Lighting

All of my turbine starts before the research on the ECU involved a very successful spark ignition. I thought (only briefly) of trying to add spark ignition to the ECU, but the mixture of delicate logic circuitry and perhaps 30,000V simply don`t mix...

An ECU must have a way to monitor battery voltage. Here is a simple op-amp based circuit which will illuminate the LED when the battery voltage drops to a certain level. The turn-on point is set with R2. You must be able to vary Vcc (usually with a good power supply) to set the circuit...

This circuit has been designed to provide a clearly visible light, formed by 13 high efficiency flashing LEDs arranged in a pseudo-rotating order. Due to low voltage, low drain battery operation and small size, the device is suitable for mounting on bicycles as a back light, or to put on by jogger/walkers...

Driving the highway with your high-beam headlights can really increase your visibility, but can he a blinding hazard for other drivers. This simple circuit can be wired into your headlight switch to provide automatic switching between high and low beam headlights when there is oncoming traffic. It does this by sensing the lights of that traffic. In this way, you can drive safely with your high-beams on without blinding other drivers...

This is one of several ways to make a flashing 3rd brake light assembly. I designed this to be easy to locate all the needed components and reasonably in expensive to build. If you have any electronic experience, then the schematic is all you will need to make your light assembly. For the rest of the world, I will walk you through the details so you will understand how this device works and how it goes together. It would be much simpler to just get a red marker light and a 552 flasher and use this as your 3rd brake light. But that wouldn`t be fun...

This circuit was designed on request to drive a Light-cluster formed by several LEDs that can be mounted in the vehicle as a tail and brake light. When SW1 is on, the cluster will illuminate at medium brightness. When brakes are operated, SW2 will be closed and the cluster will shine at maximum brightness...

This device is a simple timer, allowing to keep on the headlights of your vehicle for about 1min. and 30sec., e.g. when accessing some dark place, without the necessity of coming back to switch-off the lights...

This circuit must be connected to a 5 volt DC source. See my RR page for several 5 volt supplies. Note the flashing LED is optional, but looks s-o-o-o-o good on the top of a locomotive...