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USB Blinky kit

The LED Artist — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:00:14 +0000

USB Blinky is possibly the simplest LED blinky kit out there. There are only ten parts to solder. The PCB (Printed Circuit Board) itself plugs right into an USB port. Thicker material is used for the PCB, so that it fits into the USB port nicely.

USB Blinky blinks at about twice a second. USB Blinky only draws little current (about 5mA) so any USB ports can power it.

USB Blinky is the perfect “Learn to Solder” project.

Kit Contents
2x 5mm Super Bright LED
2x 470 ohm (R1, R4)
2x 47k ohm (R2, R3)
2x 22uF Electrolytic Capacitor (C1, C2)
2x NPN Transistor (Q1, Q2)
1x Custom PCB

- view detailed technical info and assembly instructions @ instructables

*** Purchase Here ***

USB Blinky!

The LED Artist — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 05:05:49 +0000

Every now and then, I feel like designing something really simple and basic. Blinkies are my go to circuit for the simple LED joy. Just ten parts and the two LEDs blink back & forth…
However I always find powering the circuit a bit of pain – if I use battery, I’d have to change the battery all the time. But using an AC adaptor is kind of messy. Then I realize that USB ports are everywhere – on my computer, on the side of my keyboard, phone chargers, etc. Being able to just plug a blinky into any of USB ports around would be fun.

So here it is, USB Blinky. I used thicker PCB material so that the PCB will fit into USB port nicely making the simplest possible USB plug.

- view detailed technical info and assembly instructions @ instructables

- purchase USB Blinky

Two LED Blinky

The LED Artist — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:32:40 +0000

This is the simplest circuit to make two LED blink back and forth. The technical term for this circuit is “astable multivibrator”.

It’s really easy to put together, with only 10 parts.

[Part List]

2 x LEDs – any color. Red, yellow, green, blue…
2 x NPN transistors – just about any small transistor. I used PN2222A, but you can use 2N3904, 2N4401, etc.
2 x Capacitor – around 10 – 22 uF, 6V or higher than power supply voltage. Electrolytic capacitors are the easiest to find. The larger the capacitance the slower the blinking.
2 x 220 ohm resisters – anything from 200 to 1k ohm of any type should work.
2 x 47k ohm resisters – anything from 22k to 100k ohm should work. Value of these changes the timing of blinking (larger the value, slower the blinking).

You can easily obtain the parts from your local Redioshack.