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Welcome to Mbots. I'm Dustin and this is
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the LED blinker circuit.
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Welcome to this video on the LED blinker
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circuit. This circuit is part of our
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circuit component super series on the
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website. This video is to show the
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assembly of that LED blinker circuit.
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I'm not going to go too much into how
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this circuit works. Some of that was
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gone over on the website on that third
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part of this 12-part series titled How
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Components Work Together in Real
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Circuits: Having Components Join Forces.
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I'll leave the link to everything I'm
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talking about here down in the
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description of this video and I might
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also uh place some imagery in the video
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as well. So again, all I wanted to do
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for this video was to just show the
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assembly of the LED blinker circuit and
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let's jump into that right now. So, as
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you can see here, I have in front of me
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the components and items that we'll need
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to assemble this LED blinker circuit. I
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have here a basic 9V battery with a
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battery snap connector attached to it
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ready to go with its uh negative and
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positive uh lead wires. I have a
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breadboard here. I have two 10
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microfarad polarized capacitors or
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electrolytic capacitors. I have a couple
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of jumper wires here, one red one and
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one orange one. I have another couple of
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longer red jumper wires here. These are
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more of your typical solid core uh
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jumper wires. I'll have to bend these
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later to get them to uh bend the way I
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need them to or bend them in submission.
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I have another couple of smaller blue
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jumper wires here. Also, the typical
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solid core wire. I also have a couple of
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resistors here. These are two 47,000
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ohm resistors or 47 kohm resistors. And
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I have two other uh resistors here that
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are both the value of 470 ohms. Right
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uh NPN transistors. These happen to be
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transistors. And I have my red and blue
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LEDs here. And these are the LEDs that
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we're going to try to get to uh blink
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for us for this LED blinker circuit. So,
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if you were to look at the blog post for
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this particular circuit in our circuit
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component super series, that's the post
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how components work together in real
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circuits or part three of the series. It
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starts off with connecting the 9volt
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battery to the breadboard, but I'm not
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going to do that. I'm going to go ahead
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and put the components onto the board
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itself. And then the last thing I'll do
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is connect the 9volt battery to the
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breadboard. So, the first thing that I'm
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going to do is go ahead and put the two
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the two NPN transistors onto the
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breadboard. And I have the transistor
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face or the flat face of the transistor
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pointing directly towards me. And the
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legs of this particular NPN transistor
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going from left to right is emitter,
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base and collector. So the emitter is on
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the left, the base is in the middle and
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the collector is the right lead with the
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flat face facing towards me. So again,
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I'm going to place both of these
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transistors flat face facing towards me.
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And I'm going to put the three legs of
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on column B or excuse me, column C in
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the rows four, five, and six. So I have
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the emitter in column C, row four. I
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have the base lead at column C row five
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and I have the collector lead on column
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And if I pick up my circuit here
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and show you a little closer,
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that's the flat face of this transistor.
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You can see it's a PN222A.
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I have its emitter leg on column C, row
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four, the base at column C, row five,
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and the collector at column C, row six.
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So next, I'll put the second transistor
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again having the flat face facing
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towards me. And I'm going to place the
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legs for this transistor on column C and
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at rows 14, 15, and 16. Next, what I
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want to do is I want to connect the
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emitters for both of the transistors to
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ground. And I'm going to have this rail
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here, this blue rail with the negative
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sign be my negative or common ground
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rail. And I'm going to have this red
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power rail here with the plus sign be my
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positive power supply or the positive
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side of my power supply for this rail
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here. So, I'm going to reserve those two
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as my positive and negative rails. So,
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I'm going to take one of my shorter blue
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jumper wires and place one jumper wire
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at column B into row four that's in line
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this transistor's emitter leg going to
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ground. So, just so you know, looking at
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the schematic that is provided on the
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website, this is my Q1 and Q2
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And I'll take this other blue jumper
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wire. And just as I did for the first
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transistor, I'm going to place one side
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of the jumper wire in line with the
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emitter pin of or the emitter lead of
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the second transistor and the other end
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of that jumper wire to ground. So now I
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have both of the emitters for each of
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these transistors going directly to
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ground. Next, I'm going to take one of
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my 10 microfarad capacitors.
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Making sure that I have it in proper
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This gray line here is
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referencing the negative lead of this
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capacitor, this polarized capacitor.
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That would be the cathode. So that gray
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line here means that this lead here is
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the negative and the other one is the
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positive. Okay. So I'm going to place it
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in row H. Sorry, I'm going to place it
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in column H at rows five and six. And
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I'm going to take the second 10
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microfarad capacitor and I'm going to
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place its leads into column H rows 15
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and 16. So just so you know, I have the
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cathode of this capacitor representing
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C1 from the schematic. It's negative
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lead going in to column H, row six. and
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C2 here as referenced from the schematic
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from the website. I'll also provide that
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schematic down in the description below.
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This capacitor C2, its negative lead is
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And I'll give a closeup view of what
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that looks like so far.
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So, this is how the circuit setup is as
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we'll continue on from there. Next, what
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I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead
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the red LED onto the breadboard.
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And I'm going to take the longer lead of
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the LED. This longer lead here is going
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to be the anode or the positive lead of
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this LED. And I'm going to place it near
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the first capacitor, capacitor C1, as
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referenced from the schematic. And I'm
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going to place that anode into column G
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row 4. And then I'm going to place the
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cathode of the LED on column G row 5.
