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How to Build Your Own Strobe Flashers

Strobe flashers blink light sources on and off at constant rates. The flash rate is controlled with a knob. To build your own strobe flasher, use an LED and a 555 timer integrated chip. The 555 operates in astable mode, which means that it oscillates and produces square waves. The circuit uses a resistor-capacitor combination to set the frequency of the flashes. This frequency is adjusted with a potentiometer, which is a variable resistor. To change the maximum strobe rate, use the formula f = 1.44 / (R1 + 2R2)C. F is the frequency, R1 is the potentiometer, R2 is the resistor, and C is the capacitor.

Things You'll Need

555 IC timer
6V mini-lamp
50uF capacitor
1k-ohm resistor
100k-ohm potentiometer
4 AA batteries
Battery holder
Solderless breadboard
Jumper wires
Alligator clips

Instructions

- 1
  Connect the battery holder's red lead to a row in the breadboard that will function as the positive voltage source, and connect the black lead to a row that will serve as ground. Add the 555 timer so that the notch on its top faces left, and each row of pins falls on different sections in the top and bottom half of the breadboard.
- 2
  Use a jumper wire to connect pins 2 and 6. Connect pin 1 to ground. Connect pins 4 and 8 to the positive voltage row.
- 3
  Place the positive side of the 50uF capacitor at pin 2, and its negative end at ground. Add the 1k resistor between pins 2 and 7. Attach the potentiometer to pins 8 and 7.
- 4
  Connect the mini-lamp to pin 3 and ground. If necessary, use long jumper wires so that it is not too close to the 555 chip.
- 5
  Insert the batteries inside of the holder, and the lamp will begin flashing. Turn the potentiometer knob to adjust the strobe rate.

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