Hi guys,

please help! what do I need to put into my lights to give them a flash function, is it a flashy switch type thing? I am stuck. Could you give me some examples of what I need .

Thanks!

Chris

You need a bit more knowldge and experience with electronics! For a start you'll need to specify what type of lights and powers involved. After that you'll need to either find (pretty rare that they come "off the shelf" correct for your lights) or make a flasher circuit, so you'll need a soldering iron and some skills! This is a beautiful example of how simple people seem to think electronics is – "well can't you just add a flasher"…. 😀

Hi!
it is simple enough that I've built a light with 3 xpg leds/driver etc and been running it with no issues (had two seoul P4's in before for a year). i can solder and put things together no probs. Just need to know what I need to put in to get it working thats all. You only need enough knowledge to get it working and not blow it up:) Even the little crappy safety led lights from tesco have a flashy function – it it's not a case of just buying a switch with it in it I may just give it up or nick the insides from said crappy led! 😀

Might be worth googling astable multivibrator. Probably the simplest method, you just need to work out hat frequency you want then do the CR calcs.

it is simple enough that I've built a light with 3 xpg leds/driver etc

That's not electronics, that's soldering kit pieces together, you could train a monkey to do that 😉

Depends on the design of your drivers input/on/off circuitry.

Fair point, orangutang though…

however cant I just buy a little switchy or something with it in already?

Cheers for your help guys. Astable multivibrator does look good however 🙂

is plonking a flashing led in somewhere cheating? that would sort of cause the same effect although I'd be limited to whatever speed the led flashed at?

Flashing LEDs are dead simple, and you can get some that are vaguely bright. There are even some that work off 12V without a resistor at maplin, they would be dead easy to stick in a lighting circuit (and I think are pretty resilient in terms of voltage ranges). Cost about a quid.

Not as good as doing it properly with your existing LEDs mind. The best proper way would be to change your driver for one with built in flashing support (like a TaskLED driver).

Joe

If you want to experiment and play around try this relatively simple circuit:

http://www.redcircuits.com/Page26.htm

Sam

Check the specification for your LED driver. IIRC some of them have the ability to flash built in.