Strobe light circuit

bobcowley · Post by **bobcowley** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:54 am

Hi all,
I have been reading a lot of posts concerning lighting aircraft e.g. nav lights, landing lights etc. I have read references on the Starship Modeller Site, which is very informative. I intend to light my models if posible, and the Starship site mentions using a 4060 chip, because it gives a far better strobe effect than a 555 chip, ( I have plenty of 555 chips, but have no idea as to how to combine it with a 4060 timer chip or similar to obtain a strobe effect ). I have also been informed that the 4060 chip is no longer available.
Has anyone used the 4060 chip or alternative in their models, I am a bit wary of using this (not at all electronically minded), and wondered if anyone had made up a circuit with this chip or similar, showing components needed and wirng it all up on strip board, and would be willing to share the info.diagram wise. I have no problem with making up flasher units with the 555 chip, but I would really like to construct a flashing Strobe light.
Any help would be really appreciated.
Thanks a lot.

en'til Zog · Post by **en'til Zog** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:58 pm

Hi!

For a strobe circuit (very short blinks) I think I'd stick to the 555 and pick your resistors to give a 1% ON pulse. Astable mode, of course.

The 4060 (JAMECO, DigiKey, etc.) is great for a large selection of 50/50 pulses or blinks. Check the main site for it's use in the CPD Power Armor project. There is a link to several schematics in the "Electronic Circuits Help" Announcement. It's a self clocking chip, and still being made along with the other 4000 family of CMOS chips I believe.

jwrjr · Post by **jwrjr** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:32 pm

I prefer using a single chip computer for this (big surprise there). But a 555 with the right resistors and capacitor will also do the job. You can also get good results using an oscillator (555 or equivalent), a 4 (or higher) bit counter, and a decoder (4051 or equivalent, a 74hc4051 would be better).

Mr. Engineer · Post by **Mr. Engineer** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 7:13 pm

Same here. I just used a PIC for the strobes and navigation lights as someone told me the timing for them. Once I have a camera, I'll post it on youtube (but don't wait too long for this)

My plans to use them is so that I can build a "console" for the refit where I can "control" the effects like Warp Drives, Photon torpedoes, etc.

jwrjr · Post by **jwrjr** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:49 pm

The PIC coding for this is pretty simple. You just have to know exactly what you are trying to do. The timing is the only tricky part.

bobcowley · Post by **bobcowley** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:06 am

Thanks guys for the info. I have found a project on the Electronics Club website that could solve my problem. Its the "Lighthouse project" which uses a 4017 counter IC, triggered by a 555 timer IC. there is an option to use L.E.D.'S instead of the lamp in the project. The good thing about this project is, that it actually gives you a diagram of the stripboard layout showing all the components and where to connect them on the stripboard. (I am useless at transferring circuits onto stripboard). The only thing I have to sort out now is how to wire (in series) two sets of matching L.E.D.'s (one red & one blue in each set) as mentioned in the PD Power Armor Suit featured on this site. Once I have that worked out, I'm sorted.

bobcowley · Post by **bobcowley** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 12:06 pm

As an add-on to my previous post, the "Lighthouse" project is listing two components I cannot seem to find. One is BC108 Transistor, and the other one is 0.1 uF 16V Radial Capacitor. Does anyone know of suitable alternatives? I can source a 1.0 uF 16V Radial, but not the 0.1uF.
Cheers.

jwrjr · Post by **jwrjr** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 11:38 pm

The BC108 is probably just a common switching transistor, but I would have to see the wiring diagram to be able to tell is it is NPN or PNP. As for the capacitor, don't stress over the 16 volt rating. As long as the one you use is rated for at least 16 volts you will be okay.

bobcowley · Post by **bobcowley** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:02 am

Hi, the BC108 is definitely a NPN structure. I have seen that possible substitues for it are BC183 and BC548, but I'm really not sure about it. Thanks for the tip on the capacitor.

jwrjr · Post by **jwrjr** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:48 pm

For my 5 volt circuits I usually use 0.1uf 50 v. capacitor. Why? Because they are cheaply, commonly available.

jgoldader · Post by **jgoldader** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:47 pm

Howdy folks,

I have a newbie-lighting question here. I successfully built my first 555-based LED blinker today. Using R1=10K ohms and R2=1M ohms with a 1 microfarad capacitor, I got an LED blinking at a little less than 1Hz with a 50% on/50% off.

I'd rather have the thing blinking at that frequency, but with only a few % "on." I can switch R1 and R2 to get a few % "off," but as best as I can figure, there's no way to make a 555 actually do just a few % on at the frequency I want.

