LED lighthouse

[Mike6158]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by madscientist:
NE5U,
it's tropical. I m pretty sure sunlight's aplenty all year round, Gee, I badly need a complete working circuit diagram now.<hr></blockquote>
Pretty sure? Actually your just a little over a degree above the equator and you have less than you think. What about clouds? How frequent are those? The earth has a bit of a wobble to it too... Insolation is an important term to understand...<p>Insolation Info
and
More Insolation Info<p>The average insolation (10 year average)for Singapore city is 4.61 kWh/m2/day. BTW- Oddly enough insolation has units of kWh/m2/day but most people refer to this value as sun hours / day. <p>Solar Energy Required in Amps = (Current (in aH/Day) * 1.2) / Insolation

[madscientist]

haha, i dun tink this circuit uses so much power to warrent such calculations, hehe, so anyone can help me design that type of circuit?

[Mike6158]

If you don't have the circuit designed... how do you know what it will use? You don't.<p>You are underestimating the importance of a total package design. Get one piece of the whole wrong and you fail.<p>(1) "The leds need to be operating only in the dark." A simple photocell in a voltage divider that turns on a MOSFET will take care of this one. The LED's ground conection would be thru the MOSFET. There's probably other ways to do it.<p>(2) Dean Huster offered a circuit to do what you want as far as ramping the LED's. Someone else recommended a PIC solution.

[Mike6158]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Enzo:
Call signs start with N these days? I'll be darned. I gotta start reading more.<hr></blockquote><p>Actually... I think the N callsign has been around for quite a awhile. These days, if the callsign is available, you can "buy it" and make it yours. HAM has changed a lot since I first got interested in it. I didn't get my license until recently. I've been interested in it since I was a kid. I took every test, including the 5 WPM code test, in one sitting. I don't recommend doing it that way. It's one thing to pass a test (aced all of them) and quite another to operate. I was so lost when it came time to make my first contact that it wasn't funny. My first contact was to check in to the Maritime Mobile Services Net. Thankfully they were kind to a newb. Remind me of a line from The Search for the Holy Grail- "I got better"

[Ed B.]

Dean Huster
I have that circuit on a floppy disc -<p>A:\FIGURE 1.jpg<p>How do I get it into an answer for this particular forum ? ? ? ?<p>Ed Barr

[CeaSaR]

First you have to upload the picture to the web somewhere. I use Yahoo! Geocities (yes, I am a heretic ) - it's free and you can upload there without putting them into a web page . Then you have to link to the picture using the IMAGE button underneath the Instant UBB Code header. That's all there is to it.<p>CeaSaR

[rshayes]

NE5U:<p>I have an old (1933) Radio Amateur's Handbook that indicates that K, N, and W were all prefixes assigned to the United States. There was a station using the sign NAA that used to transmit time singnals on the low frequency band. I think that this may have been set up by the US Navy sometime in the 1920's or earlier.<p>The N prefix has been available for a long time but I suspect the FCC had a policy of only using W and K prefixes for broadcasting and amateur stations until fairly recently.

[dyarker]

For years I assumed from casual observation of commercial stations, that East of the Mississippi River started with "W", and those West started with "K"; broadcasters got four letters; private, government and amateur stations got letters and numbers mixed. While I was in an Aero club, I remember learning that all U.S. registered (non-military) aircraft had call signs starting with "N". (Commercial flights use flight number, but tail number starts with "N".) Interesting that "NE5U" was available as a ground based call.<p>Anybody have a book newer Stephen's?

[madscientist]

precisely that's the point, i need help on the circuit design. pic solution is way out for me. ne5u, can u piece out a circuit diagram for me? cos i m quite confused about wat u r toking abt,

[Edd]

Diggging deeeep down into my circuit archives. This is as ‘bout as simple as it could get
without more refined circuitry to be handled by a novice,limited materiel/tools and an impending time restraint.(And a happy Year of the Rooster to you ……ka….ching…TODAY….cock a doodle dooooo)..<p>http://www.geocities.com/OzDCC/lighthse.htm

(((Note that the circuit is designed leaning towards a higher voltage and lamp power, so a mod of using a 9 VDC battery connected to the power input should sub for the miniscule main power drain level, while the wire shown connected to the power input going to the 3 W lamp is lifted and then connected to your specified lower voltage /power source and a lamp in the order of a std 3 cell flashlight bulb is used for its milder power consumption characteristics.)))<p>73’s de Edd
[email protected] .........(Interstellar~~~~Warp~~~Speed)
[email protected].........(Firewalled-Spam*Cookies*Crumbs)
<p>[ February 09, 2005: Message edited by: Edd Whatley ]</p>

[madscientist]

Edd Whatley,<p>I do need 2 sets of leds to light alternatingly*.<p>* - if there's such a word.<p>

[philba]

maybe I'm being unreasonable but you sure are putting out a lot of effort to avoid learning something.

[Edd]

What!…you also want double meat, extra cheese and fries with that order ?
Maybe I need more info, as I just interpreted this to merely be a simulation of what a lighthouse would appear as viewed by a person from a single fixed distant point. ( Although the beam, in reality, would be swinging into a full 360 circle coverage). Also, with the unit merely being a small low powered model/toy mock up, e.g. like for a model railroad setup, not a functioning as a real time … two opposite- directional ? coverage unit.
(I do need 2 sets of leds to light alternatingly*….alternatively). 73’s de Edd<p>[email protected] .........(Interstellar~~~~Warp~~~Speed)
[email protected].........(Firewalled-Spam*Cookies*Crumbs)
<p>(In accordance with the progressive/predictable decade sequencing as seen in 20, 30, 40.....)
I wonder why 11 wasn't called onety one ?<p>[ February 09, 2005: Message edited by: Edd Whatley ]</p>

[Mike6158]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Dale Y:
Interesting that "NE5U" was available as a ground based call.<p>Anybody have a book newer Stephen's?<hr></blockquote><p>I do. I have a couple of different ones. But I'm not at home.<p>I'm still pretty sure that the N prefix has been around for HAM's for a long, long time. Maybe not. If I can find the time I'll check the ARRL Website.

[madscientist]

need to power up 3 leds at 3.5v each. The leds need to be operating only in the dark. There are 2 sets of leds, they have to alternately switch on and off while operating (dimming in, holding and dimming out; one set on, the other off). There wont be AC source, so I have to use solar power to charge up the power source of the leds during the day. I was thinking of using NiMH batteries. Since this circuit will be used outdoors for a very long period of time, it has to be small, light and maintainence free. Personally, I have a tight budget and have limited access to specialized components. Seriously, I only know about soldering and nothing else on electronics.