555 strobe?

[MillenniumFalsehood]

I was wondering if there was a way to use a 555 timer as a strobe. Normally you can't get less than a 50% duty cycle with them, but I'm thinking that if I use a transistor as a switch to somehow discharge a capacitor into the LED, I can make a strobe instead of a simple blinking LED. Is there a ready-made circuit for this I can take to the electronics store and get the components for it? I'm feeling a little lazy and don't want to actually design this myself.

[brt]

Use your basic layout for making a nav flashing led and then put a signal diode (1n4148) in parallel with R2. It works well. Picture is in this link.

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.ph ... 568.0.html

[MillenniumFalsehood]

Thanks.

[Sloucher]

Here's a very useful online calculator for astable 555 circuits, including one for duty cycles <50%.

http://www.horrorseek.com/home/hallowee ... rCalc.html

I use microprocessors now, but when I used to use 555s or 556s this was always my goto calculator.