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And that cathode of the red LED will be
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that positive lead of the capacitor. And
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now I'm going to take one of the 470 ohm
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and I'm going to place one of its leads
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in line with the anode of the red LED
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and the other end of the resistor
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into my positive power rail here. And
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now I'm going to take the blue LED and
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I'm going to do the same thing as I did
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with the red LED. I'm going to place its
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longer lead or the positive lead of the
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blue LED into column G row 14. And the
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negative lead or cathode of the blue LED
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is going to be at the point column G row
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15 which is in line with the positive
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leg or lead of this second capacitor or
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C2 if you're referencing the schematic.
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Again, I'm going to take one of these
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470 ohm resistors. I'm going to place
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one end of it in line with the anode of
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the blue LED and the other end of the
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resistor. Its leg is going to go into
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the positive power rail of the
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breadboard. So now in order to complete
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the timing side of the circuit, I have
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my timing capacitors. Now I'm going to
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take my timing resistors, which is just
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a couple of 47 km resistors or 47,000
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ohm resistors. I'm going to take one of
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those 47 K ohm resistors and I'm going
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to take one lead or one end of that
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resistor and place it in line with the
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negative or cathode lead of capacitor C1
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as referenced on the schematic. So, I
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have one lead of that 47 km resistor on
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column I, row six. And I'm going to take
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this other 47 km resistor, and place one
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end of it in line with this second
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capacitor, its cathode lead or negative
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row 16. And the other end of that
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resistor is going to go into the
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positive rail for our power supply. So
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and show you a little closer,
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this is how the circuit looks so far
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and where everything is going.
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So you can get a good look at it.
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So now I'm going to continue and we're
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almost done here. I'm just going to
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first connect the negative of each the
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negative lead of each capacitor to the
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base of its opposing transistor.
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I'm going to do that first because it's
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just going to be easier that way for me.
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So, what I mean is I'm going to if I'm
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looking at the first capacitor or
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capacitor C1, if you're looking or
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referencing the schematic,
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I'm going to put one end of my jumper
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wire in line with the negative terminal
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of that capacitor and I'm going to place
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the other end of this jumper wire at the
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base of this opposite side transistor.
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So, if you're referencing the provided
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I'm going from the negative leg or lead
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or the cathode lead of capacitor C1
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to the base of transistor Q2 as
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referenced in the provided schematic for
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the LED blinker circuit. I'm going to
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red jumper wire here and I'm going to do
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two or C2 as referenced on the schematic
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the same as I did for capacitor C1. I'm
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going to take this jumper wire and place
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it in line with that capacitor C2 as
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referenced in the schematic. I'm going
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to place it in line with its cathode
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lead. I'm going to take the other end of
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this jumper wire and place it in line
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transistor Q1, as referenced on the
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provided schematic for this LED blinker
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circuit. So, if I show you a closeup
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that I've taken one of these long red
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jumper wires. They're kind of too long,
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but that's what I have. I place one end
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of that jumper wire in line with the
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cathode of this capacitor. This is
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capacitor C1 as referenced on the
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provided schematic. That is at column F,
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row six here. The other end of this same
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jumper wire goes in line with the base
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of this transistor, transistor Q2 as
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referenced on the schematic diagram at
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And this other second jumper wire, one
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end is placed at column F, row 16 in
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line with the cathode of capacitor C2
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here. And the other end is placed at the
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point column D, row 5 in line with the
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base of transistor Q1 as referenced from
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the schematic diagram provided.
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Now I just need to make the connections
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from the collectors to the capacitors.
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Therefore closing the path that we need
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for our timing part of the circuit. I'm
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going to take one end of this orange
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jumper wire and place it in line with
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the positive lead of this capacitor C1.
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I have it at the point column J row
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five. And I'm going to take the other
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end of it and place it in line with the
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that is at point column E, row six on my
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breadboard. And I'm going to take this
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blue jumper wire here. And similarly,
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I'm going to place one end of this
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jumper wire in line with the anode of
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capacitor C2 here. It's this capacitor
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here with its positive lead or its
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anode. And I'm going to place the other
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end of this jumper wire in line with the
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collector of transistor Q2 as referenced
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on the schematic. And I've placed it at
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the point column E row 16 on my
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breadboard here. So, before I hook up
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the battery to my circuit and test this
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out, I'm just going to show you a closer
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look here as to how this circuit looks.
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It looks awful right now, but I'm using
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what I have to be able to accomplish
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what it is that we want to do, and
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that's to create this simple LED blinker
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So the next thing that we need to do is
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just hook up the power
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our circuit here. So to do that, I'm
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going to take the positive
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lead of my 9volt battery and place it
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into my positive power rail here. And
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then I'm going to place the negative
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lead of my 9volt battery somewhere, it
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doesn't matter, on my negative rail. And
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the circuit lights up. And we have a LED
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So, if you're curious about creating
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this circuit yourself and need more on
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content and how the circuit works, I
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encourage you to check out on how
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components work together in real
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circuits where you can find more about
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this particular LED blinker circuit and
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more on components. So, I highly suggest
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that you go check out that circuit
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component super series where you can
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learn more about circuits and
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components. It's a 12-part super series.
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This is for part three of that series
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and we'll eventually work our way to
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creating a robot and doing much more in
19:07
that series. So, I highly suggest you go
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check that out. I appreciate you
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spending your time with me here. I hope
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that you were able to create this
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circuit. It's a lot of fun and it's
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really neat. And if you ask me, I think
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it looks like police car lights. So,
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this was a really neat and fun circuit.
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I hope you try it. Again, thanks for
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joining us here at Mbots. Until next
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time, keep at it and stay motivated.
