Schematic Diagram

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Courtesy Light Extender

In essence, this circuit is a 15 to 20-second courtesy light extender for cars. It is activated in the usual way by opening a door but it also samples the negative lock/unlock signals from a car alarm or central locking and does two more things. First, when an unlock signal is received, it turns on the courtesy light for 15-20 seconds before you open the door. Second, when a lock signal is received, it turns off the courtesy light immediately, with no fade-out. This is done to eliminate false triggering of the burglar alarm through current drain sensing. When a car door is open or the unlock relay is activated, the 33µF capacitor discharges through diode D1 and this keeps transistor Q1 turned off.

Circuit diagram:

Courtesy Light Extender Circuit Diagram

This allows Q2 and Q3 to turn on and the courtesy lamp is activated. When the door is closed, the courtesy lamps stay illuminated and the 33µF electrolytic capacitor starts charging through the associated 1MO resistor. As the voltages rises, Q1 turns on slowly, turning off Q2 and Q3 which gradually fades out the courtesy lamp. If a lock signal from the central locking system is received, relay 1 closes and charges the capacitor instantly, so the lamp turns off immediately. Relays were used to interface to the central locking/alarm system as a safety feature, to provide isolation in case something goes wrong.
Author: Matt Downey - Copyright: Silicon Chip Electronics

Sunday, November 9, 2014

A Car Battery Monitor

A close call on the road can really focus your mind on the importance of having a battery monitor in a car. I had been enjoying a pleasant week of travelling around the countryside at a leisurely pace and taking in the beautiful scenery each day. It wasnt until the final day, with the big rush to return home, that I had to drive at night.My home is deep in the country and on the road I was travelling the closest petrol station may be 80km away. I was travelling through an area that is full of open-cut coal mines and large heavily loaded semi-trailers constantly pound the roads, travelling at quite high speeds. It was around 8pm at night and everything was very dark no street lights or house lights anywhere.

Just as I was going up a hill, the lights began to dim and the engine coughed. A large semi-trailer loomed in the rear-vision mirror as I pushed the clutch in and tried to restart. My speed was falling rapidly and my lights were blacked out - I was like a sitting duck in the middle of the road, as the semi-trailer came rapidly bearing down on me. I just managed to pull the car off the road, as the semi-trailer came screaming past, missing me by inches! After calling for assistance from the NRMA, the problem was found to be a fault in the alternator, which was failing to charge the battery. The battery voltage had been falling under the heavy load of the lights and at the worst possible time, there was not sufficient power for the lights or the motor.

After the initial shock wore off, I put on my thinking cap to come up with a PIC-based solution to the problem. What was really needed was a display and a buzzer, to get my attention should the voltage fall outside a specified range. So my design criteria was set, a series of LEDs could indicate the voltage and a buzzer would also be used to warn of problems.

Main Features:

Visual indication of battery voltage
Audible warning when voltage becomes low
Screw terminals for easy connection
Simple and easy to build

Circuit details:

The circuit is based on PIC16F819 18-pin microcontroller which has an analog-to-digital (A/D) input to monitor the battery voltage and outputs capable of driving LEDs directly, to keep the component count down. There are seven LEDs in all, giving a good range of voltage indication. The topmost LED, LED1, comes on for voltages above 14V which will occur when the battery is fully charged. LED2 indicates for voltages between 13.5V and 14V while LED3 indicates between 13V and 13.5V. Normally, one of these LEDs will be on. LED4 covers 12.5V to 13V while LED5 covers 12V to 12.5V. LED6 covers from 11.5V to 12V while LED7 comes on for voltages below 11.5V. These two LEDs are backed up by the piezo chime which beeps for voltages between 11.5V and 12V and becomes more insistent for voltages below 11.5V.

That might seem fairly conservative. After all, most cars will start with no troubles, even though the battery voltage might be a touch below 12V, wont they? Well, no. Some modern cars will happily crank the motor at voltages below 11V but their engine management will not let the motor start unless the voltage is above 11V. So dont think that a modern car will always start reliably. This little battery monitor could easily prevent a very inconvenient failure to start! So lets describe the rest of the circuit. The incoming supply is connected via diode D1 which provides protection against reverse polarity while zener diode ZD1 provides protection from spike voltages.

