Easily Made DIY Stroboscope

As you certainly know, our eyes see based on the light that reaches them. While this normally works extremely well, the way our sight — as well as video cameras used to record our projects — views things can be tricked into thinking a rotating object is actually still if the light reaching it is timed just right.

That’s the idea behind this DIY stroboscope by Mr. Innovative. It uses an Arduino Nano for control, along with a potentiometer for input, and a tiny OLED display to tell the user at what RPM it is set. Depending on this setting, a 10W LED is pulsed in sequence via a PN2222A transistor.

Interestingly, the body of this stroboscope is constructed out of what appears to be foam board, showing that you don’t actually need advanced tools to make something interesting.

Power for the device’s LED is provided by a DC jack, and the business end of this stroboscope features a reflective material to focus light in the correct direction. As seen in the video below, it can take a spinning sign, and depending on how its adjusted, cause it to appear still or at least rotate very slowly. Code for the build can be found here.