Auto Intensity Control of Street Lights

Street lights are controlled manually in olden days. These days automation of street lights has emerged. But one can observe that there is no need of high intensity in peak hours i.e. when there is no traffic and even in early mornings. By reducing the intensity in these times, energy can be saved to some extent.

There are many methods to save the power like Switching the street light on detecting vehicle , Street light controlling using LDR and relays etc. The proposed circuits controls street light intensity by calculating the peak hours.Two circuits are shown in this article,one explaining the street light control using ATmega8 and second explains street light controlling using PIC microcontroller. Most commonly found street lights are HID or High Intensity Discharge lamps, which consume a lot of power. In order to save energy, the circuits are designed with high intensity LEDs in place of HID lamps.

Auto Intensity Control of Street Lights using ATmega8

Circuit Principle

The main principle of this project is to Control the intensity of street lights using PWM.Peak hours of a particular area are calculated and accordingly PWM signal is adjusted by microcontroller to increase or decrease the intensity of street lights.

These peak hours can be calculated by considering parameters like traffic density,time, light intensity of the environment.

Auto Intensity Control of Street Lights Circuit Diagram

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Water Level Controller using 8051 Microcontroller

Water Level Controller using 8051 Microcontroller project will help in automatically controlling the water motor by sensing the water level in a tank. This article explains you how to detect and control the water level in an overhead tank or any other container. This system monitors the water level of the tank and automatically switches ON the motor whenever tank is empty.

The motor is switched OFF when the overhead tank or container is FULL. Here, the water level of the tank is indicated on LCD (Liquid crystal Display). Using this system, we can avoid the overflow of the water.

We have already seen How water level indicator circuit works using AVR Microcontroller in the earlier post. But, here we are designing the circuit which is used to detect and control the water level automatically in overhead tank using 8051 microcontroller.

In this system, water sensing can be done by using a set of 4 wires, which are placed at different levels in tank. DC supply probe is placed at the base of the tank. 

Water Level Controller using 8051 Circuit Principle

This system mainly works on a principle that “water conducts electricity”. The four wires which are dipped into the tank will indicate the different water levels. Based on the outputs of these wires, microcontroller displays water level on LCD as well as controls the motor.

Initially when the tank is empty, LCD will display the message LOW and motor runs automatically. When water level reaches to half level, now LCD displays HALF and still motor runs.

When the tank is full, LCD displays FULL and motor automatically stops. Again, the motor runs when water level in the tank becomes LOW.

Water Level Controller using 8051 Microcontroller Circuit Diagram

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8051 Microcontroller Memory Organization

In the previous tutorial on 8051 Microcontroller, we have seen the 8051 Microcontroller Introduction and Basics, Pin Diagram, Pin Description and the Architecture overview. In this tutorial, we will continue exploring 8051 Microcontroller by understanding the 8051 Microcontroller Memory Organization.

When the differences between microprocessor and microcontroller are mentioned in the previous tutorial, the main difference can be stated as on-chip memory i.e. a Microcontroller has both Program Memory (ROM) and Data Memory (RAM) on the same chip (IC) whereas a Microprocessor has to be externally interface with the memory modules.

Hence, it is clear that the memory is an important part of the 8051 Microcontroller Architecture (for that matter, any Microcontroller). So, it is important for us to understand the 8051 Microcontroller Memory Organization i.e. how memory is organized, how the processor accesses each memory and how to interface external memory with 8051 Microcontroller.

Before going in to the details of the 8051 Microcontroller Memory Organization, we will first see a little bit about the Computer Architecture and then proceed with memory organization. 

Types of Computer Architecture

Basically, Microprocessors or Microcontrollers are classified based on the two types of Computer Architecture: Von Neumann Architecture and Harvard Architecture.

Von Neumann Architecture

Von Neumann Architecture or Princeton Architecture is a Computer Architecture, where the Program i.e. the Instructions and the Data are stored in a single memory.

Since the Instruction Memory and the Data Memory are the same, the Processor or CPU cannot access both Instructions and Data at the same time as they use a single bus.

This type of architecture has severe limitations to the performance of the system as it creates a bottleneck while accessing the memory.

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8051 Microcontroller Introduction and Basics

This article is about the 8051 Microcontroller Introduction and some of its basic features. The 8051 Microcontroller is one of the most popular and most commonly used microcontrollers in various fields like embedded systems, consumer electronics, automobiles, etc.

Technically called as Intel MCS-51 Architecture, the 8051 microcontroller series was developed by Intel in the year 1980 and were very popular in the 80’s (still are popular).

8051 Microcontroller has many features like Serial Communication, Timers, Interrupts, etc. and hence many students and beginners start their work on the concept of Microcontrollers with 8051 Microcontroller (although this trend seems to be changed with the introduction of Arduino).

Even though 8051 Microcontroller might seem a little bit out of fashion, we feel that it is one of the best platforms to get started with Microcontrollers, Embedded Systems and Programming (both C and Assembly). 

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