A standard 7805 3-terminal regulator is then used to provide a stable 5V to the microcontroller. The battery voltage is sensed via a voltage divider using 33kΩ and 100kΩ resistors. This brings the voltage down to within the 0-5V range for the A/D input of the PIC16F819. Port B (RB0 to RB7) of the microcontroller is then used to drive the various LEDs, with current limiting provided via the 330Ω resistor network. RB7, pin 13, drives a switching transistor for the piezo buzzer.

Software:

For the software, the design follows the basic template for a PIC microcontroller. Port A and its ADC (analog-to-digital converter) function are set up while port B functions as the output for the LEDs and buzzer. Once the set-up is complete, a reading will be taken at port RA2, the input for the A/D convertor. This reading is then compared with a series of values to determine the range of the voltage. This is similar to a series of "if" statements in Basic language. If the voltage is found to be within a certain range, the relevant port B pin will be turned on. If the voltage is below 12V, the buzzer will be turned on for a brief period, to signal a low battery condition. As the voltage falls below 11.5V, the frequency of the beeps will increase, to signal increased urgency.

Building it:

All the parts are mounted on a small PC board measuring 46 x 46mm (available from Futurlec). The starting point should be the IC socket for the PIC16F819, as this is easiest to mount while the board is bare. The next item can be the PC terminal block. The resistors and capacitors can then follow. Make sure the electrolytics are inserted with correct polarity.

Make sure that you do not confuse the zener (ZD1) with the diode when you are installing them; the diode is the larger package of the two.

Even more important, dont get the 78L05 3-terminal regulator and the 2N3906 transistor mixed up; they come in identical packages. The 78L05 will be labelled as such while the 2N3906 will be labelled "3906". And make sure you insert them the correct way around. The buzzer must also be installed with the correct polarity. The 330Ω current limiting resistors are all in a 10-pin in-line package. There are four green LEDs, two yellow and one red. They need to be installed in line and with the correct orientation.

Testing:

Before you insert the PIC16F819 microcontroller, do a voltage check. Connect a 12V source and check for the presence of 5V between pins 14 & 5 OF IC1. If 5V is not present, check the polarity of regulator REG1 and the polarity of the diode D1. If these tests are OK, insert the IC and test the unit over a range of voltage between 9V and 15V. Make sure that all LEDs come on in sequence and the piezo buzzer beeps for voltages below 12V.

Now it is matter of installing the unit in your car. It is preferable to install the unit in a visible position for the driver. However, it should not obscure any other instruments. The unit should be connected to the cars 12V supply after the ignition switch. This will turn the unit off with the other instruments and prevent battery drain while the motor is not running.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Telephone Number Display Circuit Diagram

The given circuit, when connected in parallel to a telephone, dis- plays the number dialled from the telephone set using the DTMF mode. This circuit can also show the number dialled from the phone of the called party. This is particularly helpful for receiving any number over the phone lines. The DTMF signal—generated by the phone on dialling a number—is decoded by DTMF decoder CM8870P1 (IC1), which converts the received DTMF signal into its equivalent BCD number that corresponds to the dialled number. This binary number is stored sequentially in 10 latches each time a number is dialled from the phone. The first number is stored in IC5A (1/2 of CD4508) while the second number is stored in IC5B and so on.

The binary output from IC1 for digit ‘0’ as decoded by IC1 is 10102 (=1010), and this cannot be displayed by the seven-segment decoder, IC10. Therefore the binary output of IC1 is passed through a logic-circuit which converts an input of ‘10102’ into ‘00002’ without affecting the inputs ‘1’ through ‘9’. This is accomplished by gates N13 through N15 (IC11) and N1 (IC12). The storing of numbers in respective latches is done by IC2 (4017). The data valid output from pin 15 of IC1 is used to clock IC2. The ten outputs of IC2 are sequentially connected to the store and clear inputs of all the latches, except the last one, where the clear input is tied to ground. When an output pin of IC2 is high, the corresponding latch is cleared of previous data and kept ready for storing new data. Then, on clocking IC2, the same pin becomes low and the data present at the inputs of that latch at that instant gets stored and the next latch is cleared and kept ready.

