Contactless digital tachometer using 8051.
A three digit contact less digital tachometer using 8051 microcontroller which can be used for measuring the revolutions/second of a rotating wheel, disc, shaft or anything like that is introduced in this project. The tachometer can measure up to a maximum of 255 rev/sec at an accuracy of 1 rev/sec. What you just need to do is to align the sensor close to the reflective strip (aluminium foil, white paper or some thing like that) glued on the rotating surface and the meter shows the rev/sec on the display. The circuit diagram of the digital tachometer is shown below.
The first section of the circuit is the optical pickup based on photo transistor Q4 and red LED D4. Every time the reflective stripe on the rotating object passes in front of the sensor assembly, the reflected light falls on the photo transistor which makes it conduct more and as a result its collector voltage drops towards zero. When viewed through an oscilloscope the collector waveform of the photo transistor Q4 (2N5777) would look like this:
Next part is the signal conditioning unit based on the opamp LM324 (IC1). Only one opamp inside the quad LM324 is used here and it is wired as a comparator with reference voltage set at 3.5V (using resistors R16 and R17). The job of this comparator unit is to convert the spiky collector wave form into a neat square pulse train so that it can be applied to the microcontroller. Every time the collector voltage of the photo transistor goes below 3.5V, the output of the comparator goes to negative saturation and every time the collector voltage of the photo transistor goes above 3.5V, the comparator output goes to positive saturation resulting in a waveform like this:
From the above two graphs you can see that the negative going edge of the waveform indicates the passage of the reflective patch across the sensor and that means one revolution. If you could some how measure the number of negative going edges occurring in one second, then that’s the rev/sec of the rotating object and that’s what the microcontroller does here.
The 8051 microcontroller here does two jobs and they are:
1) Count the number of negative going pulses available at its T1 pin (pin15).
2) Do necessary mathematics and display the count on the 3 digit 7 segment display.
For the counting purpose both the timers of 8051 (Timer0 and Timer1) are used. Timer 1 is configured as an 8 bit auto reload counter for registering the number of incoming zero going pulses and Timer0 is configured as a 16 bit timer which generate the necessary 1 second time span for the Timer1 to count.
Program.
ORG 000H MOV DPTR,#LUT // moves the addres of LUT to DPTR MOV P1,#00000000B // Sets P1 as an output port MOV P0,#00000000B // Sets P0 as an output port MAIN: MOV R6,#14D SETB P3.5 MOV TMOD,#01100001B // Sets Timer1 as Mode2 counter & Timer0 as Mode1 timer MOV TL1,#00000000B //loads initial value to TL1 MOV TH1,#00000000B //loads initial value to TH1 SETB TR1 // starts timer(counter) 1 BACK: MOV TH0,#00000000B //loads initial value to TH0 MOV TL0,#00000000B //loads initial value to TL0 SETB TR0 //starts timer 0 HERE: JNB TF0,HERE // checks for Timer 0 roll over CLR TR0 // stops Timer0 CLR TF0 // clears Timer Flag 0 DJNZ R6,BACK CLR TR1 // stops Timer(counter)1 CLR TF0 // clears Timer Flag 0 CLR TF1 // clears Timer Flag 1 ACALL DLOOP // Calls subroutine DLOOP for displaying the count SJMP MAIN // jumps back to the main loop DLOOP: MOV R5,#100D BACK1: MOV A,TL1 // loads the current count to the accumulator MOV B,#100D DIV AB // isolates the first digit of the count SETB P1.0 ACALL DISPLAY // converts the 1st digit to 7 seg pattern MOV P0,A // puts the pattern to Port 0 ACALL DELAY // 1mS delay ACALL DELAY MOV A,B MOV B,#10D DIV AB // isolates the secong digit of the count CLR P1.0 SETB P1.1 ACALL DISPLAY // converts the 2nd digit to 7 seg pattern MOV P0,A ACALL DELAY ACALL DELAY MOV A,B // moves the last digit of the count to accumulator CLR P1.1 SETB P1.2 ACALL DISPLAY // converts the 3rd digit to 7 seg pattern MOV P0,A ACALL DELAY ACALL DELAY CLR P1.2 DJNZ R5,BACK1 // repeats the subroutine DLOOP 100 times RET DELAY: MOV R7,#250D // 1mS delay DEL1: DJNZ R7,DEL1 RET DISPLAY: MOVC A,@A+DPTR // gets 7 seg digit drive pattern for current value in A CPL A // (See Note 1) RET LUT: DB 3FH // Look up table (LUT) starts here DB 06H DB 5BH DB 4FH DB 66H DB 6DH DB 7DH DB 07H DB 7FH DB 6FH END
Notes.
1) The LUT used here was made for a common cathode seven segment display (used in previous projects) and here we are using a common anode display. The instruction CPL A will just complement the digit drive pattern in accumulator so that it becomes suitable for the common anode display. This is done just because to save my time but not a text book method. The correct way is to make a dedicated LUT for common anode configuration and aviod the extra CPL A instruction.
