How to make a LED pulse??

[MrSelfDestruct]

I was looking around on the internet a few days ago and saw a new mac that had a cool feature. When it would go into sleep mode, the power led would pulse, supposedly so it would like like it was "breathing". Anyways I thought it would be neat to do this, but just have the led pulse all the time. I did a little research, but I don't know how this would be done. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

[KILLorBE]

If you tell me how fast it needs to pulse I'll see what I can do (It might take a while as I don't have much time on my hands right now).

You could also get a blinking LED from radioshack ($1.79 for a 600mcd Green LED, and $1.29 for a Green or Red ~300mcd LED).

BTW: what kinda LED do you wanna use? (Blue, Red, Green....Ultra Bright....etc).

 

[Captain Slug]

Here's a review of one that's available at PCmods for $19

But if you can, you could probably build it cheaper.


And here's a complicated guide on how to build a Cold Cathode pulser/throbber

 

[KILLorBE]

But if you can, you could probably build it cheaper.

I noticed they have a how-to at Rabid Hardware (Here)
Saves me some time

Thanks for the link Captain.

 

[MrSelfDestruct]

THANKS

Hey guys thanks for the answers! Thanks for the link KILLorBE, and I would probably want to use a blue or purple (UV??) led and would want it to pulse rather slowly....

 

[Mikey7]

do you think that pulser kit can be hooked up to the LED's on the acrylic fans?

 

[BinarySuperman]

wow i've been lookin for a link to one of these, thanks captain.

 

[Veland]

The bit-tech throbber isn't too complicated to build. I got it right the first way round and has 4 CC's slowly fading in and out. A nice effect.. The only downside is the throbbing speed control which is too coarse. Turn it too far and it's a strobe, try to reduce and it fades over a couple of seconds.. Can probably be tuned if you know more electronics..

 

[Turbokeu]

do you think that pulser kit can be hooked up to the LED's on the acrylic fans?

Yes it can if you mod the fans to have a separate wire for powering the leds.

I did it to my four Antec blue led fans.
I have pictures of the mod on my homepage (http://www.turbokeu.com) but I did not have the time yet to add the comments...

CD

 

[Temo Vryce]

My suggestion would be to make yourself a 555 timer circuit and connect the LED to it via a Relay. You could control the speed of the blinking by using a variable resistor (Pot.). I hope that this idea helps you out some how.

 

[Turando]

would also suggest a 555 timer, but... to really have it your own way you would wanna write yourown code, but can easily be done without