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How To Build An Astable Multivibrator Circuit Without Solder

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Build an LED flasher circuit - No soldering required


Want to build an electronic circuit that works? Want to wire up a device that will do something impressive without spending too much time or money on it? I'm guessing that you want to do it without needing to do any soldering either right?

How about building an astable multivibrator that will flash a couple of bright LEDs? It's a very simple circuit that only requires a few components. Let me show you how to build a simple light flasher using my circuit. We can build it on a solderless breadboard to save time and keep things nice and clean. When it's finished you will be able to experiment with it yourself to change the rate of flashing and the brightness of the LEDs etc.

Lets have some fun building electronic circuits

The two things that I like the least about working with electronic circuits are theory and mathematics. University math almost pushed me away from electronics entirely. It was so complicated and intense that I began to think that I had made a terrible mistake and started looking for an alternative career. But don't worry because it turns out that you don't actualy need most of the university math they thrust upon you. In 35 years working as electronic and software engineer I can't say that I've used even 5% of what I learned back then.

The trick to keeping the fun in electronics if there is one is this: Learn what you need when you need it. It's as simple as that and you will find that the majority of what you realy need to know is pretty simple.

Anyway my passion in electronics engineering is the building of circuits and devices and of course, seeing them work. I have to admit that I get the most satisfaction from building things that solve a problem like a doorbell that alerts you even when the door is propped open or a medical instrument that may save someone's life. But for me the enjoyment is in designing and building the device. I'm happy for someone else to listen for people walking through the door.

So why I don't I shut up and and get down to building this flashing LED lamp circuit.

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Comments (5)

Topic: How To Build An Astable Multivibrator Circuit Without Solder
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Amalia (US) says...
Can anyone tell me how to place 2 toy DC motors on the breadboard so that they intermittently go on and off like the LEDs? Or is this not possible? I want to use it to power a toy that zig zags. I'm going to try it anyway tonight but I would like help on where to connect the motors on the breadboard since I am a novice. Thank you.
19th August 2019 8:10pm
Richard says...
An excellent little circuit! Thanks. I shall be using this for a dummy alarm. Any ideas how long the nine volt battery will last (i.e how much current does the circuit consume)?
6th August 2015 3:56pm
Steve (UK) says...
Hi Richard,

As it stands the circuit consumes about 15mA and if the battery is alkaline with a capacity of 625mAh then it should last approximately 30 - 40 hours.

You can try increasing the values of the two collector resistors R1 and R4. Common high efficiency LEDs will still glow brightly with only 1mA so try replacing the 470 ohm resistors with 4.7k ohm. This theoretically should allow the battery to last for up to 600 hours.

Steve
6th August 2015 11:34pm
James says...
Wow, super cool... my first brush with electronics! I am curious, how can you change the rate of flashing? Also, how would you apply this circuit to producing a audible noise (sine wave)? Again, thanks so much!
23rd November 2014 8:59pm
Steve (UK) says...
Hi James, I'm so pleased that I've interested you in electronics. You are where I was 50 years ago. The flashing rate is controlled by the two pairs of resistor/capacitor R2/C1 and R3/C2. Increase the values of the two capacitors to slow the flashing rate. Decrease the values to increase the flash rate. You cannot use this circuit to produce a sine wave but you can make it produce audible signals. Signals become audible at around 5Hz to 16KHz. If you decrease the capacitor values so ... Read More
23rd November 2014 11:46pm

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