Need to make slow blinking LEDs??? PLS HELP...

LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't think about halloween displays ... nice catch. I've never purchased from dynamic, too expensive for me .... however, I am glad that they tend to post their wiring plans online .... I also like to look there for inspiration and ideas.

That site has been brought up a a few times on the aircraft forum.

Cool but expensive. 

Another alternative for blinking lights is at Holloween time there are candy rings that have small blinking LED's in them.

I grabbed a bunch of the displays from the store that I work at since they just throw them away.

Used one with a diffirent color LED in my Aliens Motion Tracker. 

Eric... 

I know that this is the sci-fi forum and all but I thought that you guys would get a kick out of this site. I came across if from another member when doing some research for another build.

Here's my shamless plug for the day...

http://dynamicscalemodeling.com/

Isn't it the same site the Curious posted? I think I saw some of those things there ....

And this really isn't what I had in mind for this posting .... you guys are giving me WAY too many ideas for future projects!!!!!

there is also a set out there made more or less specifically for each plane, it comes with nav/strobes, and / or engine startup sound with prop that more or less relaisticaly comes to live in time to the sound. Also this company had a set of machine gun flashes with sound for doing a boresight diorama.  Cant remember thier name off hand but the effect is pretty cool and there was a website. ......just cant think of it right now.

HTH some....anyone? anyone? Bueller? Bueller??

Thanks for that Curious! That variable flasher is EXACTLY what I need. However, I would have to buy 3-4 of them to get everything covered. But ... having four different ones would let me vary the time even by just 0.1-0.2s ... that would really make things random!

However, I probably more than likely going to go with the idea that Div 6 has found. I'll be able to cover all the figures with just one element to buy. The only thing that I'll need to do is change out the red LEDs for green ones.

Thanks guys for all your help!

I know that Ngineering has an LED controller that can adjust between 3 and 30 flashes per second. They have about 20 other controllers too, so one of them might work for your application.

http://ngineering.com/Lighting%20Effects%20for%20Vehicles.htm#MachVeh

George

Kits include:
Preprogrammed ATtiny13 with tinyCylon firmware
Quality printed circuit board
5 red LEDs
Push button switch
Battery holder with cover and power switch

Since it's a kit it should be easy enough to swap out LED's to a different color.

Can't beat the price.

Eric... 

Sian ... I've read something about that, and I'm keeping that idea in my pocket. I would rather have something that runs a little more effecient and is less lilely to burnout.

Eric ... That option actually looks fantastic! I wonder how hard it would be to change out the red LEDs to green or bright whites? The "running" LEDs would create a nice random flashing for my strobes as long as I hooked up the first figure to the first LED, skipped one or two, and then hooked up the next figure .... Hmmm ..... might just have to give this one a try!

Thanks guys for your help!

You could get one of these and attach a fiber to each one.

Eric... 

There's folks who know a lot about designing small circuits over at the Make Magazine forums.

If it's a diorama and you have room, you could wire each LED in series with an incandescent blinking bulb. They use a switched element that disconnects when it heats up. Basically you'll be using the flashing bulb as an automatic on/of switch. There's plenty of other ways though if you don't have room to hide the wiring for that.

Thanks, TD ... .

I checked out starship and found a really good write-up on building up a curcuit board using 4060 chips, LEDs and  .... well, a bunch of other things that I don't really understand.

However, I dove a little deeper into the RS website and they have a blinking LED that I think might work out for me. I know how to do the basic wiring for them and as long as it blinks about right .... which the guy said it was about 1x/ sec, then I should be ok.

Thanks again for the starship reference. I'll bump heads with those guys if this one does work ....

Hmmm ... thanks smeagol .... I'm actually going to hang on to that one. I'm going to need it for an aircraft that I've got planned for later ...

However, I need something with a quick flash, and a rate of about 1x/ 1 - 1.5s.

These are going to be for 4x Soldier figure's IR strobe lights, so I really need them to be a flash rather than a fade.

Thanks for the link though! I didn't know Micro made stuff like that!?!?

Actuially,  Micromark has a lighting set for lighthouses, that fades on and off, that might work for you.

http://www.micromark.com/ELECTRONIC-BEACON-FLASHER,7888.html