2) LM324 is a quad opamp and only one opamp inside it is used here. I used LM324 just because that was the only single supply opamp with me at the time. You can use any single supply opamp that matches our supply voltage(5V). You can even use a dual supply opamp (like the popular 741) in single supply mode (+V pin connected to positive supply and -V pin connected to ground) but i wont recommend it unless you have an oscilloscope. Dual supply opamps configured in single supply mode will not give results like a dedicated single supply opamp in the same situation.
3) As we saw earlier the Timer 0 which generates the 1 second time span is configured in Mode 1 (16 bit timer). So the maximum it can count is 2^16 and that is 65536. In 8051 the crystal frequency is divided by 12 using an internal network before applying it as a clock for the timer. That means the timer will increment by one for every 1/12th of the crystal frequency. For an 8051 system clocked with a 12MHz crystal the time taken for one timer increment will be 1µS (ie; 1/12MHz). So the maximum time delay that can be obtained using one session of the timer will be 65536µS and it is looped 14 times to get the 1 second delay. Go through this article Delay using 8051 timer for a better grasp.
4) Also read this article Interfacing seven segment display to 8051 before attempting this project.
LCD version of the tachometer using 8051.
This is just a modification of the above digital tachometer using 8051. A 16×2 LCD module is used here for displaying the output. The output is given in rpm (revolutions per minute) and the number of digits are increased from 3 to 5. This circuit can display up to 10200 rpm and it is more accurate than the LED version. Also, there is a change in the sensor circuit. A photo transistor/IR diode pair (LTH-1550) is used for sensing the rpm instead of the discrete photo transistor, LED combination. The usage of LTH-1550 photo interrupter module makes it more rugged and stable. Visual light interference is minimized because the LTH-1550 senses IR only. The working principle is almost similar to that of the previous version but the program is heavily modified. The circuit diagram of the LCD tachometer using 8051 is given below.

Power supply circuit.
A simple 12V, 5V/1A power supply circuit based on voltage regulator ICs 7805 and 7812 is given below.
Program for the LCD tachometer.
RS EQU P2.7 RW EQU P2.6 E EQU P2.5 ORG 00H MOV DPTR,#LUT SETB P3.5 CLR P2.0 MAIN: MOV R6,#22D MOV TMOD,#01100001B MOV TL1,#00000000B MOV TH1,#00000000B SETB TR1 BACK: MOV TH0,#00000000B MOV TL0,#00000000B SETB TR0 HERE: JNB TF0,HERE CLR TR0 CLR TF0 DJNZ R6,BACK CLR TR1 CLR TF0 CLR TF1 MOV A,TL1 CJNE A,#75D,SKIP SKIP: JC SKIP1 SETB P2.0 SKIP1:JNC CONT CLR P2.0 CONT: CLR PSW.7 MOV B,#100D DIV AB MOV R0,A MOV A,B MOV B,#10D DIV AB MOV R1,A MOV R2,B MOV A,R2 MOV B,#4D MUL AB MOV B,#10D DIV AB MOV R4,B MOV R2,A MOV A,R1 MOV B,#4D MUL AB ADD A,R2 MOV B,#10D DIV AB MOV R5,B MOV R2,A MOV A,R0 MOV B,#4D MUL AB ADD A,R2 MOV B,#10D DIV AB MOV R6,B MOV R7,A ACALL DINT ACALL TEXT1 ACALL LINE2 ACALL TEXT2 ACALL NUM LJMP MAIN DINT: ACALL CMD MOV A,#0FH ACALL CMD MOV A,#01H ACALL CMD MOV A,#06H ACALL CMD MOV A,#83H ACALL CMD MOV A,#3CH ACALL CMD RET TEXT1: MOV A,#84D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#65D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#67D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#72D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#79D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#77D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#69D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#84D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#69D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#82D ACALL DISPLAY RET TEXT2:MOV A,#82D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#80D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#77D ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#32D ACALL DISPLAY RET LINE2:MOV A,#0C0H ACALL CMD RET NUM:MOV A,R7 ACALL ASCII ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,R6 ACALL ASCII ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,R5 ACALL ASCII ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,R4 ACALL ASCII ACALL DISPLAY MOV A,#0D ACALL ASCII ACALL DISPLAY RET CMD: MOV P0,A CLR RS CLR RW SETB E CLR E ACALL DELAY RET DISPLAY:MOV P0,A SETB RS CLR RW SETB E CLR E ACALL DELAY RET DELAY: CLR EN CLR RS SETB RW MOV P0,#0FFh SETB E MOV A,P0 JB ACC.7,DELAY CLR E CLR RW RET ASCII: MOVC A,@A+DPTR RET LUT: DB 48D DB 49D DB 50D DB 51D DB 52D DB 53D DB 54D DB 55D DB 56D DB 57D END
Program explanation.
The program actually counts the number of negative going pulses in 1.5 seconds and it is multiplied by 40 to get the number of revolutions per minute.
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