Have I bought the wrong IC? Should I be adding another IC (a 4060?) to the setup?

Thanks for any help--it's been a loooong time since my circuits class in college.

Jeff

Mr. Engineer · Post by **Mr. Engineer** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:00 am

This might help you, or it might not. I downloaded the software to simulate the timing of the 555 and its quite fun.

http://www.tucows.com/preview/72749

quantumplasmathingie · Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:34 pm

The 4060s are still around and quite cheap!

I love 'em! (probably because I've experimented with those more than anything else).

You can get several different timings on the 4060 by wiring your LED (including resistor) across the various pins.
Get one and try pin #3 or #4 across to pin #13, #14 or #15.

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:52 pm

jgoldader wrote:Howdy folks,

I have a newbie-lighting question here. I successfully built my first 555-based LED blinker today. Using R1=10K ohms and R2=1M ohms with a 1 microfarad capacitor, I got an LED blinking at a little less than 1Hz with a 50% on/50% off.

I'd rather have the thing blinking at that frequency, but with only a few % "on." I can switch R1 and R2 to get a few % "off," but as best as I can figure, there's no way to make a 555 actually do just a few % on at the frequency I want.

Have I bought the wrong IC? Should I be adding another IC (a 4060?) to the setup?

Thanks for any help--it's been a loooong time since my circuits class in college.

Jeff

Toss a standard 1N4148 signal diode across R2 to shorten the ON time

Basic circuit is here -> http://www.citlink.net/~starwinddesign/ ... 0timer.jpg

Atlantis

jgoldader · Post by **jgoldader** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:02 am

SCC-7107 USS Atlantis wrote: Toss a standard 1N4148 signal diode across R2 to shorten the ON time

Basic circuit is here -> http://www.citlink.net/~starwinddesign/ ... 0timer.jpg

Atlantis

That sounds just like what I was after. I'll give it a go--thanks!

Jeff

jgoldader · Post by **jgoldader** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:04 pm

I had the chance to try it out, and it worked perfectly! Thanks!

Any chance a moderator might want to add the link to one of the sticky threads? It is a simple answer to an oft-asked problem.

Jeff

SCC-7107 USS Atlantis wrote:
Toss a standard 1N4148 signal diode across R2 to shorten the ON time

Basic circuit is here -> http://www.citlink.net/~starwinddesign/ ... 0timer.jpg

Atlantis

USS Atlantis · Post by **USS Atlantis** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:50 pm

jgoldader wrote:I had the chance to try it out, and it worked perfectly! Thanks!

Any chance a moderator might want to add the link to one of the sticky threads? It is a simple answer to an oft-asked problem.

Jeff

Glad I could help out with that.

The diode jump is one I came across in my ramblings across the Net, and is the circuit I'll be using for the Nav beacons on my TOS-E build - if I ever get shop time again; been putting in 50+ hour weeks at my day job, and with a semi-disabled wife..... no time in the last 3 weeks for modeling, just a couple hours here and there for my online wanderings

Atlantis - the modeling deprived

Mr. Engineer · Post by **Mr. Engineer** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:42 am

OK, sorry for the delay since my camera broke, I had to borrow another one as my Wife was keeping her Nokia close to her. The next camera would be a DSLR, which does not have movies mode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqlrJxZs-ag

I did this on an 8-pin PIC, then used a transistor to switch all the LEDs together since the PIC can only turn on a maximum of one LEDs. The timing of the RED/GREEN nav lights are 1 second on and 1 second off. As for the WHITE LED strobes, they are 0.005 seconds on and 0.0075 seconds off. I got the timing from somewhere which I forgot. Its a site with flash animation to how you all the strobes, spotlights and also photo torpedo timings.

ronniej · Post by **ronniej** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:39 pm

First of all the 4060 chip is available at just about any part house. Also the part itself has a built in clock pulse generator. If you go to the following
site http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com there are 2 projects that uses this chip
that can flash 18 LED's.It's either the Xmas tree or the Valentine Heart.

Do not exceed the 9V Range or the chip and the LEDS will fry. Build the circuit as it is seen on the page. This chip can go higher on flash , but the
flash will be slower. Also check The ECG Book , where you can get the
pinouts of the 4060 chip. I hope this will answer the question about
the 4060 chip. I'll experiment some more on this chip and will post more
answers here.

ronniej · Post by **ronniej** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:20 am

Can anyone help me find the animated bell circuit ? Send reply to
RONALDHAMMOND5@aol.com. i have at least came up with an answer
to the 4060 chip.