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Thread: "Pulsing" Neons/LEDs

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    "Pulsing" Neons/LEDs

    I'm looking at getting a Lian Li PC7+ case in black and would also like to get the side window. Rather than getting a normal set of red lights, I would like a pulsing set. Is there anywhere in the UK that I can get a set of these? Thanks in advance.

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    Senior Member MantisCSS's Avatar
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    i have seent hem around but i cant remember where. im having trouble with my net at the mo. try ebuyer. soz i cudnt give u a link.
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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    how do you want them to pulse?

    if its just on/off, i'd recomend whipping out a soldering iron, buying some cheap LEDs off ebay, and making a "multi-vibratior"... hehe i love that name, more specifically an astable multivibrator. Don't be scared, this is stupidly simple, and will cost you about 50p to make. The great thing about doing it yourself, is you get to control how long it goes on and off for!
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Thanks, I think I can get some blue pulsing LEDs from Ebuyer for about £8, but not red.

    TheAnimus, have you got a link to a palce that says how to make these. I'm very interested, especially if I get some of those supre bright LEDs. I've made one that flashes, but not one which varies the intensity of light.

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    Senior Member MantisCSS's Avatar
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    could u not buy the blue ones and chnage the colour some how by chnaging the bulbs or somehting???
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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    with LEDs circutry that controls flashing tends to be built into the plastic of the LED itself, so you can't change it easily, with neons you could, but most neons are just "flashed" on and off only, nothing inbetween.

    http://www.play-hookey.com/digital/e...l_astable.html this will only turn the LED on and off, pulsed, not dim it in and out.

    a sawtooth generator will make the led fade on, then straight off. here is a circuit an explenation (again using a 555, this very common chip).
    http://www.play-hookey.com/digital/e...l_astable.html

    now a triangle wave, would fade in and fade out.
    http://www.play-hookey.com/analog/tr...generator.html
    that one uses two op-amps, you would find these all in one chip.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Senior Member MantisCSS's Avatar
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    so when u sya pulsing u mean they go from bright to dull bright to dull, not just on and off on and off. that sounds like a mission. maybe chnage the colour scheme of ur PC to blue?!? blue looks good!
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    Thanks. I've considered changing it to blue, but I think red and black just look awesome (it's the dark side coming out in me). What I really need is an LED like the cyclic ones, which change fade from one colour to another, but without the other colours.

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hidden Hippo
    Thanks. I've considered changing it to blue, but I think red and black just look awesome (it's the dark side coming out in me). What I really need is an LED like the cyclic ones, which change fade from one colour to another, but without the other colours.
    check out the links i posted then

    sawtooth generator will do just that.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    The King of Vague Steve B's Avatar
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    sawtooth'll only allow the diodes to be on if the voltage is greater than .7V though wont it? that means ull need a DC offset to pull the lower tooth over the 0v line, else ull reverse bias ur diodes and wear them out? regarding the astable multi, i'd say it was much easier to use a 555-timer in astable mode. just a bit easier to wire up, then u can attach a pulse-triggered 4-way serial flip-flop config, to make a binary counter out of ur LED's

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    indeed that applies to the traingle wave too, but 0.7v isn't the only problem with smoothly pulsing an LED (the dc offset really is childsplay to solve). You need to get your slope just right. Humans see light log, that is to say giving an LED 3mA, won't make it look twice as bright as an LED been given 1.5mA. Remeber even thou we're chanigng the voltage, its the current which controls how bright the LED is. (thou the current is obviously derived from OHMs law, by the resistor, V=IR..... but you really don't need to understand all this to get it to work!).
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Quote Originally Posted by MantisCSS
    could u not buy the blue ones and chnage the colour some how by chnaging the bulbs or somehting???
    The LED is the "bulb" so you have to buy the colour you want.


    If you want red, stay red - red LEDs are much cheaper than blue.

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