn a lot about electronics.
Everyone has seen a disposable flash camera….(electronic schematic / circuit added 05/07)

9v Powered Xenon Photoflash Controller - This 9v battery powered circuit is designed for remote control flash needs. A charge control circuit turns off the high voltage generator when the photoflash capacitor is fully charged. A neon lamp is included to indicate when the system is ready to flash. ….(designed by David A. Johnson)

12 Volt Strobe Circuit - this circuit uses12V DC instead od mains AC. This is very good idea if you don't want to mess with direct mains voltage connected circuit or you want to run stroboscope from batteries. (added 5/02)

Adjustable Strobe Light - 120-Volt mains power source, up to20 Hz flash rate (added 5/02)

Air Transparency Monitor, Xenon Flash Transmitter - This is the matching transmitter for the above receiver. The transmitter launches powerful 1000-watt light pulses that last about 20 microseconds. ….(designed by David A. Johnson)

Beat Tracking Strobe - project description using AT90S8515 microcontroller and some electronics (added 5/03

Disco Lights - software and hardware for controlling disco lights from your PC (added 7/03)

Easy Xenon DC-to-DC Converters! - (electronic schematic / circuit added 4/02)

Emergency Strobe Flasher Generates 250V - 08/05/99 EDN-Design Ideas: Figure 1 shows a complete circuit for an emergency lamp that operates from a 12V automotive battery. The xenon flash tube requires a 250V-dc anode voltage and a 4-kV trigger pulse. To generate the 250V dc, IC1.....(design idea added 2/06)

Flash Slave Trigger (Aaron Cake) - Flash slaves are used when you need to supplement1-flash unit with1-or several more. This slave trigger simply triggers those other units. It does this by "seeing" the first flash (using a phototransistor) and triggering the other flashes a few microseconds later. The sensitivity of the circuit is adjustable to compensate for ambient light or dimmer than usual master flashes. (added 5/02)

Flashing Beacon - (electronic Circuit / Schematic added 10/04)

Flashing High Intensity LED 3rd Brake Light - This circuit to make a flashing3rd brake light assembly was designed to be easy to locate all the needed components and reasonably in expensive to build. (added 7/03)

Hacking the Kodak Max Single Flash Camera into a Self Repeating Strobe - this approach is recommended mainly for homebrewing a strobe that is powered by a single1.5 volt battery. If you can use a higher supply voltage, there are better ways to do this. (added 5/02)

Line Powered Xenon Flash Transmitter - This line powered xenon flash circuit drives a small camera type flash tube. It has an optical isolator to allow the flash to be safely triggered from some remote device. A flash rate of 2Hz is possible with the circuit. ….(designed by David A. Johnson)

Mini Pocket Strobe Circuit - works from two1.5-Volt AA batteries, based on modified camera flash unit (added 5/02)

Mini Strobe Light using LED - adjustable for flash rates between40 Hz and166 Hz, based on555 Timer (added 4/02)

Photo Flash at 1.5 Volts - This model is very simple and charges as long as you hold the pushbutton (added 2/05)

Photo Flash Charger Minimizes Parts Count - 10/22/98 EDN-Design Ideas: Photo-flash and strobe devices operate by discharging a high-voltage capacitor into a bulb. Charging the capacitor from a battery or other low-voltage source requires a step-up dc/dc converter to boost the voltage, typically to 300V. One way to generate the high voltage.....(design idea added 3/03)

Photo flash charger minimizes parts count - 10/22/98 EDN-Design Ideas: Photo-flash and strobe devices operate by discharging a high-voltage capacitor into a bulb. Charging the capacitor from a battery or other low-voltage source requires a step-up dc/dc converter to boost the voltage, typically to 300V. One way to generate the high voltage.....(design idea added 2/06)

Photoflash Capacitor Charger has Fast Efficient Charging and Low-Battery Drain - DN303 Design Notes (Linear Technology) (app note added 1/06)

Slave Flash Trigger Circuit - (electronic schematic / circuit added 4/02)

Strobe Controller - simple controller for professional stroboscopes, adjust the flash rate in1..15 Hz range (added 5/02)

Strobe from Flash - After using a disposable camera, you can build a strobe light (flashing light) with one simple modification. (6/02/2006)

Strobe Light - Designed as a companion to the LX800, can also be used by itself (schematic added 6/07)

Strobe Light (Aaron Cake) - Disco anyone? Actually, this strobe serves a much more useful purpose then making it look cool when you dance in the dark. You can use it to view fast moving objects, look for craks in PC boards (hold the strobe on the trace side of the board and look from the component side), and it is a great attention getter in a store window. (electronic circuit added 7/03)

Strobe Light (Randy Linscott) - The way that this circuit works is as follows. The AC line voltage is rectified by D1 and D2 which connects to a voltage doubler circuit made up of the two 22uf capacitors. The Flash Freq. Pot and the 10uf capacitor charge up which triggers the Diac and causes the triac to turn on. This allows the trigger transformer T1 to send a very High Voltage....(added 09/05)

Strobe Light 12 Volt Coil Powered - (electronic circuit added 11/06)

Trigger Circuit for Strobes - circuits which can be used for triggering stroboscopes from external signals (added 4/02)

Typical Strobe Light Trigger Circuit - 555 based Timing circuit which triggers a SCR which controls the trigger transformer (added 5/02)

Typical Strobe Light Trigger Circuit - This circuit typically uses a voltage around 300 volts for the main high voltage supply and needs a low voltage supply of typically 6 to 15 volts…. (electronic Circuit / Schematic added 10/04)

Welch Scientific Model 2153C Stroboscope - a schematic for a typical line operated variable rate stroboscope used for the visualization of moving parts as well as rotation speed or frequency determination of rotating or vibrating machinery (added 5/02)

Xenon DC-to-DC Converters! - (electronic schematic / circuit added 4/02)

Xenon Flash and Strobe Page - (circuit / schematic added 2/03)

Xenon flash valve - An experiment of the xenon flash valve. (added 10/05)

Xenon Flasher (Colin Mitchell) - You are going to like this project. It costs less than $3.00, contains six BUILDING BLOCKS, re-cycles a disposable flash camera and you are going to learn a lot about electronics.
Everyone has seen a disposable flash camera….(circuit design added 08/08)

Xenon Lamp Flash Detector - This circuit uses a small 2.5mm square photo diode in conjunction with a 100mH coil to detect the short light flashes from a xenon lamp. The coil makes the circuit immune to normal room lights. Its 10mv sensitivity can detect light flashes from a range of over 100 feet. Reflections from a room’s walls and ceiling is usually enough to trigger the circuit. The entire circuit draws only 3 Microamps from a 6 to 9 volt battery. ….(designed by David A. Johnson)

Xenon Lamp Flash Detector Ampliflier - This circuit has a very low standby current requirement yet has very high sensitivity toward the light flashes from a xenon lamp. When connected to a flip/flop it can serve as an on on/off Controller. ….(designed by David A. Johnson)

Xenon Strobe Light (Aaron Cake) - (electronic schematic / circuit added 08/08/08)

Xenon Strobe Light (Linscott) - The way that this circuit works is as follows. The AC line voltage is rectified by D1 and D2 which connects to a voltage doubler circuit made up of the two 22uf capacitors. The Flash Freq. Pot and the 10uf capacitor charge up which triggers the Diac ….(added 4/02)

Xenon Strobe Light (Rod Elliott) - Designed as a companion to the LX800, can also be used by itself (electronic circuit added 7/03)