Camera Flash Effect (using 555 timer)

Summary of the circuit-

1. This circuit is very easy to design.

2. It needs only few components that are easily available in the market.

3. It will produce the same effect which is produced by the flash of camera with the help of LEDs.

4. This flash effect is really attractive and easily grabs people’s attention.

5. It can be used for the decoration purpose at home

6. It can also be used in your vehicles as it requires low power to work.

7. This circuit is constructed with the help of IC NE555 timer.

Principle behind Circuit-

Main component of this circuit is IC NE555 timer.IC1 in this circuit works in astable mode. Other components that are used in this circuit include resistor, capacitor, LEDs and transistor.

When power supply is on and switch is pressed then voltage at pin2 and pin6 of IC1 drops. At the same duration, voltage at pin3 of IC1 gets high and LED glows. For driving big quantity of LEDs (say around 50), a PNP transistor T1 (BD140) is linked to the output terminal of the circuit. In this circuit, we have used 9 LEDs divided in the group of three which are further attached with 82 Ohm resistor.

If you want to increase the number then just attach three LEDs together with 82 ohm resistor in a parallel arrangement with other LED’s combination. In place of R you can use a variable resistor of 100K so as to adjust the gap between the flash as per your need.

In place of normal power you can use high power LEDs but that should be less than the outcome current boundary of T1. It cannot be driven straight to IC1 since its output is 200mA.

This circuit needs voltage between 9V to 12V to work.

Components required building the circuit-

(IC1) NE555

Resistor

R1 6.2K

R2 10K

R3 100K

R4 1K

R5, R6, R7 82E

Capacitor

C1 10uF

C2 0.01uf