Bike Flasher

READERS projectS
Compact Warning Flasher

Better safe than sorry
By Peter Lehmann (USA)
This little project should give

peace of mind to bicycle riders
pedaling in the dark without
street lighting. At the same
time it provides early warning to
faster, motorised road users to
pay attention and pass with care.
The project is primarily intended as a red switch providing or removing supply volt- circuit equals 19 mA. So the rate of dis-
warning flasher to be mounted on the rear age alternately to converters IC3 and IC4 at charge equals about C/60 and the battery
of a bicycle, although it is sure to have many about 0.5-second intervals. When converter voltage drops to less than 2.4 V only well
other uses. All parts used should be easy to IC3 is connected to power, flying capaci- towards the end of the discharging cycle.
find and the circuit is highly open to your tor C3 is alternately charged and then dis- Ah, yes, C is the nominal capacity of the bat-
experiments in terms of LED flash rate, LED charged through series connected LEDs D1 tery expressed in mA/hour.
types used, and so on. and D3 at about 1/20th of a second inter-
vals. Converter IC4 is connected to power Circuit board, box and bicycle
How it works as converter IC3 is disconnected, and then A simple circuit board was designed by the
In the circuit diagram shown in Figure 1, operates in the identical active fashion as author to accommodate the parts. The
four identical ICs are seen: the “flying IC3 and associated components, i.e. D2 component layout and associated copper
capacitor”-type DC voltage converter and D4 flashing with electrolytic capaci- track are shown in Figure 2, as well as pro-
ICL7660 from Maxim. The ICL7660 (or its tor C4 acting as the reservoir device in the vided as files you can download from the
‘Maxim’-ised equivalent the MAX1044) charge pump. project web page [2]. All parts are through
can be configured to invert, double, divide hole and mounting and soldering should be
or multiply a positive input voltage — see its Two series connected AAA alkaline batter- a walk in the park provided you work care-
datasheet at [1]. ies power the circuit with a nominal voltage fully. Due attention should be given to the
of 3 V. When the battery voltage has dimin- polarization of the electrolytic capacitors in
In the circuit discussed here, converter IC1 ished to less than 2.4 V, the intensity of the the circuit.
is conventionally configured as a negative LEDs decreases markedly. Fortunately, with
voltage generator. The next one, IC2, func- respect to a battery voltage of 3.0 V (or fully The proposed enclosure for the project is
tions as an SPDT (single-pole double throw) charged), the average current drain by the the Velleman G203 sealed polycarbonate
Note. Readers’ Projects are reproduced based on information supplied by the author(s) only.
The use of Elektor style schematics and other illustrations in this article does not imply the project having passed Elektor Labs for replication to verify claimed operation.
70 09-2011 elektor
READERS projectS
S1
J1 J2
C1
BT1 IC1 8 IC2 8 IC3 8 IC4 8

1000u
2 V+ 2 V+ 2 V+ 2 V+
C2 C+ C+ C3 C+ C4 C+
ICL7660 ICL7660 ICL7660 ICL7660
10u 4 5 4 5 330u 4 5 330u 4 5
C– VOUT C– VOUT C– VOUT C– VOUT
6 6 6 6
LV LV LV LV
7 7 7 7
2x "AA" OSC OSC OSC OSC
GND GND GND GND
C8 C5
3 3 C6 3 D1 C7 3 D2
10u 47n
4n7 4n7
D3 D4
JP1
110216 - 11
Figure 1. The schematic diagram of the flasher is heavily dominated by four ICL7660 20 mA charge pump ICs.
box with a clear cover. The box measures

Caution. This circuit may not be road legal depending on traffic
115 × 65 × 40 mm (4.5 × 2.5 × 1.6 inch). The
laws and safety regulations in your state or country.
component layout includes rectangles at
the four corners of the PCB indicating areas
to be removed allowing it to fit in the G203
box. The four dots on the PCB indicate the
position of mounting holes.
Red LEDs D1-D4 are 10 mm size for two

reasons. Firstly, the 10 mm size has greater
visibility than 5 mm, 5 mm being almost
universally the size of the LEDs of commer-
cially available warning flashers for bikes.
Secondly, 5 mm LEDs would look lost in the
Velleman G203 box.
A waterproof pushbutton switch was fit-

ted on the sidewall of the bottom half of
the box next to IC2 and capacitor C1. The
photograph shows one possible method
of attaching the flasher to a bicycle. This
involves securing a galvanized steel corner
brace to the mounting flange of a single
bolt seat-post through a hole at one end
of the brace. The other leg of the brace is
attached to the G203 box by means of a bolt
through one of the two pre-existing mount-
ing holes of the G203 box.
(110216)
Internet Links and References

[1] www.maxim-ic.com/datasheet/index.
mvp/id/1017/t/al
Figure 2. Parts placement of the proposed PCB, top view of board and trace pattern of
[2] www.elektor.com/110216 board, viewed through top of board. (author’s board design)
elektor 09-2011 71

Bike Flasher

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READERS projectS

Compact Warning Flasher

By Peter Lehmann (USA)

This little project should give

BT1 IC1 8 IC2 8 IC3 8 IC4 8

box with a clear cover. The box measures

Red LEDs D1-D4 are 10 mm size for two

A waterproof pushbutton switch was fit-

Internet Links and References

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