Showing posts with label make. Show all posts
Showing posts with label make. Show all posts
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Automatic Vehicle Headlight Dipper Dimmer Circuit
You must have come across this irritating situation while driving at night when you find the headlight focus from an opposite vehicle falling straight in your eyes, making things difficult to assess, giving rise to a situation of a collision or some kind of possible accident.
Incidentally, the driver of the opposite vehicle might be going through the same situation due to the headlight focus from your vehicle.
Such situations are normally tackled by using manual dipper switch mechanism, where the driver is prompted to "dip" the focus of his headlight, thus giving the opposite vehicle a chance to adjust his vehicle and also an indication that he too needs to "dip" his vehicle lamps.
However, doing the above operation manually, every now and then can become horribly laborious and troublesome, therefore if some kind of automatic system is Incorporated, can help to save this headache of the driver, especially while he is driving in stressful conditions and on dangerous highways.
How to make an automatic vehicle headlight dipper/dimmer circuit
The following diagram describes a simple yet effective auto head lamp dipper or dimmer circuit. The transistor is used as a comparator, which compares the preset resistance level and the LDR resistance level with reference to ground.
Light falling over the LDR from the headlight of the vehicle coming from the front instantly lowers its resistance and allows more current to flow to the base of the transistor.
The transistor conducts and activates the relay, which in turn flips the contacts such that the host vehicles headlamps gets connected with the dipper filament, changing its intensity.
The whole circuit may be enclosed in a small box and installed somewhere near the drivers dashboard area, however the LDR needs to be wired and placed out of the enclosure, in some corner of the wind shield, so that it is able to "see the light from the opposite vehicles just as the driver would see them.
Parts List
R1 = 1K,
P1 = 10 K,
LDR = With resistance @ around 10 to 50 K when illuminated in daylight (under shade).
T1 = BC547,
D1 = 1N4007
Relay = coil 400 Ohms, DPDT, 12 volts
Incidentally, the driver of the opposite vehicle might be going through the same situation due to the headlight focus from your vehicle.
Such situations are normally tackled by using manual dipper switch mechanism, where the driver is prompted to "dip" the focus of his headlight, thus giving the opposite vehicle a chance to adjust his vehicle and also an indication that he too needs to "dip" his vehicle lamps.
However, doing the above operation manually, every now and then can become horribly laborious and troublesome, therefore if some kind of automatic system is Incorporated, can help to save this headache of the driver, especially while he is driving in stressful conditions and on dangerous highways.
How to make an automatic vehicle headlight dipper/dimmer circuit
The following diagram describes a simple yet effective auto head lamp dipper or dimmer circuit. The transistor is used as a comparator, which compares the preset resistance level and the LDR resistance level with reference to ground.
Light falling over the LDR from the headlight of the vehicle coming from the front instantly lowers its resistance and allows more current to flow to the base of the transistor.
The transistor conducts and activates the relay, which in turn flips the contacts such that the host vehicles headlamps gets connected with the dipper filament, changing its intensity.
The whole circuit may be enclosed in a small box and installed somewhere near the drivers dashboard area, however the LDR needs to be wired and placed out of the enclosure, in some corner of the wind shield, so that it is able to "see the light from the opposite vehicles just as the driver would see them.
Parts List
R1 = 1K,
P1 = 10 K,
LDR = With resistance @ around 10 to 50 K when illuminated in daylight (under shade).
T1 = BC547,
D1 = 1N4007
Relay = coil 400 Ohms, DPDT, 12 volts
Sunday, March 31, 2013
How to Make a Simple 12 Volt LED Lantern Circuit
We have discussed white LEDs comprehensively through many of my earlier articles and have learned how efficient these lights are with power consumption.
In this article we will study a very simple configuration for making a LED lamp or a LED lantern.
New electronic enthusiasts often get confused with the wiring intricacies while configuring many LEDs in groups.
Here we’ll see how we can connect as many as 64 LEDs for making the proposed unit.
The circuit diagram details may be understood from the following points:
White LEDs typically have a forward voltage drop of about 3 volts.
When operated at the above voltage level, the device is able to produce lights at optimum levels and the spec also maintains better life expectancy.
The minimum current required at the above voltage level is around 20 mA, which again is an optimal magnitude and is ideally suited for a white LED.
That means for driving a single white LED in the most straightforward way we would require 3 * 0.02 = 0.06 watts, that’s pretty negligible compared to the relative illumination received from it.
The best thing is that as long as the above voltage and current spec is observed, the device continues to consume 0.06 watts irrespective of the number of LEDs connected.
In the present circuit, the maximum voltage available is 12, dividing 12 by 3 = 4, meaning 4 numbers of LEDs can be accommodated at this voltage and yet we are able to limit the power to 0.06 watts.
However the above calculation would make the circuit quite vulnerable to voltage drops and if the voltage dropped even by a single volt would make the LED too dim or might just shut them OFF, we don’t want this to happen.
Therefore though the efficiency may drop a bit, we opt for a configuration which would enable the circuit to work even at lower voltages. We include only two LEDs in the series @ o.06 watts.
Now it’s all about connecting the desired number of strings of two LEDs each in parallel until all the 64 bulbs are included in the circuit.
However connecting in parallel would mean multiplying current. Since we have 32 parallel connections means the total consumption will now become 32 * 0.06 = 1.92 watts, still pretty much reasonable.
The connection details can be easily traced from the given schematic.
Your simple LED lantern is ready and may be taken anywhere outdoors with you, probably during night time explorations.
Pats List
All resistors are = 470 Ohms, 1.4 watts,
All LEDs are = white, 5mm, hi-efficiency
Diode = 1N4007
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