Xenon

Portable Stroboscope schematic

Principle of the operation: Q1, R1, T1 and D1 form a DC-DC converter to convert +3V voltage from batteries to +200..+500V voltage which is charges the main flash capacitor C1. Resistor R4 and potentiometer P1 form a voltage divider and C2 is changed from that voltage though R3. When C2 reaches 70V voltage, the neon bulb N1 in the circuit starts to conduct and trigger the triac Q2. Thyristor causes C2 discharge through trigger transformer T2, which generates a short high voltage (2..4 kV) pulse which triggers the flash tube X1. Then main flash capacitor C1 discharges through flash tube and the tube generates a bright flash. The the charging of C1 starts again...

Strobo triggering schematics

This page contains some information on circuits which can be used for triggering stroboscopes from external circuits. The circuit here are designed to be integrate to strboscope circuits so that they can triggered using external trigger pulse. The standard trigger pulse used in professional stroboscope controllers is 3-10V pulse. If you don't already have a suitable controller, you can built one based on my stroboscope controller design. This circuit takes 10V trigger pulse to trigger a triac which connect the points A and B together. This circuit can be placed to almost any stroboscope circuit in place of the trigger switch or the trigger triac...

Strobo Light controller schematic

This stroboscope controller is a simle adjustable multivibrator which gan easily generate frequencies at frequency range 1..15 Hz and output suitable control signal pulse to trigger the stroboscope. The circuit diagram is a little bit modified standard 555 based astable oscillator circuit with some extra electronics added to the output side. Best way to power this circuit is to use a small wallwart. The circuit needs less than 100 mA of current, so a small 12V wallwart is ideal for this circuit. If you plan to use a batteries to power this circuit then you should also add a power switch to the circuit...

12V stroboscope

This is one of my stroboscope designs. Usually many stoboscope circuit work directly from mains voltage, but this circuit uses 12V DC intead od mains AC. This is very good idea if you don't want to mess with direct mains voltage connected circuit or you want to run the stroboscope from batteries. The circuit has some special functions compared to other stroboscope circuits found electronics books. First the there is a switch for selecting the flash power: with C3 you can get very fast flash rates (over 50 Hz), C2 is most suitable for normal operation and using C1 directly you get very bright single flashes...

Strobe light 115 AC

The way that this circuit works is as follows. The AC line voltage is rectified by D1 and D2 which connects to a voltage doubler circuit made up of the two 22uf capacitors. The Flash Freq. Pot and the 10uf capacitor charge up which triggers the Diac and causes the triac to turn on. This allows the trigger transformer T1 to send a very High Voltage to the flash tube and lighting it. The flash timing is adjusted by the flash freq. pot. ..

The power supplies for electronic flash and strobe equipment operate at extremely lethal voltage and current levels. The energy storage capacitors in even the smallest disposable camera flash operating from a 1.5 V AA battery can be deadly under the wrong conditions. Line powered strobes have added danger of high power at high voltage AND are often non-isolated (no power transformer. Do not attempt to troubleshoot, repair, or modify such equipment without understanding and following ALL of the relevant safety guidelines for high voltage and/or line connected electrical and electronic systems...

This circuit typically uses a voltage around 300 volts for the main high voltage supply and needs a low voltage supply of typically 6 to 15 volts. 555 pin connections not shown above: 1 goes to ground / negative of both low and high voltage supplies. 4,8 both go to positive low voltage supply, of 6 to 15 volts. 7 does not get connected to anything. The 555 should not be a TLC555, but should be an LM or NE 555. The timing capacitor should be at least 100 picofarads. The timing resistor should be 1K to 5 meg. The pulse (flash) frequency (in Hz or flashes per second) is approx .72 divided by the product of timing resistance (in ohms) and timing capacitance (in farads). ..

disposable camera strobe light

If you have no idea what is a "strobo", "strobe", "stroboscopy" or whatever way it is called, it is simply a flashing light. It is usually used on police cars, 'disco' places and many interesting applications, including scientific ones. This project is dangerous because it implicates high voltages, it can be lethal. Please read the Disclaimer about my articles: Use this material as educational only, do not build this project unless you know what you are doing and under your own risk. What I'm trying to say is: Don't be stupid, you can kill yourself. After using a disposable camera, is possible to remove the film for develoment and use the camera to build an easy, cheap and cool strobe light...

Strobo Light

The way that this circuit works is as follows. The AC line voltage is rectified by D1 and D2 which connects to a voltage doubler circuit made up of the two 22uf capacitors. The Flash Freq. Pot and the 10uf capacitor charge up which triggers the Diac and causes the triac to turn on. This allows the trigger transformer T1 to send a very High Voltage to the flash tube and lighting it. The flash timing is adjusted by the flash freq. pot...

Xenon Flash with LM311

The reason why I built this unit is becasue I need to trim my transmitters for the best performance, I have noticed that I can't be at the receiver position and the transmitter position at the same time! So, what I have invented is a XFI. I connect the receiver to a decoder (PIC16F84) wich will trigg the XFI. I can now trim the transmitter for best performance by sending a signal wich will controll the XFI.When power is switched on, the power over the Xenon tube is zero. The voltage comparator LM311 (IC1) monitor the X-tube voltage and control a relay for the "high power unit". As long as the X-tube voltage is lover than 230V the LM311 will charge C2 and the relay will pull the contacts together so the "high power unit" get power. ..

Xenon light pulser

Flash lamp is made ??with experimental parts removed from a disposable camera flash circuit.Xenon try to use what I think is easily affordable experiment. AC100V to a voltage doubler rectifier, DC voltage of about 270V is derived. This voltage is R2, C3 is charged through a short period of time as well. At the same time the trigger capacitor C4 is charged gradually through R3, the trigger diode (D3) reverse conducting diode voltage reaches the trigger (ON) to take the trigger discharge Xenon (Flash) to. The discharge voltage drops and the discharge of C3 Stop and C3 will be charged again. The Xenon flash in sequence by repeating it. This circuit is supposed to flash about 20 times per second...

This circuit will give provide a Good Strobe Effect for a variety of Portable Uses. Nominal current draw is "up to about" 1 amp at 12 volts. Depending on value of capacitor on pin 2 of the 555 and the particular choke that is used...

Since the circuit operates at greater than mains potential and is not isolated by a transformer, it is extremely dangerous. The DC operating potential is about 340V, and there is more than enough stored charge to kill you many times over (although in my experience, once is usually sufficient). This is not meant to be funny - this is truly serious stuff. In addition, the circuitry usually is directly mains (line) powered, with no isolation. Discharge all capacitors before working on any flash system...

This discussion covers 3 different Xenon flashing circuits from disposable cameras. From them, you will learn circuit tricks that have NEVER been shown in any theory book. The first circuit covers 6 BUILDING BLOCKS. You will need an old "disposable Flash Camera" plus two extra parts to carry out the modifications...

The MOSFET speed controller presented here took over six months to design and fully test, back around 1988. I designed it from the ground up, as I found there were no suitable circuits or units available anywhere at the time. Those that had been published before either required unobtainable servo chips, or were so unstable as to be useless. I took one designed by a British hobby magazine to a race meeting once. It had been okay around home, but the interference from other radio gear at the race meeting rendered it useless. It relied on "floating" a derived triangle wave between two comparators...