DIY LED flashing light. Simple do-it-yourself flasher beacon with sound
Flashing beacons are used in electronic security systems and on vehicles as indication, signaling and warning devices. Moreover, their appearance and “filling” are often not at all different from the flashing lights of emergency and operational services (special signals) - see fig. 3.9.
The internal “filling” of classic lamps is striking in its anachronism: here and there, beacons based on powerful lamps with a rotating cartridge (a classic of the genre) or lamps such as IFK-120, IFKM-120 with a stroboscopic device that provides flashes at regular intervals regularly appear on sale time (pulse beacons). Meanwhile, this is the 21st century, in which the triumphant march of super-bright (and powerful in terms of luminous flux) LEDs continues.
One of the fundamental points in favor of replacing incandescent and halogen lamps with LEDs, in particular in flashing lights, is the resource and cost of the LED.
By resource, as a rule, we mean failure-free service life.
The resource of an LED is determined by two components: the resource of the crystal itself and the resource of the optical system. The vast majority of LED manufacturers use various combinations of epoxy resins for the optical system, of course, with varying degrees of purification. In particular, because of this, LEDs have a limited resource in this part of the parameters, after which they “go cloudy”.
Various manufacturing companies (we won’t advertise them for free) claim a lifespan of their products in terms of LEDs from 20 to 100 thousand (!) hours. I categorically disagree with the last figure, since I have little faith that a separately selected LED will work continuously for 12 years. During this time, even the paper on which my book is printed will turn yellow.
However, it is quite obvious that the key to a long resource is ensuring the thermal conditions and power conditions of the LEDs.
In any case, compared to the life of traditional incandescent lamps (less than 1000 hours) and gas-discharge lamps (up to 5000 hours), LEDs are several orders of magnitude more durable.
The predominance of LEDs with a powerful luminous flux of 20-100 lm (lumens) in the latest electronic devices industrial production, where they even replace incandescent lamps, gives radio amateurs a reason to use such LEDs in their designs.
Figure 3.9. Appearance flashing beacons
Thus, I am talking about replacing lamps in emergency and special beacons for various purposes powerful LEDs. Moreover, with such a replacement, the main current consumption from the power source will decrease and will depend mainly on the current consumption of the LED used. For use in conjunction with a car (as a special signal, emergency light indicator and even a “warning triangle” on the roads), current consumption is not important, since the car battery has a fairly large energy capacity (55 A/h or more). If the beacon is powered by another power source (autonomous or stationary), then the dependence of the current consumption on the equipment installed inside is direct. By the way, the car battery can also discharge if the beacon is used for a long time without recharging the battery.
So, for example, a “classic” beacon for operational and emergency services (blue, red, orange, respectively) with a 12 V power supply consumes a current of more than 2.2 A. This current consists of taking into account the consumption of the electric motor of the rotating socket and the current consumption of the lamp itself. When the flashing pulse beacon is operating, the current consumption is reduced to 0.9 A. If, instead pulse circuit assemble an LED (more on this below), the current consumption will be reduced to 300 mA (depending on the powerful LEDs used). The savings in detail are obvious.
The above data was established by practical experiments conducted by the author in May 2009 in St. Petersburg (a total of 6 different classic flashing lights were tested).
Of course, the question of the strength or, better yet, intensity of light from certain flashing devices has not been studied, since the author does not have special equipment (lux meter) for such a test. But due to the innovative solutions proposed below, this issue remains of secondary importance. After all, even relatively weak light pulses (in particular, from powerful LEDs) at night and in the dark are more than sufficient for the beacon to be noticed several hundred meters away. That's the point of long-range warning, isn't it?
Now let's consider electrical diagram“lamp substitute” for a flashing light (Fig. 3.10).
This multivibrator electrical circuit can rightfully be called simple and accessible. The device is developed on the basis of the popular integrated timer KR1006VI1, containing 2 precision comparators that provide an error in voltage comparison no worse than ±1%. The timer has been repeatedly used by radio amateurs to build such popular circuits and devices as time relays, multivibrators, converters, alarms, voltage comparison devices, etc.
