How to Make a Fast Blinking LED Bike Light

In this Instructable I will show you how to make a simple fast blinking LED light that you can attach to your bike or any where you want. It blinks more than 3 times in a second.
It is cheaper to make one than to buy one.
You can make it whit your favorite LED color,red,green,blue,yellow,RBG...
This was my first electronic project, so I recommend it to all beginners in the interesting field of electronics.
This bike light is easy to make,looks cool and most importantly, effective!

For your fast blinking LED you will need:

1. LM 555 timer chip

2. 180 K ohm resistor

3. 330 Ohm resistor

4. 0,22 uF, 16V or 100V capacitor

5. 9V battery snap

6. 9V battery

7. LED (go to step 2 so I can help you choose which one)

8. Circuit board

9. Plastic housing for electronic circuits

10.Switch

(ALL OF THIS COMPONENTS CAN BE BOUGHT AT YOUR CLOSEST ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS SHOP,RADIO SHACK STORE.)

There are lots of LEDs out there. 10mm,8mm,5mm,2mm,red,blue,green,yellow,UV.......

For this project I suggest 10mm LEDs, which color is up to you.

Here you can buy LEDs

http://www.phenoptix.co.uk/

You are going to need some tools to do this project:

1. Soldering Iron

2. Solder

3. Vacuum for desoldering (just in case)

4. Wire cutter

5. Wire insulation stripper

6. Scalpel

7. Sand paper

8. Screwdriver

9. Telephone wire

10. Something to make a hole in the plastic housing (a drill)

Cut the circuit board so it can fit inside your plastic box. Use the wire cutters or a scalpel.

WARNING: SCALPELS ARE SHARP, BE VERY CAREFUL!!!

Peel of some of the plastic on the side (the longer side) of the plastic box. Use the scalpel and the sand paper. The opening should be 1mm wide, just for the wire from the LEDs.

Make a hole on the side of the box. The hole is for the switch. Use a drill or anything that can make a hole.

OK. First I will give you the schematic, electronic plan, and in step 8 i will explain it.

Solder the 9 V battery connector where the battery is shown, with the negative (black) wire to pin 1 and the positive (red) wire to pin 8. We'll refer to these points later as "Ground" and "+9 V" (photo 1 and 2)

Pin 8 is connected to pin 7 through a 180 kilo-ohm resistor, and pin 7 is connected to pin 6 through a second a 180 kilo-ohm resistor. (photo 3 and 4)

Use a telephone wire to connect pin 2 to pin 6. (photo 5)

The 0.22 uF capacitor connects pin 6 to pin 1. (photo 6)

Pins 4 and 5 should be left unwired.

Pin 3 is our "clock" output

Solder the LEDs to the board and connect them together. Example: If you have 6 LEDs the positive (+) pin of LED 1is connected to LED 6 through the positive pins of LEDs 2,3,4 and 5 to the 6th LED (photo 7)

Take the output from the 555 (pin 3) and connect it to the positive side of the LED, through a 330 ohm resistor, and then to the ground (-).

OK. You are all most done. Now attach the switch. Cut the wire from the battery snap, peel of 1mm of the wire on both sides and connect it to the switch.

Push the switch through the hole in the plastic box, attach the board to the box and close it.

It is finished. Go ahead and attach it to your bike or what ever. Hope you enjoy my Instructable. Go easy on me, this is my first. Please leave a comment.