Maker Pro
Maker Pro

LED timer circuit

nopuk

May 11, 2015
22
Joined
May 11, 2015
Messages
22
Hi,
Kinda new, willing to solder :)
Want to know how to make a small circuit to do the following. Turn it on, stays on for 6hrs, off for the next 18 then repeats, so turn and LED for 6 hours per day and repeat.

Easy / Hard ?
 

Arouse1973

Adam
Dec 18, 2013
5,178
Joined
Dec 18, 2013
Messages
5,178
Hello
For those sort of timings and if you wanted to do it with out a micro and RTC (real time clock) you could have a look at using counters.
Thanks
Adam
 

nopuk

May 11, 2015
22
Joined
May 11, 2015
Messages
22
I was looking into an integrated circuit? not sure what a counter is, sorry total noob here :) I just want something small that run a small LED for 6hrs per day.
 

AnalogKid

Jun 10, 2015
2,884
Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
2,884
There is a CMOS counter chip called a CD4060 that will do this with minimal parts and no programming. However, it will not have great accuracy. The problem is that electronic circuits can time seconds, milliseconds, and microseconds with outstanding accuracy. But for longer time periods (24 hours is 86,400 seconds), "normal" timer circuits have accuracy issues. That is why longer times usually are handled by an accurate oscillator followed by a counter that just counts up time ticks until the desired time period is reached. This can be done in a small microcontroller for about $1 if you have a few months experience in writing software for it.

Another way to do this is to get a small lamp timer for around $5, plug a cell phone charger into it, and have that power the LED.

ak
 
Top