The device includes, in addition to the integrated timer DA1 (multifunctional microcircuit KR1006VI1), a timing oxide capacitor C1, and a voltage divider R1R2. From the output of the DA1 chip (current up to 250 mA), control pulses are sent to the HL1-HL3 LEDs.
The beacon is turned on using switch SB1. The operating principle of a multivibrator is described in detail in the literature.
At the first moment of time, there is a high voltage level at pin 3 of the DA1 chip and the LEDs are lit. The oxide capacitor C1 begins to charge through the circuit R1R2.
After about 1 sec. (the time depends on the resistance of the voltage divider R1R2 and the capacitance of the capacitor C1) the voltage on the plates of this capacitor reaches the value necessary to trigger one of the comparators in the single housing of the DA1 microcircuit. In this case, the voltage at pin 3 of the DA1 chip is set equal to zero, and the LEDs go out. This continues cyclically as long as the supply voltage is applied to the device.
Rice. 3.10. Simple electrical circuit of an LED beacon
In addition to those indicated in the diagram, I recommend using as HL1-HL3 powerful LEDs HPWS-TH00 or similar with current consumption up to 80 mA. Only one LED from the LXHL-DL-01, LXHL-FL1C, LXYL-PL-01, LXHL-ML1D, LXHL-PH01, LXHL-MH1D series manufactured by Lumileds Lighting can be used (all orange and red-orange).
The device supply voltage can be adjusted to 12 V.
The board with the elements of the device is installed in the housing of the flashing light instead of the “heavy” standard design with a lamp and a rotating socket with an electric motor. A view of the installed board with 3 LEDs is shown in Fig. 3.11.
In order for the output stage to have even more power, you will need to install a current amplifier on transistor VT1 at point A (Fig. 3.10), as shown in Fig. 3.12.
After this modification, you can use three parallel-connected LEDs of the types LXHL-PL09, LXHL-LL3C (1400 mA), UE-lf R803RQ (700 mL), LY-W57B (400 mA) - all orange.
If there is no power, the device does not consume any current at all.
Rice. 3 11 View of the board LED beacon, installed in the standard housing of the flashing light
Those who still have parts of cameras with a built-in flash can go the other way. To do this, the old flash lamp is dismantled and connected to the circuit as shown in Fig. 3.13.
Using the presented converter, which is also connected to point A (Fig. 3.10), pulses with an amplitude of 200 V are received at the output of the device with a low supply voltage. The supply voltage in this case is increased to 12 V.
Day off impulse voltage can be increased by connecting several zener diodes into the circuit, following the example of VD1, VD2 (Fig. 3.13). These are silicon planar zener diodes designed to stabilize voltage in circuits direct current with a minimum current of 1 mA and power up to 1 W. Instead of those indicated in the diagram, you can use KS591A zener diodes.
Elements C1, R3 form a damping RC circuit that dampens high-frequency vibrations.
Now, with the appearance (in time) of pulses at point A (Fig. 3.10), the ELI flash lamp will turn on. Built into the body of the flashing light, this design will allow it to continue to be used if the standard beacon fails.
Fig 3.12 Connection diagram for additional amplifier stage
Option with flash lamp
Figure 3 13. Flash lamp connection diagram
Unfortunately, the life of a flash lamp from a portable camera is limited and is unlikely to exceed 50 hours. continuous operation in pulse mode. Battery charging and discharging control device for a miner's flashlight
Often, the mobile lighting devices we purchase, which use the energy of the built-in rechargeable battery, but are not equipped with an indicator of its status, fail us at the most inopportune moment. In this article, the author proposes a simple device…….
Hello again everyone! In this article I will tell novice radio amateurs about how to make a simple flasher with just one cheapest transistor. Of course, you can find ready-made ones on sale, but they are not available in all cities, the frequency of their flashes is not regulated, and the supply voltage is quite limited. It is often easier not to go shopping and not wait for weeks for an order from the Internet (when you need to have a flashing light here and now), but to assemble it in a couple of minutes using the simplest scheme. To make the structure we will need:1 . Transistor type KT315 (It doesn’t matter whether it will be letters b,c,d, - anyone will do).
