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Lamp / Light Control Circuits
Lamp Controls:   #'s - B       C - K       L - M       N - S       T-Z


Last Updated: June 02, 2021 01:45 PM

Circuits Designed by Dave Johnson, P.E. :

Night Light from White LEDAs many of you know, I have a pet peeve with poorly made LED night lights.  Often, the light from the LED quickly fades, so within months, the light is useless.  I have posted several versions of modified night lights using higher quality components. . . Circuit by David Johnson P.E.-November, 2008

One-Watt White LED Night LightAs many of you know, I have a pet peeve with poorly made LED night lights.  Often, the light from the LED quickly fades, so within months, the light is useless.  I have posted several versions of modified night lights using higher quality components.  This circuit is yet another version, which produces much more light than those other designs. . . . Hobby Circuit designed by David A. Johnson P.E.-November, 2008

Optical Filter using Color Film NegativeThis isn’t an electronic circuit but the file shows the curve for an optical filter made from exposed color film.  The material blocks most visible light but is very transparent to 880nM infrared light.  Kodak 100ASA is exposed to "cool white" fluorescent light for about 5 seconds . . . Hobby Circuit designed by David A. Johnson P.E.-January, 1998

Pushbutton Controlled Up/Down Ramping LightThere are times when you want a lamp to gradually change from dark to light and from light to dark, with each push of a pushbutton switch.  The circuit below performs this control function using a flip/flop and a classic pulse width modulation or PWM. . . Circuit by David Johnson P.E.-March, 2009

Ramping Lamp DriverThis circuit drives any 12v lamp, incandescent or LED type, in a ramping fashion.  Each press of the button toggles the lamp from a fully off mode to a fully on mode.  But, instead of an instantaneous lamp intensity change, the power is slowly ramped up a . . . Hobby Circuit designed by Dave Johnson P.E.-December, 2007

Ramping LED DriverThe circuit below was designed to drive a LED with an intensity ramping mode.  Two 555 timers generate two different triangle waveforms.  The upper device generates a 10KHz signal while the lower unit produces a 1Hz signal.  The two signals are fed to a. . . Circuit by Dave Johnson P.E.-December, 2007

Reduced Power Sequential LED FlasherThe 74HC4017 is a neat decade counter which has 10 decoded outputs.  When supplied with a low frequency clock and with a LED attached to each of the outputs, an interesting ten step sequential flasher effect can be produced.  The LEDs can be configured in . . . Hobby Circuit designed by Dave Johnson P.E.-November, 2008

Revisited-Model Train Lighthouse FlasherThis was originally designed for a model in a HO train set.  It simulates the behavior of the light from a lighthouse.  The LED intensity gradually increases, then flashes with a bright light and finally decreases slowly in intensity . . . Hobby Circuit designed by David Johnson P.E.-July, 2006

Safety LightMy 1200 square foot metal shop only has one small entrance door and no skylights.  If the lights are turn off while inside, there is not enough light to safely find the door to exit the building.  On a couple occasions, while I was quietly working at my test bench, my wife would walk into the shop, grab a garden tool and rush back out, turning off the lights and closing the door without thinking . . . Hobby Circuit designed by David A. Johnson P.E.-November, 2004

Shop Safety LightMy 1200 square foot metal shop only has one small entrance door and no skylights.  If the lights are turn off while inside, there is not enough light to safely find the door to exit the building.  On a couple occasions, while I was quietly working at my test bench, my wife would walk into the shop, grab a garden tool and rush back out, turning off the lights and closing the door without thinking . . . Hobby Circuit designed by David Johnson P.E.-November, 2004

Simple Circuit for White LED Night LightThis simple circuit is designed to plug into a standard AC electrical outlet.  It uses four super bright white light emitting diodes (LED) in conjunction with a capacitor coupled full wave rectifier circuit. . . Circuit by David Johnson P.E.-July, 2003

Sound Triggered Night LightA while back, I received a schematic from a guy by the name of Karl.  He described a situation he and his wife found themselves in aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  They were staying in a room toward the inside of the ship, which did not have any port holes, windows or a balcony. . . Circuit by David A. Johnson P.E.-August, 2013

Super Bright 3v Powered LED FlasherI have posted several kinds of LED flashers over the years.   This is yet one more flasher, designed to flash any high power LED of any color.  It hits the LED with a 25ms 250ma pulse once every 2 seconds.   This works out to an average current about 3ma.  It. . . Circuit by David Johnson P.E.-April, 2009


Links to electronic circuits, electronic schematics and designs for engineers, hobbyists, students & inventors:

