Simulated Rotating LED

[snurckle]

First post...yeah me!

Anyways, I'm building an F4U Corsair RC Airplane, and want to add lights to it. LED's to be more precise. Wing tip lights, navigation light, and Rotating Beacon on the bottom of the fuselage. Need everything to run off a 4.8v battery, or a simple 9V battery. Preferrably a 9V due to weight.

So, I would like to set up an array of 4 LED's in a cloverleaf pattern.

example *
example * *
example *

Each will be seperated with a barrier, so the light won't 'bleed' over to the others. They need to rotate around the sequence. 3mm or 5mm bulbs, high intensity, super bright.

An example - http://www.instructables.com/id/Virtual-rotating-LED-beacon-Rundumlicht/

He used SMD LED's for his application, and 4 IC's. I'm not sure you need that many IC's, since it should just have a counter, a driver, and an LS555 - to produce the triangle waveforms needed to create more of a dim to bright to dim function on the lights.

Anybody willing to assist, and tell me what parts I need to procure to make this vision a reality?

 

[HKJ]

If your really want to make the driver small, use a small microcomputer chip (Atmel AVR or PIC). A 8 pin IC and 4 resistors can do it. This will run from a 4.8 volt batteri, 9 volt is to high (But a regulator can fix that).

 

[Changchung]

I know exactly what you need, IC 4017 is a decade counter with 10 outputs, you can choice if you want to use less output with the reset pin to the output what you dont want, example, If you want just 5 outputs you have to connect the 6 output to the reset pin...

Try, this IC is very nice and simple, you need a counter, with a 555 can have a good and simple result... Good luck...

http://www.doctronics.co.uk/4017.htm

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_6/chpt_7/6.html

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_the_IC_4017_works

:twothumbs

 

[Probedude]

As HKJ wrote, a small microcontroller and some leds and you're in business.
The 8 and even 6 pin MCU's are small and:
- have a built in RC oscillator
- can sink or source 25mA (should be enough to directly drive a high brightness LED)
- you can code exactly what you want.

I kind of hate throwing an MCU as a solution to solve EVERY problem (seems every article in every magazine is using an MCU for even the simplest tasks) but in your case it would be the smallest package.


From the video link it appears that either the guy is PWM'ing the LED's or has a capacitor in parallel with each so that it doesn't turn on/off instantly. This gives it a good rotation effect.

Edit: DUH! I didn't read his website - just looked at the video. He is using a microcontroller and is PWM'ing.

"To make the round tripping light looking more realistic I wrote a program on a PIC12F629. It drives each LED with a PWM signal."

 

[HKJ]

I did make a blinker this way once, but it was much more advanced than what is required here.
It could handle 15 leds and your could download patterns from a PC.

I have a few photos and a schematic here, but is in danish:
http://hjem.get2net.dk/hkj/Flasher.html

PS: Do not copy this project directly, it can be made much better with never parts!