The similar input and output pins of all latches are connected together to form two separate input and output buses. There is only one 7-segment decoder/driver IC10 for all the ten displays. This not only reduces size and cost but reduces power requirement too. The output from a latch is available only when its disable pins (3 and 15) are brought low. This is done by IC3, IC12 and IC13. IC3 is clocked by an astable multivibrator IC4 (555). IC3 also drives the displays by switching corresponding transistors. When a latch is enabled, its corresponding display is turned on and the content of that latch, after decoding by IC10, gets displayed in the corresponding display. For instance, contents of IC5A are displayed on display ‘DIS1,’ that of IC5B on ‘DIS2’ and so on. The system should be connected to the telephone lines via a DPDT switch (not shown) for manual switching, otherwise any circuit capable of sensing handset’s off-hook condition and thereby switching relays, etc. can be used for automatic switching.

The power-supply switch can also be replaced then. Though this circuit is capable of showing a maximum of ten digits, one can reduce the display digits as required. For doing this, connect the reset pin of IC2, say, for a 7-digit display, with S6 output at pin 5. The present circuit can be built on a veroboard and housed in a suitable box. The displays are common-cathode type. To make the system compact, small, 7-segment displays can be used but with some extra cost. Also, different colour displays can be used for the first three or four digits to separate the exchange code/STD code, etc.

Dual High Side Switch Controller

Circuit diagram :

Dual High Side Switch Controller Circuit Diagram

One of the most frequent uses of n-channel MOSFET’s is as a voltage controlled switch. To ensure that the MOSFET delivers the full supply voltage to the load it is necessary for the gate voltage to be a few volts above the supply voltage level. This can be a problem if no other suitable higher volt-age sources are available for use elsewhere in the circuit. The LTC 1982 dual high-side switch controller from Lin-ear Technology (www.linear-tech.com) solves this problem by incorporating a voltage tripler circuit in the gate driver stage. The gate voltage is limited to +7.5 V which is 2.0 V above the IC’s maximum operating voltage. It can directly drive the gate of logic-level MOSFET with a VGS(th) from 1.0 V to 2.0 V. A suitable n-channel logic level MOSFET would be the BSP 295. This device can switch up to 1.5 A and is available in an SOT 233 SMD package.

Solar Panel Current Meter

This circuit is used to measure the current from a solar panel. It has very low power loss for currents in the 0-10A range. It also works as a general purpose DC current meter. The circuit can be used on either the positive or negative side of a DC circuit.

Solar Panel Current Meter

Specifications

Measured Current: 0-10 Amps DC
Circuit Voltage: Will work with DC circuits at any practical voltage.
Accuracy: approximately 2%, depending on the meter movement.

Theory

The current to be measured flows through the 0.01 ohm resistor which causes a small voltage drop across the resistor. The 100 microamp meter is set up with the series 50 ohm and 500 ohm variable resistor in a voltage measurement configuration to measure this voltage drop. The 500 ohm variable resistor is used to adjust the meters full scale reading. The 50 ohm resistor limits the maximum current to the meter no matter what setting is on the 500 ohm resistor, this protects the meter from passing too much current and burning up. The series resistance of the meter, 500 ohm (or less) variable resistor and 50 ohm resistor should total 1000 ohms. Different meters may require a different variable resistor to achieve the 1000 ohm value.

Construction

Build the meter into a metal box with the meter and two connectors mounted on the outside of the box.

Alignment

Put the meter circuit in series with a known current meter such as a digital VOM meter set to measure current. Run a known current through both meters. Adjust the 500 ohm resistor until both meters read the same current. A good way to get a known current is to put a 12V lead acid battery in series with a 2 ohm 100 watt current limiting resistor. This will produce approximately 6 Amps of current. Put the two meters in series with this loop and adjust for the same reading. Beware, the resistor will get fairly hot in a short time.

Use

Connect this circuit in series with a nominal 12V or 24V solar panel array. The meter can go in either the positive or negative side of the solar panel circuit. The current flowing through the solar panel to the load will be shown on the meter.

Parts

1x 100 microamp DC meter
1x 0.01 ohm 5 W resistor
1x 50 ohm 1/4 W resistor
1x 500 ohm 10 turn variable resistor
2x banana plugs or a 2 pin screw type terminal block.
1x metal box

Acoustic Distress Beacon

An ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter, also known as a distress beacon) is an emergency radio transmitter that is activated either manually or automatically by a crash sensor to aid the detection and location of aircraft in distress. This acoustic ELT project is intended for radio control (RC) model aircraft, which every now and then decide to go their own way and disappear into the undergrowth.

