How to Make a Single Transistor LED Flasher at Home

Posted by hitman
Can you imagine of making a formidable little LED flasher or blinker using just a single transistor and
a couple of other passive parts.
That looks too good to be tue, hoever the folloing diagram ill simply prove that it!s really
possible to create a legal LED blinker using just one general purpose transistor as the main
component.
" came across this phenomena some eight years ago, accidentally, hile trying to make a smallest
possible motorcycle side indicator flasher, and as really ama#ed.
$oever, then " did have not any idea that it as happening due to the negative resistance
characteristics of the transistor.
The circuit actually e%ploits the negative resistance factor in transistors to produce the blinking effect.
"!ll be soon riting a comprehensive article on this and e!ll see there ho the concept can be
modified in many different ays.
Parts List for the proposed single transistor LED flasher circuit
&' ( )*+,
&) ( ',, -hms,
T' ( .C /0+,
C' ( ',, u1 to 0+, u1
LED ( 2ny Type, any color
Simplest LED Flasher Circuit
This may be the simplest LED flasher circuit you can build, ith the notable e%clusion of LED!s ith
integrated flashing circuits
This might be a good replacement for the L345,5 in some applications.
In action.
Take a close look. Only the emitter and collector leads of the
2N2222 are connected.
The base lead was cut off. The LED is from a string of Christmas
lights and it has an integrated !! Ohm resistor.
1ind updates at .projects.cappels.org
As simple as it gets and still works
This LED flasher occurred to me hile reading about negative resistance in transistors. "t as reported
that Leona Esaki, ho as at 6ony at the time, had been surprised to see a negative resistance region
hile investigating production defects in transistors hich lead to his thesis ork on the Esaki or
Tunnel Diode in '5/+, hich eventually lead to his receiving the 7obel Pri#e in '5+).
The ""! uf ca#acitor is #artially discharged through
the transistor$ LED$ and current limiting resistor.
"n this implementation, a common 7P7 transistor is used. "n the circuit, a 'k resistor charged the 44,
uf capacitor until the voltage became large enough to get the emitter8base junction to avalanche. "n the
oscilloscope image, it can be seen that the peak voltage 9yello trace: as a little bit less than 5 volts.
2t this point transistor turned on ;uickly and partially discharged the 44, uf capacitor through the
LED and the ',, -hm current limiting resistor. The current avform, hich is the voltage drop across
the ',, -hm resistor, is shon in the blue trace on the scope image. Peak current as )< milliamps,
and the transistor continued to discharge the capacitor until conduction suddenly ceased at < milliamps
93any thanks to Luke in 2ustralia for pointing out the correct current:. 2fter the transistor stopped
conducting, the capacitor began charging again, thus starting a ne cycle.