Here’s a super handy/easy circuit for making LED eyes blink for your Halloween gadgets and projects, Paul writes – “The eye blink circuit consists of a timer and light emitting diodes, which function as the eyes. The timer circuit for the blinking eyes is based on the 555 timer. Figure 1 illustrates the standard timer circuit. The resistors and capacitor on the left control the charge and discharge of the circuit, which runs the pulse rate and duty cycle of the timer. The values in Figure 1 were chosen for a eye blink rate of approximately a second or two and a duty cycle of 85%. This simulates the blinking rate of eyes. The variable resistor allows the eye blink rate to be adjusted.” – Link.
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8 thoughts on “Blinking eyes circuit for halloween gadgets”
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I found the LM3909N (LED Flasher) is much simpler to use
http://www.futurlec.com/Linear/LM3909N.shtml
If you have a source for the LM3909, please share it with the rest of us.
It is a fantastic chip, but it was discontinued years ago, I haven’t seen them available for ages.
As beakmyn suggests, they are available from futurlec.
HSC also has them, at a higher price.
Allelectronics.com has a variable 2 LED flasher kit also
ADJUSTABLE LED FLASHER KIT
Two potentiometers adjust the flash
rate of two LEDs. 9V operation.
CAT# MK-1021
$4.95 each
I used this to control the flash rate on my “Crank Ghost” since it was simple, cheap, and I was running short on time.