Break light

The Break light Challenge was a challenge given to me and other joining students at the Formula Student club at University of Manchester. The objective is to 

• Design a brake light circuit suitable for Formula Student Car
• Design the arrangement and the overall the shape of the Brake-light

SPECIFICATION

• Circuit runs off a 12 V supply. The actual supply is through a pressure switch, but from your perspective, it’s equivalent to running off a 12 Volt battery directly.
• Must have at least about 20 high brightness red LEDs. Try not to include too many LED. 20-30 range is desirable.
• You can incorporate creative ideas: For example the LEDs could increase in brightness if the brake is depressed for a longer duration.

To start off with the Break light I used National Instruments Multisim 11 to come up with a circuit. I used the concept of the Knight Rider light in front of the car and designed the following circuit using a 555 timer and a decade counter.

In the circuit the 555 timer acts as a timer for the 4017 decade counter and each time the 555 timer outputs a 1 to the decade counter, it increments the counter by 1 and thus selects the next pin.

I chose to make this circuit as it will attract the attention of the driver who’s behind the car and it is also bright enough to be seen in day light.
Using the schematic diagram above I created the circuit as shown below.


Here is a short video of the project