I am suspecting that the TS wants to "twinkling stars" effect. So that would actually be FLASHING, not blinking. That is a much shorter on time.
That is a guess, and suddenly the project gets more complex. And probably a task for a ring counter flashing a few LEDs in series, at a time. Now I will need to look up a ring counter circuit. A ring counter is sort of like a serial shift register, BTW

 

Arduino nano and NeoPixels Graphic equalizer club lighting in an infinity mirror

 

PIC10F320/322 6-pin MCU
Run from 5Volts, only need LED, MCU, Bypass Cap and 1 resistor.

Program any crazy sparkle madness you want.

 

How about answering this simple question.
Do you want random or sequential flashing?

random

 

A single 8-pin microcontroller and up to 300 WS2812B LEDs, either in strips or individual. And you get full color on each LED.

Yup. A project I'm currently playing with:

 

Everyone here, besides myself are all classically trained designers with many years of exacting design specifications.

Not everyone here. I'm certainly not among that group of experts, even though under my avatar it calls me an "Expert". All that really means is that I've been around for a while. I am not an expert by any means.

I truly try to think out all the many questions that a project may hold, but never seems to get them. All I can do is apologize, and attempt to do better in the future.

Why the future? Why not now? Why not here?

Could you at least TRY to answer some of the questions we are asking you?

Ok, Ok, Ok, you are absolutely correct, Im not giving you guys something to work with. I will attempt to do a better job at it the on my next post, honest.

In the interest of "Honest" I'll be honest with you - I'm not waiting for the next post. This post has asked all the questions we need answers to. So why are you hesitant to give us the answers to our questions?

 

I have worked for several "for profit" employers, and in every instance the understanding was that we must get a project right the first time in order to earn our intended profit.
That ALWAYS required correctly understanding what the project required. prior to creating it. That mindset has stayed with me and that is why questions are posed. It seems that quite a few of the participants here think along similar lines. That is reassuring.

 

random

Ok - this is easy with a micro, HARD with a discrete design.
You need a microcontroller - see post #23

 

Ok - this is easy with a micro, HARD with a discrete design.
You need a microcontroller - see post #23

Or post #8 to control 100s of them with one microcontroller.

 

Referencing post #1, the request was FOR INDIVIDUALLY FLASHING LEDs! AND the implication was for multiple LEDs to be lit at the same time, although that was implied but not stated directly.

 

Is there a way to get as many leds flashing individually.

Suggestion #1
Generating a random looking individual LED flashing sequence

EDIT: No 555 chips were used or harmed in this experiment.

 

Suggestion #1
Generating a random looking individual LED flashing sequence
View attachment 359353

At least add a S/R PRNG.

 

Is there a way to get as many leds flashing individually, using as small a circuit as possible, at as low current as possible.
I would like a single chip, or close to it if possible (please no 7555s). I have a circuit that uses 5 transistors at 6v flashing individually, is that as good as I can get??.
Power supply will be 6-9v, I havnt decided what Ill use at this time for power, it may well depend on what gets offered up here for a circuit.

Thanks in advance guys

Kim, yup Im a guy

You can use these:

https://evandesigns.com/products/flashing-leds-for-hobbies

 

Suggestion #1
Generating a random looking individual LED flashing sequence
View attachment 359358
EDIT: No 555 chips were used or harmed in this experiment.

Quick question: can you explain the purpose and operation of those NAND-gate looking components?

 

Nand gates IC1A and IC1B are square wave oscillators operating at different frequencies.
When both outputs are low the output of IC1C is high which is inverted by IC1D to enable the 4017.

 

At least add a S/R PRNG.

Hey, that goes to an error 404 page

 

Quick question: can you explain the purpose and operation of those NAND-gate looking components?

Thank You

 

Ok, thanks guys, this question has had many interesting responses. Thank you all, and I think Im marking this thread done for now

 

Ok, thanks guys, this question has had many interesting responses. Thank you all, and I think Im marking this thread done for now

Hi,

You can't leave yet. The rule is, once you ask a question you have to stay indefinitely.

Ok, one last thing before you go that might help at some point.

You might want to check into "Charlieplexing", which is a way of driving LEDs that requires less i/o pins or driver transistors than other methods. If you drive one LED with one output and you are doing 9 LEDs (from your previous post) then you would need to use up 9 outputs. If you use Charlieplexing you can do:
2 outputs, 2 LEDs
3 outputs, 6 LEDs
4 outputs, 12 LEDs
5 outputs, 20 LEDs
6 outputs, 30 LEDs
7 outputs, 42 LEDs
8 outputs, 56 LEDs

You can see the advantage gets really big when we increase the number of outputs we can use. Normally with just 8 outputs we can drive just 8 LEDs, but using Charlieplexing we can do 56 LEDs.
This still allows the capability to multiplex so we can get the appearance that more than one LED is on at any given time.

Some notes:
1. Any output must be able to both source and sink current, and go into high impedance state. Microcontrollers can do this.
2. A resistor for each pin, as a minimum, to limit current to any LED.