Hey everybody,

I am working on a project for fun and need some advice regarding hardware specifications. What type of light source could I connect to my mbed LPC1768 to transmit morse code? What hardware would I need?(battery, light-source/laser, etc...) How many volts does my battery need to supply to the light source to achieve a certain amount of intensity to then be able to transmit over a certain distance?

Please suggest better ideas that I did not think of to make this project functional.

All help is greatly appreciated!

Hi Code King,

It sounds like you're making a project similar to one I made recently. I used a mains lamp which I switched using a solid state relay with suitable power ratings for mains electricity. I enclosed this all in a box to try to keep things safe, this way I can switch anything with a mains plug on it. Perhaps you won't want to use mains powered lights, but even with battery lights the same principle applies allowing you to keep the light's power and the mbed's circuitry separate to avoid damaging it.

How far your light will be visible is obviously heavily dependent on the weather and the terrain over which you're shining the light. There is also a slight effect of refraction which varies depending on the atmosphere. An excellent website for finding out what is visible from where is http://www.heywhatsthat.com/

How far are you trying to make it visible?

Steve