I am looking for a solution to make a series of LED lights turn on sequentially and stay on for a duration then all turn off. This would be continuous cycle and would repeat itself. I was thinking maybe an Arduino but it would have to be able to supply 12V to the LEDs for them to work. Anyone know of some way this can be done with either Arduinos or some kind of PCB board or simple circuitry? And if so what components or configuration would be required? I've attached a picture of what I'm trying to achieve. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

Check out LEDs, 555s, Flashers, and Light Chasers. It contains several LED designs, including the circuit you are looking for.

Update: if you couldn’t access the link, it’s because I had a hell of a time getting it to work. It works now!

 

Hey dj - it still doesnt work for me but here:
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/wendys-index.112710/

 

Sounds like an 8-bit shift register (4 output stages plus a reset stage) plus some stuff. How many individual LEDs in each of the four stages?

Are the time increments for each stage identical?

Are these LEDs rated for 12 V directly (with current limiting built-in) or do you have a 12 V supply to run normal LEDs that need external current limiting?

LED part number / datasheet / link?

ak

 

could be done with a ripple counter and reset at last division or hold for few more til reset is triggered.

 

How fast do you want it to sequence?
What's the LED current?

 

I am looking for a solution to make a series of LED lights turn on sequentially and stay on for a duration then all turn off. This would be continuous cycle and would repeat itself. I was thinking maybe an Arduino but it would have to be able to supply 12V to the LEDs for them to work. Anyone know of some way this can be done with either Arduinos or some kind of PCB board or simple circuitry? And if so what components or configuration would be required? I've attached a picture of what I'm trying to achieve. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

What level is your coding skills?
Do you know how to use transistors!
Do you know how to use MOSFETs?

 

could be done with a ripple counter and reset at last division or hold for few more til reset is triggered.

Each stage stays on while the following ones light successively. How will a binary output counter do that?

ak

 

have you seen a binary clock?

 

Each stage stays on while the following ones light successively. How will a binary output counter do that?

ak

You gate the output to all preceding stages

 

have you seen a binary clock?

Yes. That is exactly why it won't work in this application without latches and/or additional gating.

ak

 

You gate the output to all preceding stages

Or, dump the counter and use a shift register.

ak

 

Or, dump the counter and use a shift register.

ak

And there’s that.

 

Or if it’s just 4 20 mA LEDs just run them off the Arduino. The gates are simple diodes https://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/led-chaser-sequencer-circuits

 

have you seen a binary clock?

Sure.
That doesn't operate the way the TS wants his LEDs to light.

 

@crutschow you’re right.

 

Below is the LTspice simulation of a circuit that does what (I think) you want.
It uses 4 D flip-flops (2 CD4013 packages) and one CD4011 chip
Two CD4011 Schmitt trigger NAND gates are configured as an astable oscillator to generate the sequence clock period (values shown give about 1 second).
FF's U1 through U4 are configured as a feedback shift-register, and outputs 1 through 4 are the desired sequence.

Depending upon the desired LED current, you may need to add a transistor driver at each output (such as a 2N7000).

 

Find in Search Forums, 4017 Bargraph Style Sequencer, 2-6-2012, use first 4 stages for LEDs & remainder
as a delay before resetting.

 

An analog way would be to feed a sawtooth to an LM3914 set to the bar mode.
One advantage is that the LM3914 has 10 LED constant-current drivers.

 

First pass, pretty much what Wally simulated but with a different Reset method because the Q- outputs are not available. To drive the unknown LEDs I used a ULN2804 8-channel driver, with two channels per LED stage. Of course there are lotsa other options, but with zero information about the LEDs this is a start.

ak