# Strobing and dimming 2 buckblock drivers



## michance010 (Aug 8, 2011)

I am building an LED light bar, and I am wanting to make it stobe. I also have a potentiometer for dimming. I want it to have different patterns of stoning, I've got an led strobe kit with a controller but the in put for the drivers is 10v max. I've thought of 555 timers but I want more than just one type of pattern, but if that's my only option I will try it. Does anyone have a wiring diagram to do an alternating stobe using 555's and is there an imput to ccontrol the speed of the 555


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## Norm (Aug 9, 2011)

Moved to Transportation Lighting - Norm


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## evilc66 (Aug 9, 2011)

You will most likely want to use a microcontroller to handle the different strobe patterns. It will be far easier than trying to deal with switching between different discrete circuits for different flash patterns.


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## jspeybro (Jan 18, 2013)

In the divelight section we have been discussing led strobes as well. DIWDiver proposed some 555 circuits. I ended up programming a PIC12F629/675 in assembler. In the mean time I converted part of the code to C, but unfortunately we never finished the project (although I had a working setup). You'll probably find some useful information in this thread:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...obe&highlight=packhorse+dive+led+strobe+light
Programming a microcontroller in C is actually not that difficult if you follow the tutorials of Gooligum, but it helps if you have an idea of programming.

you mention 'but the input for the drivers is 10V max'. Do you want to run it on 12V off a car battery or something?
Even with 555's I think you'll need some way to step down the voltage to max 5V. you can use a voltage regulator or a voltage divider for that to keep it simple.

Johan


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## charlie_r (Jan 23, 2013)

jspeybro said:


> In the divelight section we have been discussing led strobes as well. DIWDiver proposed some 555 circuits. I ended up programming a PIC12F629/675 in assembler. In the mean time I converted part of the code to C, but unfortunately we never finished the project (although I had a working setup). You'll probably find some useful information in this thread:
> http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...obe&highlight=packhorse+dive+led+strobe+light
> Programming a microcontroller in C is actually not that difficult if you follow the tutorials of Gooligum, but it helps if you have an idea of programming.
> 
> ...



What 555's are you referring to? The turn signals on my trike (human powered so no rule 11 break here) are run by an NE555 circuit. The datasheet for these says 18V max, even in the msop package. Datasheet here. My lights are run from an AGM 12V 8AH battery. The only caveat is the 200mA source/sink limit, handled by placing an IRML9303TRPBF on the output, same as you would have to do with any microcontroller.


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## jspeybro (Jan 24, 2013)

sorry, I never used 555's so was under the impression that they also had a 5V limit like the PIC's. that assumption proves to be wrong.


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## Bullzeyebill (Jan 31, 2013)

What type of vehicle will the light bar be mounted to.

Bill


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