Simple flasher... I think

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floydian

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I have a simple project I would like to construct for my kids but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it. My daughter is looking at me and I don't want to look like a fool.

Needless to say I'm new to electronics and going it alone.

Here's what I'm looking to do for her.

The idea is to hit a circuit with a brief jolt of electricity.
Given the amount of electricity that hits... I would like to have an LED flash between 1 to 5 times to indicate how much electricity went through.

I'm assuming that since it will be a brief jolt I will need to store the energy for a moment before it is released into the circuit tp be read, but again... I can't figure out how to do this.

The other option (as opposed to a flashing LED) is to have a series of LEDs or an LED bar graph to make the indication.
 
cant I just use a LED bar?

Wouldn't this solve the problem right off the bat without having to create my own circuit?

I think this would make her happy without needing much work.

BUT... if she wants to use the flashing light thing... I'm still stuck.
 
Hint, search for LM3914.
Look at the Electro Tech Online banner, there is a search button, click on that and put LM3914 in the search.
That may do what you want.

However....

Your project is not well specified.

The expressions: "a jolt of electricity", "amount of electricity that hits", "how much electricity went through", dont have any meaning.

Where is this "jolt" going to come from? It needs to be defined in terms of volts.

A bit more information about what you are trying to do would help.

JimB
 
The science project is to create a circuit to measure static electricity.

You know... you rub your feet on the floor and then touch the door and get zapped.

The idea is to show how much voltage is being discharged.

YES YES I know that using a voltimeter is the easy way but we want something more creative.

So I was thinking about the blinking light. 1 blink is 500 volts 2 blinks is 750 3 blinks 1,000 etc.

I didn't want to give too much away because it was her idea.
 

u can use the repelsive effect to measure static elec:
i have read something about this .. but i don't remember where , but that doesn't use electronics
 
floydian said:
The science project is to create a circuit to measure static electricity.
Click to expand...

You've just completely changed your question!, static electricity is VERY different to normal electricity, so you original question doesn't apply.

A device to do this already exists, and your daughters school will presumably already have one? - it's called a 'gold leaf electroscope' (if I remember correctly from my far off school days!).
 
Nigel Goodwin said:
...
it's called a 'gold leaf electroscope' (if I remember correctly from my far off school days!).
Click to expand...

'gold leaf electroscope' ..yes that was the name i forgot
 
Gold leaf Electroscope.

I found that on the net... but it doesn't accomplish what I am looking to do.

I can get an LED to flash by holding one side of the lead while touching a door with the other... but I want to show (in lights) a measurement of the discharge.

Is it even possible?
 

Well, to measure static electricity accurately I believe is outside of the scope of what you really want. Some things to consider:

1) The static electricity you want to measure is when it is discharging so it's not static anymore! Unlike the gold leaf gizmo.

2) The static charges ("jolts") you are looking to quantify (somehow) can range from under 1kV to over 100kV depending on climate, triboelectric materials and a number of other things..

I am not quite sure if I understand your requirements (correct me) but maybe you want a device that could say, detect discharges of 5kV to 50kV
and light up a commensurate amount of LEDS that sort of indicates the magnitude of the discharge?

For example : if the discharge was between 5kV and 10kV only one LED will light. If between 10kV and 15kV then two LEDS would light... and so on ..

The problem them becomes a matter of detecting these levels. You might find a solution using ESD protection devices that you allow to breakover based on the kV level, if you could sense the breakovers you could light the LEDs appropriately assuming of course that the kV discharges don't destroy the rest of your circuit (not at all a trivial task)

Imagine a gas discharge tube specified to breakover at around 5000V, if this could somehow latch an SCR on or something, this could turn on the 5kV LED, if the 10kV discharge tube fired, that SCR would turn on the 10kV LED etc...


I'm just typing out loud for something that is low cost and gives a rough idea of the static discharge you hit it with...
 
optikon... I couldn't have said it better myself.

I don't know that this device needs to be incredibly accurate... but you hit the nail on the head.

Light X # of LED's according to charge OR ave an LED blink numorous times according to discharge.
 
 
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