Circuit diagram :

Acoustic Distress Beacon Circuit Diagram

The audio locating device described here enables model aircraft that have landed ‘off limits’ to be found again and employs its own independent power supply. The small cam-era battery shown in the circuit activates an acoustic sounder when radio contact is lost and produces a short signal tone (bleep) every ten seconds for more than 25 hours. Current consumption in standby and passive (with jumper J1 set) modes is negligible. The timing generator for the alarm tone is the Schmitt trigger AND-gate IC1.B; its asymmetric duty cycle drives a 5 V DC sounder via MOSFET transistor T1. All the time that the RC receiver output is delivering positive pulses, the oscillator is blocked by IC1.A and diode D1. Setting jumper J1 parallel to C2 also disables the oscillator and serves to ‘disarm’ the distress beacon.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Motorbike Alarm

This simple to build alarm can be fitted in bikes to protect them from being stolen. The tiny circuit can be hidden anywhere, without any complicated wiring. Virtually, it suits all bikes as long as they have a battery. It doesnt drain out the battery though as the standby current is zero. The hidden switch S1 can be a small push-to-on switch, or a reed switch with magnet, or any other similar simple arrangement. The circuit is designed around a couple of low-voltage MOSFETs configured as monostable timers. Motorbike key S2 is an ignition switch, while switch S3 is a tilt switch. Motorbike key S2 provides power supply to the gate of MOSFET T2, when turned on.

When you turn ignition off using key S2, you have approximately 15 seconds to get off the bike; this function is performed by resistor R6 to discharge capacitor C3.

Thereafter, if anyone attempts to get on the bike or move it, the alarm sounds for approximately15 seconds and also disconnects the ignition circuit. During parking, hidden switch S1 is normally open and does not allow triggering of mosfet T1. But when someone starts the motorbike through ignition switch S2, MOSFET T2 triggers through diode D1 and resistor R5. Relay RL1 (12V, 2C/O) energises to activate the alarm (built around IC1) as well as to disconnect the ignition coil from the circuit. Disconnection of the ignition coil prevents generation of spark from the spark plug. Usually, there is a wire running from the alternator to the ignition coil, which has to be routed through one of the N/C1 contacts of relay RL1 as shown in Fig.1 Fig.2 shows the pin configurations of SCR BT169, MOSFET BS170 and transistor BC548.

Circuit diagram :

Motorbike Alarm Circuit Diagram

Motorbike Alarm-Pin Configurations :

Pin configurations of BT169, BS170 and BC548

Also, on disconnection of the coil, sound generator IC UM3561 (IC1) gets power supply through N/O2 contact of relay RL1. This drives the darlington pair built around T3 and T4 to produce the siren sound through loudspeaker LS1. To start the vehicle, both hidden switch S1 and ignition key S2 should be switched on. Otherwise, the alarm will start sounding. Switching on S1 triggers SCR1, which, in turn, triggers MOSFET T1. MOSFET T1 is configured to disable MOSFET T2 from functioning. As a result, MOSFET T2 does not trigger and relay RL1 remains de-energised, alarm deactivated and ignition coil connected to the circuit. Connection to the ignition coil helps in generation of spark from the spark plug. Keeping hidden switch S1 accessible only to the owner prevents the bike from pillaging.

Tilt switch S3 prevents attempt to move the vehicle without starting it. Glass-and metal-bodied versions of the switch offer bounce-free switching and quick break action even when tilted slowly.

Unless otherwise stated, the angle by which the switch must be tilted to ensure the contact operation (operating angle), must be approximately 1.5 to 2 times the stated differential angle. The differential angle is the measure of the just closed position to the just open position. The tilt switch has characteristics like contacts make and break with vibration, return to the open state at rest, non-position sensitivity, inert gas and hermetic sealing for protection of contacts and tin-plated steel housing. If you find difficulty in getting the tilt switch, you may replace it with a reed switch (N/O) and a piece of magnet. The magnet and the reed switch should be mounted such that the contacts of the switch close when the bike stand is lifted up from rest.