2 . Electrolytic capacitor voltage of at least 16 volts, and a capacity of 1000 microfarads - 3000 microfarads (The lower the capacity, the faster the LED flashes).
3 . Resistor 1 kOhm, set the power as you like.
4 . Light-emitting diode(Any color except white).
5
. Two wires(Preferably stranded).
First, the LED flasher circuit itself. Now let's start making it. It can be done as an option on a printed circuit board, or it can also be mounted, it looks something like this:
We solder the transistor, then the electrolytic capacitor, in my case it is 2200 microfarads. Don't forget that electrolytes have polarity.
Flashing beacons are used in electronic home security systems and on cars as indication, signaling and warning devices. Moreover, their appearance and “filling” are often not at all different from flashing lights (special signals) of emergency and operational services.
There are classic beacons on sale, but their internal “filling” is striking in its anachronism: they are made on the basis of powerful lamps with a rotating cartridge (a classic of the genre) or lamps such as IFK-120, IFKM-120 with a stroboscopic device that provides flashes at regular intervals ( pulse beacons). Meanwhile, this is the 21st century, when there is a triumphal march of very bright (powerful in terms of luminous flux) LEDs.
One of the fundamental points in favor of replacing incandescent and halogen lamps with LEDs, in particular in flashing beacons, is the longer service life (uptime) and lower cost of the latter.
The LED crystal is practically “indestructible”, so the service life of the device mainly determines the durability of the optical element. The vast majority of manufacturers use various combinations of epoxy resins for its production, of course, with varying degrees of purification. In particular, because of this, LEDs have a limited resource, after which they become cloudy.
Various manufacturers (we won’t advertise them for free) claim a lifespan of their LEDs from 20 to 100 thousand (!) hours. I have a hard time believing the last figure, because the LED should work continuously for 12 years. During this time, even the paper on which the article is printed will turn yellow.
However, in any case, compared to the resource of traditional incandescent lamps (less than 1000 hours) and gas-discharge lamps (up to 5000 hours), LEDs are several orders of magnitude more durable. It is quite obvious that the key to a long resource is to ensure favorable thermal conditions and stable power supply to the LEDs.
The predominance of LEDs with a powerful luminous flux of 20 - 100 lm (lumens) in the latest industrial electronic devices, in which they work instead of incandescent lamps, gives radio amateurs the basis to use such LEDs in their designs. Thus, I bring the reader to the idea of the possibility of replacing various lamps in emergency and special beacons with powerful LEDs. In this case, the current consumption of the device from the power source will decrease and will depend mainly on the LED used. For use in a car (as a special signal, emergency warning light, and even a “warning triangle” on the roads), current consumption is not important, since the car’s battery has a fairly large energy capacity (55 or more Ah or more). If the beacon is powered by autonomous source, then the current consumption of the equipment installed inside will be of no small importance. By the way, a car battery without recharging can be discharged if the beacon is used for a long time.
So, for example, a “classic” beacon for operational and emergency services (blue, red, orange, respectively), when powered by a 12 V DC source, consumes a current of more than 2.2 A, which is the sum of that consumed by the electric motor (rotating the socket) and the lamp itself. When a flashing pulse beacon is operating, the current consumption is reduced to 0.9 A. If, instead of a pulse circuit, you assemble an LED circuit (more on this below), the consumption current will be reduced to 300 mA (depending on the power of the LEDs used). Savings in parts costs are also noticeable.
Of course, the question of the strength of light (or, better said, its intensity) from certain flashing devices has not been studied, since the author did not have and does not have special equipment (lux meter) for such a test. But due to the innovative solutions proposed below, this issue becomes secondary. After all, even relatively weak light pulses (in particular from LEDs) passed through the prism of the non-uniform glass of the beacon cap at night are more than sufficient for the beacon to be noticed several hundred meters away. That's the point of long-range warning, isn't it?
