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Project Notes

#610 Laser Ray

Testing a “laser ray” light and sound effectbased on the 555 timer.

Build

Here’s a quick demo..

clip

Notes

This is an old circuit that supposedly produces a “laser ray” effect - sound beats and blinking LED. It works; nothing to write home about though!

Construction

An 8Ω speaker can be directly attached to C2, however for this build I’ve attached a piezo buzzer (J1) with biasing resistors (R3, R4).

The circuit needs at least 5V to operate. Higher voltages up to ~12V can be used, and the voltage changes the effect. I’ve provided two power points:

  • micro USB with switch - taps 5V from USB
  • JST connector for direct power (bypasses the switch)

bb

schematic

bb_build

Credits and References

About LEAP#610 555 TimerAudioLED
Project Source on GitHub Project Gallery Return to the LEAP Catalog

This page is a web-friendly rendering of my project notes shared in the LEAP GitHub repository.

LEAP is just my personal collection of projects. Two main themes have emerged in recent years, sometimes combined:

  • electronics - usually involving an Arduino or other microprocessor in one way or another. Some are full-blown projects, while many are trivial breadboard experiments, intended to learn and explore something interesting
  • scale modelling - I caught the bug after deciding to build a Harrier during covid to demonstrate an electronic jet engine simulation. Let the fun begin..
To be honest, I haven't quite figured out if these two interests belong in the same GitHub repo or not. But for now - they are all here!

Projects are often inspired by things found wild on the net, or ideas from the many great electronics and scale modelling podcasts and YouTube channels. Feel free to borrow liberally, and if you spot any issues do let me know (or send a PR!). See the individual projects for credits where due.