DC motor 12V speed controller circuit with explanation

A very simple encoder circuit for a dc motor can be constructed using this circuit diagram . As you can see in the circuit diagram , the system shown consists of the HA-2542, a small 12-Vdc motor, and a position encoder. During operation, the encoder causes a series of ''constant-width" pulses to charge CI. The integrated pulses develop a reference voltage, which is proporţional to motor speed and is applied to the inverting input of HA-2542, The noninverting input is held at a constant voltage, which represents the desired motor speed. A difference between these two inputs will send a corrected drive signal to the motor, which completes the speed control system loop.
As you can see the circuit requires few external components , but because of the encoder wheel it has a limitations of use .If you put a pulley under the encoder wheel you can command the speed of other device , by connecting the (motor and other device ) using a belt

TV remote control Blocker -designed by Naveen P N

Just point this small device at the TV and the remote gets jammed .   The circuit is self explanatory . 555 is wired as an astable multivibrator for a frequency of nearly 38 kHz. This is the frequency at which most of the modern TVs receive the IR beam . The transistor acts as a current source supplying roughly 25mA to the infra red LEDs. To increase the range of the circuit simply decrease the value of the 180 ohm resistor to not less than 100 ohm.
It is required to adjust the 10K potentiometer while pointing the device at your TV to block the IR rays from the remote. This can be done by trial and error until the remote no longer responds.

Oscillators:Simple variable frequency oscillator

This is a very simple circuit utilising a 555 timer IC to generate square wave of frequency that can be adjusted by a potentiometer.

With values given the frequency can be adjusted from a few Hz to several Khz.
To get very low frequencies replace the 0.01uF capacitor with a higher value.

The formula to calculate the frequency is given by:

1/f = 0.69 * C * ( R1 + 2*R2)

The duty cycle is given by:

% duty cycle = 100*(R1+R2)/(R1+ 2*R2)

In order to ensure a 50% (approx.) duty ratio, R1 should be very small when compared to R2. But R1 should be no smaller than 1K.
A good choice would be, R1 in kilohms and R2 in megaohms. You can then select C to fix the range of frequencies.

Home/Garden related Circuits:Programmable Digital Code Lock

A programmable code lock can be used for numerous applications in which access to an article/gadget is to be restricted to a limited number of persons. Here is yet another circuit of a code lock employing mainly the CMOS ICs and thumbwheel switches (TWS) besides a few other components. It is rugged and capable of operation on voltages ranging between 6 and 15 volts. The supply current drain of CMOS ICs being quite low, the circuit may be operated even on battery.
The circuit uses two types of thumbwheel switches. switch numbers TWS1 through TWS8 are decimal-to-BCD converter type while switch numbers TWS9 through TWS16 are 10-input multiplexer type in which only one of the ten inputs may be connected to the output (pole). One thumbwheel switch of each of the two types is used in combination with IC CD4028B (BCD to decimal decoder) to provide one digital output.Eight such identical combinations of thumbwheel switches and IC CD4028 are used. The eight digital outputs obtained from these combinations are connected to the input of 8-input NAND gate CD4068.For getting a logic high output, say at pole-1, it is essential that decimal numbers selected by switch pair TWS1 and TWS9 are identical, as only then the logic high output available at the Specific output pin of IC1 will get transferred to pole-1. Accordingly, when the thumbwheel pair of switches in each combination is individually matched, the outputs at pole-1 to pole-8 will be logic high.This will cause output of 8-input NAND gate IC CD4068b to change over from logic high to logic low, thereby providing a high-to-low going clock pulse at clock input pin of 7-stage counter CD4024B, which is used here as a flip-flop (only Q0 output is used here).The output (Q0) of the flip-flop is connected to a relay driver circuit consisting of transistors T1 and T2. The relay will operate when Q0 output of flip-flop goes low. As a result transistor T1 cuts off and T2 gets forward biased to operate the relay.Switch S1 is provided to enable switching off (locking) and switching on (unlocking) of the relay as desired, once the correct code has been set.
With the code set correctly, the NAND gate output will stay low and flip-flop can be toggled any number of times, making it possible to switch on or switch off the relay, as desired. Suppose we are using the system for switching-on of a deck for which the power supply is routed via the contacts of the relay. The authorised person would select correct code which would cause the supply to become available to the deck. After use he will operate switch S1 and then shuffle the thumbwheel switches TWS1 through TWS8 such that none of the switches produces a correct code. Once the code does not match, pressing of switch S1 has no effect on the output of the flip-flop.Switches TWS9 through TWS16 are concealed after setting the desired code. In place of thumbwheel switches TWS1 through TWS8 DIP switches can also be used

