Strobe Light | Electronic Project Circuits

Posts Tagged ‘strobe light’

120V Strobe Light by SCR

120 volts from the AC line is fused and then passes through a half wave voltage doubler consisting of 2 redtifier diodes and a capacitor generating a voltage of around 330-340VDC. This is then used to charge a capacitor. Across the capacitor is a 1 megaohm resistor to bleed the charge off when power is disconnected. Also across the capacitor is a Xenon strobe tube. Another .68 microfarad capacitor charges throuhg a 1.8 megaohm resistor until it reaches the breakover voltage of a neon lamp. The neon lamp then dumps the charge into the gate of a silicon controlled rectifier which is shunted by another resistor. This turns the SCR on which takes the rest of the charge and dumps it into the primary of a trigger transformer. This voltage is then stepped up to around 3000kV at a low current which is applied to the outer envelope of the Xenon tube. This ionizes the xenon gas in the tube, forming a conductive channel which quickly discharges the main storage capacitor, resulting in a bright flash. The process repeats until power is removed.

Be the first to comment - What do you think? Posted by admin - April 6, 2008 at 12:26 pm

Categories: Lighting Tags: flashing strobe, strobe light

Xenon Strobe

This is a very simple strobe circuit which I have not seen anywhere else. My inspiration came from a strobe circuit that was in a school fire alarm buzzer – the kind that has a built-in strobe light on top.

Description:
It’s a pretty simple circuit which some of you may be able to figure out, but I’ll include this description for beginners and others of you who may not be as familiar with the characteristics of Xenon tubes.
As the power comes in, it passes through the large current limiting resistor which we will refer to as R1. This resistor’s purpose is to prevent the current input from the AC line from maintaining the arc in the Xenon tube. If this did occur, the high current would place excessive wear on the electrodes. Also, undesirable metal haze would be deposited on the inside of the tube which would reflect heat back and further shorten its life.
Source: Robert Dvoracek
http://kickme.to/lightningstalker