Simple Flashing / Blinking LED with a 555 timer Circuit

Simple Flashing / Blinking a LED with a 555 timer

If you are looking for a Simple circuit to blink a Light emitting diode ( LED ) without any complex circuitry, for some small projects or to  impress your friends, maybe then probably a small and easy circuits with 555 Timer would be a better option to start with, a Simple Blinking Circuit ( LED ). With the help of a Small 555 timer chip you would will be able to that just fine on a simple breadboard in few minutes with some basic and inexpensive electronic components. Now the question is, what is 555 timer?

Well let me shed some light on 555 timer IC first before we start with circuit.

555 timer is one of a very low cost and basic IC used now a days. The Name “555 Timer” must suggest that its some kind of TIMMER IC and hence used for various timing operations In various electrical and electronic equipment’s .

A 555 timer works in there modes. Like Monostable, Bistable and Astable. The target reader for my posts are beginners hence lets not get into more complex terms!!!. The more you start doing experiment with 555 timer the more things will get clear.  But still if you wish to read more then you can read it more about 555 timers in Wikipedia here.

So let’s cut down the theory and get down to making some fun with dipping things with a 555 timer. 555 timers are very common and can be found in any electronics shop very easily and they are quiet cheap.

Here is the Circuit diagram you were looking for.

Schematic 555 Timer
 

555 Timer Schematic Eagle (Updated)

Components

If you wish then you can check the video before for some live demonstration of 555 timer..

Controlling the Dipping

If you wish to control the speed with which the Leds are dipping (Slow or fast) then you can add some more capacitance across terminal A and B .

Now How to add capacitance? and what is capacitance? well you have to add a small Electrical Component named as  Capacitor that has the capacitance in it. Capacitance is nothing but the ability to store or accumulate charge. Don’t confuse it with a battery.  It can be found in any Electronics store easily.  A capacitor is the THING which contains Capacitance in it. A typical Capacitor is measured in the Unit of microfarad.

 Rule is .Higher the capacitance of the Capacitor that you are going to add , Slower the dipping of LED ,as I have said in the video …

If you wish then you can also add potentiometer instead of C1. Potentiometer will allow you to tune the capacitance.

Thanks for reading
Rakesh Mondal
ron