design help needed

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Seeking someone that can design a circuit for me to send to have pcb board printed.

I have a basic circuit designed and need a few changes made and test it to see if my idea will work.

Mainly a 555 timer to control a led lighthouse with a solar panel to charge the batteries.

I can email the circuit to anyone that can help.

Old guy,
Pete
 

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Is this a paying gig? if not, why don’t you just post your circuit? In fact, why don’t you just post your circuit and questions, regardless? Is this a proprietary lighthouse?
 

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I'd like to have a file made with a circuit that I can send to a company to create the PCB boards for me to have a few of these to install in garden-size lighthouses that we float on foam-looking islands to navigate remote control boats on our pond we use.

I was able to solder two boards but they're not reliable. I had a few club members send me circuit diagrams, but if someone has a better idea that works I'm open to it. The one change I'd like is there a way to use a potentiometer to change the rate of the speed of the flashing light.
 

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  • Test Lighthouse Circuit with 555.pdf
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Is the pot needed because your design does not have repeatable specific flash rates due
to T and V and Component tolerances ?


Regards, Dana.
 

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I've made much more complicated circuits using vector
board that have stood up to "industrial" use. There may
be reasons other than basic construction method (like
insertion polarities, solder bridges, cold joints and so on).

Without knowing why "stuff" is failing you can't say that
you have a "design" worth the "commitment" that a PCB
is, in the end, to "I'm-a go with this wiring and that's it".

For a "run" of a handful of pieces you probably won't
come out far ahead by going PCB. Depending on your
"internal labor rate", if > $0.00/hr.

For a marine application I would def look at potting /
conformal coating (like maybe plasti-dip?) once the
articles are "tweaked in".
 

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Your circuit makes zero sense. First of all, when you've got +9V and -9V, that implies you've got 18V between those points. I think you mean 9VReturn or something similar.

But more problematic, you've got the "-12V" from the solar cell connected to +9V of the battery. Then you've got that connected through a diode to the output of a regulator. The output of the regulator goes nowhere else. I just don't understand what you're trying to do here. If you're just trying to blink an LED, use the standard 555 astable circuit, and drive an NPN with the output.
 

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I can see some flaws in the schematic. 470 should go between 7 and 6 and Pin 4 needs a pullup to use your 5V Solar reset threshold.
You also may need a cap on pin 8 to 1.

But rather than ask a bunch of questions, why don't you list the range of all voltages for battery, solar power and what LED current and flash rate for your lighthouse when it is dark.

Provide links to parts for better answers
--- Updated ---

Correction:
- 470 is more like 470k for a lighthouse flash rate (?)
- 47k must go to discharge pin 7 for ON time of 9% unless you want 1%....
 
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