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Descrption.

This is a simple circuit in which the glowing LED can be switched OFF just by a puff. A condenser mic (M1) is used to sense your puff. When the push button S1 is pressed, the transistors Q2 and Q3 wired as latching pair gets activated and drives the LED to glow. The LED remains in this condition. When you puff on the condenser mic, the sound pressure is converted into a voltage signal at its output. This voltage signal will be amplified by the transistor Q1.Since the collector of the Q1 is coupled to the emitter of the latching pair, the pair will stop conducting when ever there is a signal from the condenser mic due to puffing and the LED will go OFF.  The push button switch S1 has to be pressed again to switch the LED ON.

Circuit diagram with Parts list.

Notes.

• The circuit can be powered from a 3V battery.
• The M1 can be a general purpose condenser microphone.
• The switch S1 can be push button switch.
• The circuit can be assembled on a good quality PCB or common board.
• Instead of the LED, you can also try a low power 3V bulb.

Description.

This simple circuit can be used as an aid for sensing the distance between the rear bumper of the car and any obstacle behind the car. The distance can be understood from the combination of the LEDs (D5 to D7) glowing. At 25cm D7 will glow, at 20 cm D7&D6 will glow and at 5cm D7, D6 and D5 will glow. When the obstacle is beyond 25 cm none of the above LEDs will glow.

Two ICs are used in the circuit. The IC1 (NE555) is wired as an astable multivibrator for driving the IR Diode D1 to emit IR pulses. The operating frequency of the transmitter is set to be 120Hz.The IR pulses transmitted by D1 will be reflected by the obstacle and received by the D2 (IR photo diode).The received signal will be amplified by IC2a.The peak of the amplified signal will be detected by the diode D4 and capacitor C4.R5 and R6 compensates the forward voltage drop of D4.The output voltage of the peak detector will be proportional to the distance between car’s bumper and obstacle. The output of peak detector is given to the inputs of the other three comparators IC2b,IC2c and IC2d inside the IC2(LM324).The comparators switch the status LEDs according to the input voltage their inverting inputs and reference voltages at their non inverting inputs. Resistances R7 to R10 are used to set the reference voltages for the comparators.

Circuit diagram with Parts list.

Notes.

• Assemble the circuit on a good quality PCB or common board.
• The D1 & D2 must be mounted close (~2cm) to each other, looking in same direction.
• The D1 can be a general purpose IR LED.
• The D2 can be general purpose IR photo diode with sun filter.
• The transmitter as well as receiver can be powered from the car battery.
• For proper working of the circuit, some trial and error is needed with the position of D1 and D2 on the dash board.
• All capacitors must be rated 25V.
• The ICs must be mounted on holders.

Description.

Here is a simple yet powerful circuit that can be used for flashing 12V lamps especially that is used on automobiles.The flashing circuit is based on transistor Q1(BC557) and MOSFET Q2 (IRF530) where the Q2 provides the necessary drive for the lamp.Any number of bulbs can be flashed using this circuit provided that the total load must not exceed 42 Watts.

Circuit diagram with Parts list.

Notes.

•  Assemble the  circuit on a good quality PCB or common board.
• The circuit can be powered form the car battery itself.
• The switch S1 can be used as the ON/OFF switch.
• All capacitors must be rated 25V.
• Slight variations in the flashing frequency is possible by varying the value of C1.