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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Car Parking Guard Circuit Using Infrared Sensor

Introduction: While parking the car the driver should be more careful because he cannot see the back of the car while parking or taking reverse, if there is any obstacle and ran over it might be  get damage to the car. Our project will help the person in the driving seat and give alarm if there is any obstacle or a wall while parking or while driving in reverse.

Block Diagram of Car Parking Guard:

The IR sensor will detect the obstacle with in 100cm, if there is any obstacle it will sense and give information to the tone detector which will enable the LM555 timer to generate a PWM for the buzzer. The LM555 will generate the pulse which helps to buzz the buzzer so driver can understand that there is an obstacle.

Main Component Explanation:

LM567: is a tone detector which can interpret the frequency generated by the other component and give the output according to the application designed by the engineer. For example if a component is attached to the input of LM567 which can generate a 40 kHz signal , but we to function the following circuit when the component has reached to the 40KHz. At this decision making we will use tone detector. The tone detector is mainly used in touch tone decoders, ultrasonic controls, frequency monitoring and control etc.

LM555: is a timer which can generate a PWM signals in various width and duty cycles. The 555 timer is mainly used to control the other peripherals like motors, detectors, regulators etc.

IR Sensor: the main function of the IR sensor is to produce a beam for certain distance (the distance of the beam is always depends on the IR sensor, different IR sensor have different range of beam distance) if the there is any obstacle in the beam it will conduct and give signal.

Photo Darlington Transistor: the photo darlington transistor will act as a photo detectors. They will conduct to the light or electro magnetic signals. The main function of this transistor is to amplify the input signal of the transistor. But it will work slowly when compared to the other transistors. It is having a maximum frequency of 20 KHz.

Circuit Diagram of Car Parking Guard:

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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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Obstacle Avoiding Robot using Arduino

Robotics is an interesting and fast growing field. Being a branch of engineering, the applications of robotics are increasing with the advancement of technology.

The concept of Mobile Robot is fast evolving and the number of mobile robots and their complexities are increasing with different applications.

There are many types of mobile robot navigation techniques like path planning, self – localization and map interpreting. An Obstacle Avoiding Robot is a type of autonomous mobile robot that avoids collision with unexpected obstacles.

In this project, an Obstacle Avoiding Robot is designed. It is an Arduino based robot that uses Ultrasonic range finder sensors to avoid collisions.

Circuit Diagram

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Arduino Alarm Clock

In this project, we designed an Arduino based Real Time Clock with alarm. A Real Time Clock or RTC is a battery powered clock that measures time even when there is no external power or the microcontroller is reprogrammed.

An RTC displays clock and calendar with all timekeeping functions. The battery, which is connected to the RTC is a separate one and is not related or connected to the main power supply.

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Portable Ultrasonic Range Meter

Sound is a phenomena that is a result of vibration of materials. Sound is characterized as a mechanical wave that carries mechanical energy.

For the transmission of this energy between transmitter and receiver, presence of a medium is necessary. The medium can be solids, liquids or gases.

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Arduino LED Matrix

An LED matrix is a two dimensional array of LEDs that can be used to display symbols, characters or even images. Based on the orientation of the LEDs in the matrix, there can be two types of LED matrices.They are Common Row Anode and Common Row Cathode.
LED matrix modules are one of the commonly used display devices and are used in major applications like electronic display panels and notification systems.

In this project, an Arduino Uno board is integrated with an 8 X 8 LED matrix to display information (even scrolling information and images can be displayed).

Circuit Diagram

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