Wiring schema blogs

 The circuit described here is that of a metal detector. The opera- tion of the circuit is based on superheterodyning principle which is commonly used in superhet receivers. The circuit utilises two RF oscillators. The frequencies of both oscillators are fixed at 5.5 MHz. The first RF oscillator comprises transistor T1 (BF 494) and a 5.5MHz ceramic filter commonly used in TV sound-IF section. The second oscillator is a Colpitt’s oscillator realised with the help of transistor T3 (BF494) and inductor L1 (whose construction details follow) shunted by trimmer capacitor VC1. These two oscillators’ frequencies (say Fx and Fy) are mixed in the mixer transistor T2 (another BF 494) and the difference or the beat frequency (Fx-Fy) output from collector of transistor T2 is connected to detector stage comprising diodes D1 and D2 (both OA 79). The output is a pulsating DC which is passed through a low-pass filter realised with the help of a 10k resistor R12 and two 15nF capacitors C6 and C10. It is then passed to AF amplifier IC1 (2822M) via volume
control VR1 and the output is fed to an 8-ohm/1W speaker. The inductor L1 can be constructed using 15 turns of 25SWG wire on a 10cm (4-inch) diameter air-core former and then cementing it with insulating varnish. For proper operation of the circuit it is critical that frequencies of both the oscillators are the same so as to obtain zero beat in the absence of any metal in the near vicinity of the circuit. The alignment of oscillator 2 (to match oscillator 1 frequency) can be done with the help of trimmer capacitor VC1. When the two frequencies are equal, the beat frequency is zero, i.e. beat frquency=Fx-Fy=0, and thus there is no sound from the loudspeaker. When search coil L1 passes over metal, the metal changes its inductance, thereby changing the second oscillator’s frequency. So now Fx-Fy is not zero and the loudspeaker sounds. Thus one is able to detect presence of metal.

Author:
Source: http://www.electronics-lab.com

Do your kids leave the door to the refrigerator open? Or does your celery reach out to keep the door from closing properly when you turn your back? Heres a simple circuit that beeps whenever the door is open for an extended period of time (which will also put a little pressure on the fridge loiterers in the house). 

The photocell has a very high resistance in the dark which drops very low when the door opens and the light turns on. The 22 uF capacitor begins to charge and when the voltage reaches the zener voltage, the beeper sounds. Closing the door allows the capacitor to discharge through the 10 meg.  resistor, resetting the beeper. The circuit draws very little power when the door is shut and only draws significant current when the beeper is sounding. The transistor may be a single NPN darlington such as the MPS-A14 or two 2N4401s connected as shown. Other types will also work. The delay may be changed by changing the value of the capacitor. It may be a good idea to add a 10 uF capacitor across the battery.

Does this sound familiar: you buy a small piece of equipment, such as a programming & debugging interface for a microcontroller, and you have to use a clunky AC wall adapter to supply it with power? It’s even worse when you’re travelling and there’s no mains socket anywhere in sight. Of course, you can use the USB bus directly as a power source if the supply voltage is 5 V. If you need a higher voltage, you can use the USB converter described here. This small switch-mode step-up converter can generate an output voltage of up to 15 V with a maximum output current of 150 mA.

The LM3578 is a general-purpose switchmode voltage converter. Figure 1 shows its internal block diagram. Here we use it as a step-up converter. The circuit diagram in Figure 2 shows the necessary components. Voltage conversion is achieved by switching on the internal transistor until it is switched off by the comparator or the current-limiting circuit. The collector current flows through coil L1, which stores energy in the form of a magnetic field. When the internal transistor is switched off, the current continues flowing through L1 to the load via diode D1. However, the voltage across the coil reverses when this happens, so it is added to the input voltage. The resulting output voltage thus consists of the sum of the input voltage and the induced voltage across the coil.

The output voltage depends on the load current and the duty cycle of the internal transistor. Voltage divider R5/R6 feeds back a portion of the output voltage to the comparator in the IC in order to regulate the output voltage. C5 determines the clock frequency, which is approximately 55 kHz. Network R4, C2 and C3 provides loop compensation. The current-sense resistor for the current-limiting circuit is formed by three 1-Ω resistors in parallel (R1, R2 and R3), since SMD resistors with values less than 1 Ω are hard to find. The output voltage ripple is determined by the values and internal resistances of capacitors C11, C8, C7 and C6.

 

The total effective resistance is reduced by using several capacitors, and this also keeps the construction height of the board low. L2, C1, C9 and C10 act as an input filter. Ensure that the DC resistance of coil L2 is no more than 0.5 Ω. Use a Type B PCB-mount USB connector for connection to the USB bus.  A terminal strip with a pitch of 5.08 mm can be used for the output voltage connector. Of course, you can also solder a cable directly to the board. Two additional holes are provided in the circuit board for this purpose. As we haven’t been able to invent a device that produces more energy than it consumes, you should bear in mind that the input current of the circuit is higher than the output current. As a general rule, you can assume that the input current is equal to the product of the output current and the output voltage divided by the input R5 and R6 for other output voltages:

voltage and divided again by 0.8. Specifically, with an output current of 100 mA at 9 V, the input current on the USB bus is approximately 225 mA. Finally, Figure 3 shows a small PCB layout for the circuit. All of the components except the connector and the terminal strip are SMDs.

Author : Jörg Schnyder  copyright : Elektor