PIC Light Chaser -  The circuit this month is a simple 8 light chaser built around a PIC.  This will demonstrate how easy it is to program a PIC and to utilize it in a circuit.  The circuit works as follows.  When power is supplied to the circuit the PIC resets and starts.   __ Designed by Randy Linscott

PIC Micro LED Projects -  Here is a neat PIC Project  that I created using the 16F84 chip and a neat little bi-color LED from Radio Shack.  The LED can be red or green depending on the bias of the diode.  By using two of the PORT B pins, I can control the bias of the LED.  If the LED is on PORT B, Pin 0 and Pin 1, I can set Pin 0 HIGH and Pin 1 LOW, this would make __ Designed by Jason KE4NYV from Roanoke, Virginia

PIC12c508 Night Light Saver -  Build a device that turn on and off a night light automatically.  Save Energy, No EMI, No Battery, Built-in Lamp Fixture, and Peak Shaving.   __ Designed by Wichit Sirichote

PIC16F84 LED Chaser -  There are several projects on this page.  Please scroll down to find the LED Chaser.   __ Designed by Jason KE4NYV from Roanoke, Virginia

PIC16F873 Light Controller -  On these pages, I will introduce the Ultrasonic Range Meter with PIC16F873.  As for the range meter which doesn't use PIC, refer to "Ultrasonic Range Meter".  I created the PCB pattern for this circuit using EAGLE CAD.  With this circuit, the following features of PIC16F873 are used.   __ Designed by Seiichi Inoue

Picxie 2 8x8 Animated LED Signboard -  The firmware supplied incurrent sourcecode archive is VERY BASIC.  I do intend to draw more patterns.  However, a vast workload coupled with possible emigration has putfinished firmware on hold.  Please do go ahead and build this circuit thoughsupplied firmware is fully functional.  You can have hours of fun designing your own patterns and effects!UsesPIC16F84 __ Designed by Lewin A.R.W. Edwards

Pinewood Derby Finish Line Lights -  The finish line circuit below detects the first of three cars to cross the line and illuminates a 25 watt 120 VAC lamp indicating the winning lane.  Three photo transistors are used which can be embedded into the track with a light shining down onto the finish line so that as the car crosses over the sensor, the light is blocked, activating the relay and lighting the lamp for the appropriate track.   __ Designed by Bill Bowden

PLL-based converter controls light source -  EDN-Design Ideas July 2, 1998        [ NOTE : File has multiple design, scroll for this one.]  Using the circuit in Figure 1, you can digitally control the light intensity of a lamp.  The control loop is based on a PLL, in which the VCO comprises a light-to-frequency converter  (TSL220) coupled to a light source that derives its drive from a switching regulator  (L4970A) .  The output of the phase/frequency comparator  (4046) serves as the control voltage for the switching regulator.  The control voltage is proportional to the frequency error between the reference frequency  (fREF) and the signal frequency  (fIN) coming from the light-to-frequency converter. Design by Masso Gottardi, ITC-IRST, Trento, Italy

Pocket LED Light -  An LED pocket light operates with only one cell of battery.   __ Designed by The Electronic Lives Manufacturing-presented Chan

Pocket Lightning Detector -  Schematic + Info + pictures __ Designed by Lennie Zink

Pocket stroboscope -  This circuit is a mini storoscope which you can make so small that it can fit into your pocket.  The circuit is not very powerful, but is works out of two small 1.5V batteries for an hour constantly and maximum flash rate.  The flash rate is variable from zero to about 10 Hz.  Quite nice small device to have with you in parties to gain attention __ Designed by Tomi Engdahl

Pocket white-LED torch is power efficient -  04/30/13  EDN-Design Ideas This single white-LED torch can be housed in an empty glue-stick tube and has a long rechargeable-battery life.   Design by Raju Baddi

Police Lights -  These two circuits flash the left LEDs 3 times then the right LEDs 3 times, then repeats.  The only difference is the choice of chips.  __ 555-Timer

Porch Light Slave Switch -  This circuit turns on the porch light when a passive IR security light is activated.   __ Designed by Andrew R. Morris

Porch Light Switch -  This circuit will activate a relay when light falls to a preset level.  Light level can be adjusted with VR1 and the relay contacts may be used to operate an external light or buzzer.   __ Designed by Andy Collison

Portable Lamp Flasher -  Here is a portable, high-power incandescent electric lamp flasher.  It is basically a dual flasher  (alternating blinker) that can handle two separate 230V AC loads  (bulbs L1 and L2) .  The circuit is...__ Electronics Projects for You

Portable Signal Wand -  Flashing lights have varied applications.  For example, travelers can use these as warning beacons on highways to catch the attention of the public in case of an emergency.  Described here is...__ Electronics Projects for You

