Thursday, February 04, 2016

LED Blinker, Simple Circuit Style

Continuing on my LED theme of late, I decided to implement a LED blinker using something far simpler than a Raspberry Pi: a 555 Timer enabled circuit. I actually had all the components lying around and so all I had to do was find a YouTube video worth following and plug stuff in. I ended up using this video for the actual setup instructions.

When it was all connected up, to my shock and amazement, it worked!

And sure enough, by swapping in different sized capacitors, I could impact the speed of the flashing. For an explanation of how the circuit actually works, check out this video.

My basic electronic skills are truly pathetic. In the amount of time it took me to *find* the three resistors needed in the above circuit, I could have programmed not just a LED blinker, but a morse code generator. But I suppose you've got to start somewhere and practice, practice, practice.

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