Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Introduction
The blinking LED circuit is like the electronics version of the “Hello
World”-program. It’s a simple electronic circuit that gives you a visual cue if it
works. It was the first circuit I ever built, and it felt GREAT! The goal is to make
a Light Emitting Diode (LED) blink. Three Different Ways To Build A Blinking
LED Circuit.

There are several ways of making a blinking LED circuit. You can make
one using relays. You can make one using transistors. Or you can make one using
components like an inverter, a 555 Timer or a microcontroller.

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Circuit Diagram
The following circuit design explains the design of the blinking LED (Light
Emitting Diode) with the 555 timer IC. Here in this configuration, the 555 timer
IC has connected in an Astable mode of 555 timer operation.

 Collect all the required components and place the 555 timer IC on the
breadboard.
 Connect pin 1 of a 555 timer IC to the ground. You can find the pin
structure of a 555 timer IC in the circuit diagram shown above.
 The longer lead of a polarized capacitor is the positive and the shorter lead
is negative. Connect pin 2 to the positive end of a capacitor. Connect the
negative lead of the capacitor to the ground of the battery.
 Now short the pin 2 to pin 6 of the 555 timer IC.

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Blinking an LED Using Relays

The easiest way to get a light to blink (or at least the easiest to understand) is the
following:

In the above circuit you see a battery, a relay (in the red square) and a light bulb.
To understand the circuit you need to understand how a relay works.

When the relay coil has power, the switch will disconnect the power from the
electromagnet and connect the power to the light bulb instead so that it will light
up.

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Then the cycle starts over.

The problem with the circuit above is that it will switch so fast that you won’t
actually see the light blink.

To solve this problem you can introduce a time-delay using a resistor and a
capacitor.

When you apply power to the above circuit, the battery starts charging the
capacitor through resistor R2.

After a moment, the relay coil pulls the relay into the other position.

This makes the LED turn ON.

Because the capacitor now is charged, it will hold the relay in this position. But
the capacitor only has enough energy to keep the electromagnet in the relay
powered for a little bit before it’s empty (or discharged).

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Transistor
What is a Transistor? A transistor is a type of a semiconductor device that can be
used to both conduct and insulate electric current or voltage. A transistor basically
acts as a switch and an amplifier. In simple words, we can say that a transistor is
a miniature device that is used to control or regulate the flow of electronic signals.

Transistors are one of the key components in most of the electronic devices that
are present today. Developed in the year 1947 by three American physicists John
Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley, the transistor is considered as
one of the most important inventions in the history of science.

Parts of a Transistor

A typical transistor is composed of three layers of semiconductor materials or

more specifically terminals which helps to make a connection to an external
circuit and carry the current. A voltage or current that is applied to any one pair
of the terminals of a transistor controls the current through the other pair of
terminals. There are three terminals for a transistor. They are:

Base: This is used to activate the transistor.

Collector: It is the positive lead of the transistor.

Emitter: It is the negative lead of the transistor.

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)

The three terminals of BJT are base, emitter and collector. A very small current
flowing between base and emitter can control a larger flow of current between
the collector and emitter terminal.

Furthermore, there are two types of BJT. These include;

P-N-P Transistor: It is a type of BJT where one n-type material is introduced or

placed between two p-type materials. In such a configuration, the device will
control the flow of current. PNP transistor consists of 2 crystal diodes which are
connected in series. The right side and left side of the diodes are known as the
collector-base diode and emitter-base diode, respectively.

N-P-N Transistor: In this transistor, we will find one p-type material that is
present between two n-type materials. N-P-N transistor is basically used to
amplify weak signals to strong signals. In NPN transistor, the electrons move
from the emitter to collector region resulting in the formation of current in the
transistor. This transistor is widely used in the circuit.

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Operation of NPN Transistor

The emitter of NPN device is made by n-type material, hence the majority carriers
are electrons. When the base-emitter junction is forward biased the electrons will
move from the n-type region towards the p-type region and the minority carriers
holes moves towards the n-type region.

When they meet each other they will combine enabling a current to flow across
the junction. When the junction is reverse biased the holes and electrons move
away from the junction, and now the depletion region forms between the two
areas and no current will flows through it.

When a current flows between base and emitter the electrons will leave the
emitter and flow into the base as shown above. Normally the electrons will
combine when they reach the depletion region.

But the doping level in this region is very low and the base is also very thin. This
means that most of the electrons are able to travel across the region without
recombining with holes. As a result, the electrons will drift towards the collector.

In this way, they are able to flow across what is effectively reverse-biased
junction and the current flows in the collector circuit

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Blinking Two LEDs Using Transistors

The circuit for blinking an LED using transistors is called an Astable

Multivibrator

To understand this circuit you need to know how voltages and currents behave
around resistors, capacitors and diodes (which is something you can learn in
Ohmify).

Here’s an overview of what happens:

The two capacitors C1 and C2 will alternate between being charged and
discharged and thereby turning the transistors ON and OFF. When a transistor is
ON it allows current to flow through it so that the LED above it will light up.

If you want to dive into the details, check out my article How Astable
Multivibrator Circuits Work.

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

How To Blink An LED With An Inverter

This is probably the easiest blinking LED circuit when it comes to number of
components: You only need three components for the blinking part!

But you need the resistor and LED to be blinked too of course.

An inverter is a logical component that outputs the opposite of what it gets in. If
it gets a high voltage in, it gives a low voltage out. And vice versa.
A high voltage is a voltage close to the supply voltage. A low voltage is a
voltage close to zero volts.

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Digital Circuit Types

Combinational Logic Circuits directly respond to input change

Sequential Networks remember the present state and combine with input changes
to create a new state

Synchronous Sequential Network Design (Mealy and Moore) is a method of

designing complex sequential logic circuits that only look at inputs at times
determined by a clock. This results in circuits with fewer glitches, more
predictability but are slower and use more hardware.

Asynchronous Sequential Network Design is a method of designing complex

sequential logic circuits that are very fast, simple and respond to inputs at speeds
determined by the devices themselves rather than a clock. They are harder to
design but are closer to nature (including to brain operation)

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Conclusion

If you want to add more LEDs, connect them parallel with first LED using proper
resistors.
You can also use a decade counter (IC 4017) to connect more LEDs.
To easily tune the rate of flash, either one of the resistance can be replaced with
a potentiometer.
Make sure that all the connection are tightly fixed and are connected with each
other.

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 Digital Electronics Build LED blinking circuit using suitable digital circuit

Reference
https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/blinking-led-circuit/
https://wiraelectrical.com/how-to-make-blinking-led/
https://www.scribd.com/document/333992986/Blinking-LED-Project-Final

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