Need help with a goofy project

[DavidJNichols]

I know it's technically not tube amp related, but you guys have so much knowledge, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to ask.

My 5 year old son has taken an interest in my pedal building. He doesn't play guitar, but I had a cool idea for a "pedal" to build for him.

I have a few dozen 3mm LEDs laying around that I want to use. I want to create a pedal with an on/off switch and a bunch of LEDs, so it basically just lights up when you switch it on. Also, I just finished building a few EA tremolo pedals that have the flashing LEDs that correspond to the rate of the tremolo. I'd like to put one knob on the pedal that would change the rate at which the LEDs flashed, just like in the tremolo schematic. If possible, I would also like the LEDs to pulse more than just flash.

Here's the EA tremolo schematic and the wiring diagram that explains the flashing LED:
Schem: http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf ... a841b3e85a
Wiring Diagram: http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf ... a841b3e85a

When wiring multiple LEDs, can I simply wire a few dozen of them in series? Also, which parts of this EA Tremolo schematic correspond to the pulse of the effect? Any idea on how to get them to pulse rather than just flash?

I think this could be a fun project and any help I can get would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

David

[Bob S]

Hi David,
There's some inexpensive project kits on ebay - nightfire electronics?
check out the link below for series/parallel led's.

led.linear1.org/led.wiz

Have Fun,
Bob

[xtian]

This:

http://thingm.com/products.html

Awesome sauce.

[katopan]

Either a transistor based astable multivibrator circuit or 555 chip based oscillator would be dirt cheap and could provide the on/off control pulses. Then if by pulse you mean have the LEDs fade from on/off instead of instantaneously switching, a cap across the LEDs fed from the normal current limiting resistor will make for a smooth and slower transistion between on/off. Or a sinewave oscillator like the circuit around Q3 in the EA Trem. Does the circuit on the top right look familiar on this site: http://members.shaw.ca/roma/twenty-three.html

[Structo]

Hi David,
There's some inexpensive project kits on ebay - nightfire electronics?
check out the link below for series/parallel led's.

led.linear1.org/led.wiz

Have Fun,
Bob

http://vakits.com/catalog/led-kits