LED Strobe

this is a strobe light built from a Harbor Freight flashlight.

Steel_9

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Description

not satisfied with the led strobe lights found in stores, I decided to build my own. this strobe light is built from a 27 LED strobe from Harbor Freight, and uses a modified astable multivibrator circuit to control the flashing. the off period is controllable, and the on period is really short.

Details

This is a functional strobe light built around a Harbor Freight 27 LED flashlight. the flashlight is marked in the $5.00 range, but is usually on sale for much less.

None of the values listed in this project are absolutely critical, they are just what I found works best, so have fun, experiment, explore.

This project involves a flashing light. DON'T BUILD if you have epilepsy, and if you know someone with epilepsy, DON"T SHOW THEM. I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for injuries, damages, arrests, alien abductions or other harmful effects of this project, if they do arise. this is a safe project for most people to build, provided that they don't have sezures when exposed to flashing lights, don't burn themselves with the soldering iorn, and don't cut themself with the knife.

Components

1 × LED flahslight I used the Harbor Freight 27 LED flashlight
1 × 1K Ohm resistor provides 1K Ohms of resistance
2 × 100k Ohm resistor provides 100K Ohms of resistance
2 × 1 uf capacitor I've found that this capacitence provides the best flash rate. Higher ones provide a slower flash rate, and lower ones tend to make the system unstable.
1 × 47 uf capacitor this capacitor is used to control the off period

View all 8 components

Build Instructions

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1

Step 1

First, get a LED flashlight. I used the 27 led flashhlight from Harbor Freight, because it had a bright LED aray
2

Step 2

Next build the Astable multivibrator Circuit. Use leads for the Negative, Output and Potentiometer-Capacitor systems. I Dead Bug soldered everything together, so it could be bent to fit in the case.
EDIT: I forgot Q3 in the first schematic I posted. I apologise if this caused any problems.
NOTE: C2 sets the high flash limit. if you remove C2, you can set the strobe to be fully on.
3

Step 3

dissasemble the flashlight to get access to the LED circut bord