I'm trying to find a simple and easy design for a project my friend decided to build and now needs help with (of course!). He has built a 6 foot light house at a local hang out and needs a simple flashing light circuit. We are trying to create a circuit that would flash on 4 seconds off 2 etc. He has it wired for 120VAC with all the bells and whistle for the light house, with the exception of the light. He left that part to me. I'm new to creating circuits and seek some expert advice....all info is greatly appreciated!! Thanks

the best way is to use a 555 circuit.
i can make the flashing circuit, but i am not sure how to drive the bulb. is the light a 120V or is it low voltage
i'll be back with the schematic soon.

Bogdanfirst,

It would be a 120V lamp, unless I could utilize a different style lamp to provide a bright flash for this design. Thanks in advance!

:lol:
:P
:wink:
:lol:

Use a photo-flash with trigger circuit.

Hi zman,

Don't know how bright it has to be but you might try a 12 volt bulb and a turn-signal blinker.

Thanks to everyone...bogdanfirst, did you get a chance to come up with a schematic?

You will probably need some zero-crossing detection in your drive-circuit, otherwise the music in the hangout might suffer. I *think* the MOC3020 optocoupler does exactly that. It may be the 3040 as well (or was it the 3021 - ahh, the stuff people forget). Just enter them in Google and I'm sure you'll find all the application notes you'll ever need.

The alternatives are a noise cancellation circuit with very expensive coils, or synchronising the 555 timer with the net frequency - don't immediately know how to do that, other than "AND"ing the timer output with a zero crossing pulse.