Power 220V Flashing LED -  AC mains operated single LED flasher circuit, built using the popular CMOS timer chip TLC555 is shown below.  The whole circuit is powered directly by the grid supply of 230VAC through a capacitive potential divider and associated components.  This minuscule Power LED Flashing circuit can be easily fit inside a very small __ Designed by T.K. Hareendran

Power Flasher (PAGE 113) -  Suitable for alerting purposes.  Drives 12V Car bulbs __ Contact: Flavio Dellepiane, fladello @ tin.it

Power-line outage flashes red alert -  06/13/02 EDN-Design Ideas This design idea expands on a circuit in a previous one to configure a power-outage detector with a flashing alarm (Figure 1, Reference 1].  The circuit plugs into a mains outlet and uses trickle-charged nickel-cadmium batteries.  The green-LED monitors the presence of line voltage.  The BZV55-C4V3 zener diode, D1 protects the batteries against overvoltage Design by Vasiliy Borodai, Zaporozhje, Ukraine

Power-Off Time Delay Relay -  The two circuits below illustrate opening a relay contact a short time after the ignition or ligh switch is turned off.  The capacitor is charged and the relay is closed when the voltage at the diode anode rises to +12 volts.  The circuit on the left is a common collector or emitter follower and has the advantage of one less part since a resistor is not needed in series with the transistor base.  However the voltage across the relay coil will be two diode drops less than the supply voltage, or about 11 volts for a 12.5 volt input. __ Designed by Bill Bowden

Power-On Time Delay Relay -  Here's a power-on time delay relay circuit that takes advantage of the emitter/base breakdown voltage of an ordinary bi-polar transistor.  The reverse connected emitter/base junction of a 2N3904 transistor is used as an 8 volt zener diode which creates a higher turn-on voltage for the Darlington connected transistor pair.  Most any bi-polar transistor may be used, but the zener voltage will vary from about 6 to 9 volts depending on the particular transistor used.  Time delay is roughly 7 seconds using a 47K resistor and 100uF capacitor and can be reduced by reducing the R or C values. __ Designed by Bill Bowden

Preheat starter for electronic ballast -  10/04/01 EDN-Design Ideas Electronic ballasts for fluorescent lamps use various techniques to turn on the bulbs.  The design usually involves a compromise between turn-on voltage and lamp life because the two are inversely related.  One way to reach a reasonable compromise is to initially allow Design by Arthur E Edang, Don Bosco Technical College, Mandaluyong City, Phillipines

Programmable LED -  Alex Inspired by various LED Throwies, blinking LEDs and similar instructables I wanted to do my version of an LED controlled by a microcontroller.  The idea is to make the LED blinking sequence reprogrammable.  This reprogramming can be done with __ Designed by Radio LocMan

Programmable LED Flashers -  LED goes to steady state after a preset number of flashes; Two simple, wide supply range operating circuits __ Contact: Flavio Dellepiane, fladello @ tin.it

Proximity Switch for 240VAC Lamps -  Just wave your hand near it to turn the light on or off.__ SiliconChip

Pulsing Third Brake Light -  The schematic consists of two 555 timer/oscillators in a dual timer configuration both setup in astable mode.  When power is applied via the brake pedal, the brake light driver Q1 is switched on via the low-output pin 3 of IC2, and timer IC1 begins its timing cycle.  With the output on pin 3 going high, inhibiting IC2's pin 2  (trigger) via D2, charge current begins to move through R3, R4 and C2. __ Designed by Tony van Roon  VA3AVR

Pulsing third Brake lite for cars -  Several years ago these flashers were introduced in the automotive industry as part of the third brake light and contained strobe lights    (and strobing continuously for the duration of pressing the break pedal) but got abandoned almost immediately sometime later because of the 'strobe' effect it has on some people.  This circuit has become obsolet since much better circuits are available these days without the 'lag' in between brakes caused by R4 and C3.  One of the circuits is listed below __ Designed by Tony van Roon  VA3AVR

Push-bike Light -  Automatic switch-on when it gets dark; 6V or 3V battery operation __ Contact: Flavio Dellepiane, fladello @ tin.it

Pushbutton Controlled Up/Down Ramping Light -  There are times when you want a lamp to gradually change from dark to light and from light to dark, with each push of a pushbutton switch.  The circuit below performs this control function using a flip/flop and a classic pulse width modulation or PWM. . . Circuit by David Johnson P.E.-March, 2009

Quiz -  This project can be used for a quiz with up to 4 contestants  (or teams) .  Each contestant has a trigger push-switch and LED.  When a trigger switch is pressed it lights the corresponding LED, sounds the bleeper and prevents the other trigger switches from workingtherefore showing which contestant was the first to press their switch __ Designed by John Hewes

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