S TA R T L E A R N I N G ABOUT ME B LO G PRODUCTS C O N TA C T

You are here: Home / Circuits / How I Learned The Flashing Light Circuit

How I Learned The Flashing Light

Circuit
November 20, 2012 By Øyvind Nydal Dahl

The ashing light circuit was the rst circuit I ever built.

I was at home and probably around 14 years old at the time. I was walking
between the television and my computer as I used to. I would surf the net, then Free eBook
I’d hear something interesting from the television which my mom and dad was
watching and I would walk over to see. Then back again to my computer. I was
pretty bored. But this was my routine. This easy-to-read guide will teach you how
the basic components of electronics work.

Sign up to my FREE electronics lesson via

email and receive it as a welcome gift:

Email Address

SIGN UP

PS! We hate spam as much as you and will never

share your email with anyone.

I had been interested in computers for a while, and I had started learning a bit of Search:
programming/scripting of the mIRC client which was really popular back then.
Search this website

Something interesting came up on the television, so I walked over. Suddenly, the

doorbell rang. My dad got up, turned the TV on mute, and went over to see who
it was. I noticed something. There was a red light on the television that was
blinking. It was probably because the TV was on mute, but I had never really
noticed it before. My brain started getting curious. How can you make a light
blink like that?

I started thinking about it more and more. How does a ashing light circuit work?
I had never looked into this before, so I was totally blank on how that blinking
light could actually work. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to nd
out.

So I asked my dad. “I don’t understand it. How can you make a light blink like
that?”, I asked. Something lit up in my dad’s face. “Wait here”, he said. Then he
walked into the kitchen, got some pen and paper and came back. He sat down
and started drawing. He drew a small circuit diagram consisting of a relay, a light
bulb and a battery. It was the ashing light circuit.

Then he explained “You see, when the relay is powered, the switch will
disconnect the power from the relay coil and connect the power to the lamp
instead so that it will light up. But then when the relay is no longer powered, it
will switch back and turn off the power from the lamp and give power back to
the relay coil again.”

“But how does the relay make the switch change positions?”, I asked.

Then he explained to me how a relay works. As soon as I understood that, I was

able to understand how you make a light blink. And I was in ecstasy! I had to
build this!

Luckily my dad was an engineer and had some relays laying around in addition
to the necessary soldering tools. So I ran down in the basement and started
building the circuit.

After some messing around I managed to solder all the components. I attached
the battery, wildly excited. “DRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”The relay made a
continuous and really fast switching sound, and the lamp did not turn on.

“Oh man, it is switching way too fast for the light to turn on.”

I went back up to my dad.

“Dad, the relay is switching way too fast! How can I slow it down?”

“Well, you need something that can store power for a short while to slow down
the relay switching.” he said.

“You mean like a rechargeable battery?”, I asked.

“Well, yeah, in a sense. But in electronics we have a component called a

capacitor. It works similar to a rechargeable battery, but the capacity is much
lower. A battery can usually work for a few hours after being charged, but a
capacitor usually only works for a second or much less after being charged.

“And wouldn’t you know it, he also had a few capacitors laying around =)

So, back in the basement I solder a large capacitor over the relay coil. I turn the
power back on..

“Click”

Then the light turns on and there is silence.

“Click”

Then the light turns off and there is silence.

“Click”

Light on.

“Click”

Light off.”YEEEEES! Dad! I’ve done it! I made a blinking light!!”, I shouted to my
dad.

Oh, the feeling I had. It is the greatest feeling in the world. I just knew that I had
understood something that I could apply to a lot of things later on in my life. I had
reached the next level in my technology life. The ashing light circuit would be on
my repertoire forever!

I go up to my mom and dad and sit down with them in front of the television. I
just sit there and smile, knowing that life will never be the same again.

Then suddenly a new thought pops into my head.

“Dad? How does a calculator work?”

Return from Flashing Light Circuit to Circuit Ideas

Sign up to Get This FREE

eBook
This easy-to-read guide will teach you how
the basic components of electronics work.

Includes examples of real-life use. Sign up to

my free email lessons and download it for
FREE:

Enter Email SIGN UP

Filed Under: Circuits

Topics Social:

Basic Electronics Facebook

Circuits Twitter

Practical Skills YouTube

Microcontrollers

Maker Lifestyle

Newsletter Archive

Copyright © 2020 · Ohmify AS · Terms and Conditions