Now let's look at the electrical circuit of the "lamp substitute" of the flashing light (Fig. 1).
Rice. 1. Circuit diagram of the LED beacon
This multivibrator electrical circuit can rightfully be called simple and accessible. The device is developed on the basis of the popular integrated timer KR1006VI1, containing two precision comparators that provide a voltage comparison error of no worse than ±1%. The timer has been repeatedly used by radio amateurs to build such popular circuits and devices as time relays, multivibrators, converters, alarms, voltage comparison devices and others.
The device, in addition to the integrated timer DA1 (multifunctional microcircuit KR1006VI1), also includes a time-setting oxide capacitor C1 and a voltage divider R1R2. C3 of the output of the DA1 microcircuit (current up to 250 mA), control pulses are sent to the LEDs HL1-HL3.
How the device works
The beacon is turned on using switch SB1. The operating principle of a multivibrator is described in detail in the literature.
At the first moment, there is a high voltage level at pin 3 of the DA1 microcircuit - and the LEDs light up. The oxide capacitor C1 begins to charge through the circuit R1R2.
After about one second (the time depends on the resistance of the voltage divider R1R2 and the capacitance of capacitor C1, the voltage on the plates of this capacitor reaches the value necessary to trigger one of the comparators in the single housing of the DA1 microcircuit. In this case, the voltage at pin 3 of the DA1 microcircuit is set equal to zero - and the LEDs go out. This continues cyclically as long as the device is supplied with power.
In addition to those indicated in the diagram, I recommend using high-power HPWS-T400 or similar LEDs with a current consumption of up to 80 mA as HL1-HL3. You can use only one LED from the series LXHL-DL-01, LXHL-FL1C, LXYL-PL-01, LXHL-ML1D, LXHL-PH01,
LXHL-MH1D manufactured by Lumileds Lighting (all orange and red-orange glow colors).
The supply voltage of the device can be increased to 14.5 V, then it can be connected to the on-board vehicle network even when the engine (or rather, the generator) is running.
Design Features
A board with three LEDs is installed in the housing of the flashing light instead of the “heavy” standard design (lamp with a rotating socket and electric motor).
In order for the output stage to have even more power, you will need to install a current amplifier on transistor VT1 at point A (Fig. 1), as shown in Fig. 2.
Rice. 2. Connection diagram for an additional amplifier stage
After such modification, you can use three parallel-connected LEDs of the types LXHL-PL09, LXHL-LL3C (1400 mA),
UE-HR803RO (700 mA), LY-W57B (400 mA) - all orange. In this case, the total current consumption will increase accordingly.
Option with flash lamp
Those who have preserved parts of cameras with a built-in flash can go the other way. To do this, the old flash lamp is dismantled and connected to the circuit as shown in Figure 3. Using the presented converter, also connected to point A (Figure 1), pulses with an amplitude of 200 V are received at the output of the device with a low supply voltage. Supply voltage in this case it is definitely increased to 12 V.
The output pulse voltage can be increased by connecting several zener diodes into the circuit following the example of VT1 (Fig. 3). These are silicon planar zener diodes designed to stabilize voltage in DC circuits with a minimum value of 1 mA and a power of up to 1 W. Instead of those indicated in the diagram, you can use KS591A zener diodes.
Rice. 3. Flash lamp connection diagram
Elements C1, R3 (Fig. 2) form a damping RC chain that dampens high-frequency vibrations.
Now, with the appearance (in time) of pulses at point A (Fig. 2), the flash lamp EL1 will turn on. This design, built into the body of the flashing light, will allow it to be used further if the standard beacon fails.
A board with LEDs installed in a standard flashing light housing
Unfortunately, the life of a flash lamp from a portable camera is limited and is unlikely to exceed 50 hours of operation in pulse mode.
See other articles section.
One of the most simple circuits in amateur radio electronics there is an LED flasher on a single transistor. Its production can be done by any beginner who has a minimum soldering kit and half an hour of time.
