Hi power led strobe

iONic

Joined Nov 16, 2007
1,662
I was trying to make the distinction between "high brightness" and "high power" LED's. High power LED are certainly highly bright, but high brightness LED's are not necessarily high power.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,706
Yeh, I don't get it. Why not put D1-D4 in series? What is the reason for the opto-isolator? Why not use a 555 timer?
 

iONic

Joined Nov 16, 2007
1,662
I agree with the lack of necessity of the opto, but I would parallel 2 series LED's with 300 ohm resistors and not put the 4 LED's in series, not enough headroom for good current regulation, especially if run on batteries.
 
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Thread Starter

sheldons

Joined Oct 26, 2011
613
this started out as a simple go no go tester for optos.....mainly used when iv had an smps which either isnt working or working but no regulation(depending on design)...was built fairly quickley using parts i had to hand and is here for anyone to have a play with and change however they wish.....the leds were actualli obtained from the £1 shop ....they sell 6 lighters at a time with hi brightness leds in them which were used on this and the flash is quite bright using these.
 
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MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,706
Aha! Things are always so much different when you know the truth.

So, for an opto-coupler tester, I would probably use a 555 timer at about 2Hz and I would use a single LED as a working indicator.

For a high intensity strobe, I would delete the opto-coupler but still use a 555 timer to drive the LED string through a transistor buffer.
 

Thread Starter

sheldons

Joined Oct 26, 2011
613
yes u could use a 555 but i had none to hand and building a 2 transistor osc with the components i had to hand worked fairly well and it was made reasonably small too.its already proved itself opto wise for testing...
 
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