Flickring LED

Thread Starter

m.levin

Joined Jun 23, 2007
2
This is my first post on your forum, so I would like to say hi. 1 of the nice names I have is martin, but feel free to call me what you want ;) I want to make a flickering LED fire, for a model railway layout. I have made one using 2 555 times and 2 LED’s, I played about with the circuits to get a "something like effect". I am new/in my first year of electronics and would like to know if it is possible to make this circuit using 1 IC and 1 LED? The circuit I made is a bit on the large side and I would like to reduce it as much as possible.

Thanks
Martin
 

bloguetronica

Joined Apr 27, 2007
1,541
Yes. You just have to use one 555 timer IC and one output LED (sourcing or sinking current. You can see in the "Projects Collection" a project that uses a 555 timer IC. Look for "Stroboscopic LED light". Also, you won't need t transistor, since the LM555 can source up to 200mA, more than enough to drive a LED.
 

Gadget

Joined Jan 10, 2006
614
I recently had to make flickering lamps for a goldmine display (a substitute for old kerosene lamps). I used a PICAXE8 (8 pin pic) a surface mount 5 volt reg, and drove a 20 watt 12v capsule lamp via a Mosfet for each unit.
Was a tidy wee circuit, all fit inside a piece of heatshrink and the programming was quite basic.
 
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