Nostalgia: A Two Transistor LED Flasher Circuit



I am feeling a little nostalgic. So I rebuilt one of the first circuits I put together when I started messing around with circuits in eighth grade. It’s a very simple beginner project, and might appeal to your child – real or inner!


Another reason I wanted to put this up is because most “blinky” circuits I see now are based on the venerable 555 IC. This is fine, but the two transistor circuit is simpler for a beginner to understand than the innards of the 555, I think.


Here is the circuit. It’s a two transistor astable multivibrator. (Read the wikipedia link for the gory details of how it works. 😉 )


For supply, I used a 3V CR 2032 coin cell. The transistors are 2N2222, but I think any NPN transistor would work in this case. The LEDs are Red, which have low turn-on voltage, and this is important, since we’re using a coin cell here. The circuit was assembled on a breadboard.


Even for this simple circuit, some calculations are involved to get it right. The total period of oscillation is given by:


T=t1+t2=ln2R2C1+ln2R3C2≈0.693(R2C1+R3C2)

Choosing

R2=R3=47 KΩ

and

C1=C2=22 uF

gives us a total period of about 1.4 seconds – 0.7 seconds per LED. Good enough.

Now, to compute

R1=R4

. Assuming a 0.6 V drop across the transistor, and a 20 mA current through the LED gives us

R=30.620mA=120Ω


. So a 100 Ohm resistor, which is more common, will do just fine.


And here’s the circuit in action:



Build it for your child! 🙂