TL;DR
Looking for a way to toggle between two different sized loads using a 555 timer.


I'm taking a bunch of information I found on AllAboutCircuits and trying to apply that knowledge into a rubber duck night light, but I'm failing at getting the LED's to toggle properly. The 555 timer is properly toggling the output, but my circuitry after that point is bad.

When 555 output is high I should get:
1 RGB Slow LED and 4 Blue LEDs lit up.

When 555 output is low:
4 RGB Slow LEDs should light up.

This is my latest circuit to help you get the idea, but I've put together a bunch that seemed to me like they should work and none do so far.



I've made two led's toggle with a 555 timer just by putting the led's on either side of the 555 output, but for some reason when you use multiple led's of different types that won't work, so I am trying to do it by using some transistors.

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Additional Unnecessary Info:

If I get it working, I'll upload the finished product in case you have kids or grandkids you want to do something cool for.

1) Rubber Duck with squeaker - remove squeaker - shove 1 RGB LED up his butt.
2) Duck sits on a clear plastic case ( using rubber adhesive ) with 4 blue led's inside case, so it looks like the lit up duck floating on a water pond.
3) after (x) time Duck light and pond turn off and 4 RGB LED that stick up through the plastic turn on to cast their light on the duck from the outside.
4) after (x) time start over.

My parts list for those that care:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11450 ( RGB LED )
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11372 ( Blue LED )
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0152WH8H8/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2BGEE4LFBCFEJ ( DUCK WITH SQWEEKER )

 

You have those LEDs set up as emitter followers. Re-arrange so the led strings are always connected to a collector.
You could also consider the idea that an LM555 will drive up to 200 ma without any transistors.

 

It works better if you have resistors to limit base current and even better with two as shown.

 

Just connect the LEDs directly to the output of the 555

 

#12 & Colin55

Just connect the LEDs directly to the output of the 555

I'm using a 9v battery and when I tried connecting directly to either side of the 555 timer i'd get 4 RGB lights lit & 1 RGB light lit on the other side at the same time.

Maybe I needed a bigger resistor on the 555 output.

GopherT, that circuit is 1 LED short, but I'm going to try it. I'll also try a bigger resistor on the output to see if that helps in a no transistor circuit.

 

The R goes on the top and bottom not to the Output

 

#12 & Collin55, I added a separate 1k resistor to each side of the output as the left side of GohperT's schematic shows and now the RGB lights do alternate, but the blue lights don't light up. ( No transistors atm ). I may have to adjust the blue led resistor values maybe.

 

Colin55, that worked. I don't see why it makes a difference which side of the led's I put the resistors to limit current but you are right, the circuit works fine now without transistors, even with the extra load at 9v.

 

Rmove the two transistors Join the wires that went to the emitters and take the join to the output of the 555.

 

Colin55, yup this is the one I'm using now and it works as you said.

On my schematic I had the resistors on the correct side of the diodes, but on my project board I had all the resistors on the opposite side of the diodes and that mistake made it work wrong.

 

GopherT, I just started taking a closer look at your circuit. Wow so cool. I spent hours trying to figure out how to turn off the the LED's after the transistor. I saved the schematic in case I want to do something with an even heavier load than the LED's.