Radio Circuits:Long range FM transmitter

The power output of most of these circuits are very low because no power amplifier stages were incorporated.
The transmitter circuit described here has an extra RF power amplifier stage, after the oscillator stage, to raise the power output to 200-250 milliwatts. With a good matching 50-ohm ground plane antenna or multi-element Yagi antenna, this transmitter can provide reasonably good signal strength up to a distance of about 2 kilometres.
The circuit built around transistor T1 (BF494) is a basic low-power variable-frequency VHF oscillator. A varicap diode circuit is included to change the frequency of the transmitter and to provide frequency modulation by audio signals. The output of the oscillator is about 50 milliwatts. Transistor T2 (2N3866) forms a VHF-class A power amplifier. It boosts the oscillator signals� power four to five times. Thus, 200-250 milliwatts of power is generated at the collector of transistor T2.
For better results, assemble the circuit on a good-quality glass epoxy board and house the transmitter inside an aluminium case. Shield the oscillator stage using an aluminium sheet.
Coil winding details are given below:
L1 - 4 turns of 20 SWG wire close wound over 8mm diameter plastic former.
L2 - 2 turns of 24 SWG wire near top end of L1.
(Note: No core (i.e. air core) is used for the above coils)
L3 - 7 turns of 24 SWG wire close wound with 4mm diameter air core.
L4 - 7 turns of 24 SWG wire-wound on a ferrite bead (as choke)
Potentiometer VR1 is used to vary the fundamental frequency whereas potentiometer VR2 is used as power control. For hum-free operation, operate the transmitter on a 12V rechargeable battery pack of 10 x 1.2-volt Ni-Cd cells. Transistor T2 must be mounted on a heat sink. Do not switch on the transmitter without a matching antenna. Adjust both trimmers (VC1 and VC2) for maximum transmission power. Adjust potentiometer VR1 to set the fundamental frequency near 100 MHz.
This transmitter should only be used for educational purposes. Regular transmission using such a transmitter without a licence is illegal in India

Computer Hardware Circuits:Control electrical appliances using PC

 Here is a circuit for using the printer port of a PC, for control application using software and some interface hardware. The interface circuit along with the given software can be used with the printer port of any PC for controlling up to eight equipment .
The interface circuit shown in the figure is drawn for only one device, being controlled by D0 bit at pin 2 of the 25-pin parallel port. Identical circuits for the remaining data bits D1 through D7 (available at pins 3 through 9) have to be similarly wired. The use of opto-coupler ensures complete isolation of the PC from the relay driver circuitry.
Lots of ways to control the hardware can be implemented using software. In C/C++  one can use the outportb(portno,value) function where portno is the parallel port address (usually 378hex for LPT1) and 'value' is the data that is to be sent to the port. For a value=0 all the outputs (D0-D7) are off. For value=1 D0 is ON, value=2 D1 is ON, value=4, D2 is ON and so on. eg. If value=29(decimal) =   00011101(binary)  ->D0,D2,D3,D4 are ON and the rest are OFF.        

                         

Click here for the sample software.
Click here for the source code of the software (in C).

Motor Circuits:Automatic Speed Controller for fans & Coolers

During summer nights, the temperature is initially quite high. As time passes, the temperature starts dropping. Also, after a person falls asleep, the metabolic rate of one�s body decreases. Thus, initially the fan/cooler needs to be run at full speed. As time passes, one has to get up again and again to adjust the speed of the fan or the cooler.The device presented here makes the fan run at full speed for a predetermined time. The speed is decreased to medium after some time, and to slow later on. After a period of about eight hours, the fan/cooler is switched off.Fig. 1 shows the circuit diagram of the system. IC1 (555) is used as an astable multivibrator to generate clock pulses. The pulses are fed to decade dividers/counters formed by IC2 and IC3. These ICs act as divide-by-10 and divide-by-9 counters, respectively. The values of capacitor C1 and resistors R1 and R2 are so adjusted that the final output of IC3 goes high after about eight hours.The first two outputs of IC3 (Q0 and Q1) are connected (ORed) via diodes D1 and D2 to the base of transistor T1. Initially output Q0 is high and therefore relay RL1 is energised. It remains energised when Q1 becomes high. The method of connecting the gadget to the fan/cooler is given in Figs 3 and 4.

It can be seen that initially the fan shall get AC supply directly, and so it shall run at top speed. When output Q2 becomes high and Q1 becomes low, relay RL1 is turned �off� and relay RL2 is switched �on�. The fan gets AC through a resistance and its speed drops to medium. This continues until output Q4 is high. When Q4 goes low and Q5 goes high, relay RL2 is switched �off� and relay RL3 is activated. The fan now runs at low speed.Throughout the process, pin 11 of the IC is low, so T4 is cut off, thus keeping T5 in saturation and RL4 �on�. At the end of the cycle, when pin 11 (Q9) becomes high, T4 gets saturated and T5 is cut off. RL4 is switched �off�, thus switching �off� the fan/cooler.Using the circuit described above, the fan shall run at high speed for a comparatively lesser time when either of Q0 or Q1 output is high. At medium speed, it will run for a moderate time period when any of three outputs Q2 through Q4 is high, while at low speed, it will run for a much longer time period when any of the four outputs Q5 through Q8 is high.If one wishes, one can make the fan run at the three speeds for an equal amount of time by connecting three decimal decoded outputs of IC3 to each of the transistors T1 to T3. One can also get more than three speeds by using an additional relay, transistor, and associated components, and connecting one or more outputs of IC3 to it.
In the motors used in certain coolers there are separate windings for separate speeds. Such coolers do not use a rheostat type speed regulator. The method of connection of this device to such coolers is given in Fig. 4.
The resistors in Figs 2 and 3 are the tapped resistors, similar to those used in manually controlled fan-speed regulators. Alternatively, wire-wound resistors of suitable wattage and resistance can be used.