Although the circuit under consideration is simple, it allows you to clearly see the avalanche breakdown of the transistor, as well as the operation electrolytic capacitor. Including, by selecting the capacitance, you can easily change the blinking frequency of the LED. You can also experiment with the input voltage (in small ranges), which also affects the operation of the product.
Design and principle of operation
The flasher consists of the following elements:- power supply;
- resistance;
- capacitor;
- transistor;
- Light-emitting diode.
The capacitor is located in the circuit before the closed transistor, therefore it accumulates electrical energy. This happens until the voltage at its terminals reaches a value sufficient to ensure the so-called avalanche breakdown.
In the second phase of the cycle, the energy accumulated in the capacitor “breaks through” the transistor, and current passes through the LED. It flashes for a short time and then goes out again as the transistor turns off again.
Then the flasher operates in cyclic mode and all processes are repeated.
Necessary materials and radio components
To assemble an LED flasher with your own hands, powered by a 12 V power source, you will need the following:- soldering iron;
- rosin;
- solder;
- 1 kOhm resistor;
- capacitor with a capacity of 470-1000 μF at 16 V;
- transistor KT315 or its more modern analogue;
- classic LED;
- simple wire;
- 12V power supply;
- matchbox (optional).
The last component acts as a housing, although the circuit can be assembled without it. Alternatively, a circuit board can be used. The mounted mounting described below is recommended for beginner radio amateurs. This assembly method allows you to quickly navigate the circuit and do everything right the first time.
Flasher assembly sequence
Manufacturing LED flasher at 12 V is carried out in the following sequence. The first step is to prepare all the above components, materials and tools.For convenience, it is better to immediately fix the LED and power wires to the case. Next, a resistor should be soldered to the “+” terminal.
The free resistance leg is connected to the emitter of the transistor. If KT315 is placed with the marking down, then this pin will be on the far right. Next, the emitter of the transistor is connected to the positive terminal of the capacitor. You can identify it by the markings on the case - “minus” is indicated by a light stripe.
Next stage by stage connection of the transistor collector to the positive terminal of the LED. KT315 has a leg in the middle. The “plus” of the LED can be determined visually. Inside the element there are two electrodes of different sizes. The one that is smaller will be positive.
Now all that remains is to solder the negative terminal of the LED to the corresponding conductor of the power supply. The negative of the capacitor is connected to the same line.
The LED flasher on one transistor is ready. By applying power to it, you can see its operation according to the principle described above.
If you want to reduce or increase the blinking frequency of the LED, you can experiment with capacitors with different capacities. The principle is very simple - the larger the element’s capacity, the less often the LED will blink.
The master reveals the secret of a simple LED flasher with sound, built with his own hands using electronics from a broken electronic-mechanical watch.
How to make a flasher with sound with your own hands
To operate, you need a mechanism from an electronic-mechanical clock with a ticking motion. A broken mechanism will also work, since the malfunction is 99% due to damage to the mechanics. Please note that a smooth-running mechanism is not suitable for crafts. It is easy to distinguish the mechanisms; if you look carefully at the photographs, 3 large gears are clearly visible under the body of the ticking clock, but under the body of the smooth running mechanism there are four gears. The process of removing the electronics board is clearly shown in the video. Next, work with the circuit must be carried out according to the following instructions:
1. We remove all the mechanics with our own hands and put them aside. The wires from the coil can be broken.
2. Mark the polarity of the power terminals on the board. Carefully pry up the electronics board and remove it.
Ticking mechanism
3. Tin the contact pads with solder. This must be done quickly and carefully. When overheated, the pads easily peel off and then break off.
4. Solder the power conductors. The clock chip will operate when supplied with a voltage of 1.5 to 5 Volts.
5. Solder a TR1203 type sound emitter and any LED to the board, depending on what purposes you want to use the resulting circuit. Watch the video and photo of the flasher circuit. The flasher will work and should blink the LED every second, and then beep. This is perhaps what distinguishes the circuit from all similar flashing lights. You can connect two LEDs to the circuit and they will flash sequentially and alternately, why not a ready-made controller for flying models of replica airplanes?
