This “Super Light Sensor” responds to minute fluctuations in light level, auto-adjusting over the range from about 200 lux up to 60,000 lux (ie, from a modestly lit room to direct sunlight). It has lots of potential uses – eg, detecting a car entering a driveway, a person moving in a room, or wind rustling the leaves of a tree. At the same time, it has a high level of rejection of natural light variations, such as sunrise, sunset and the movement of clouds. While it is a “passive” system, it can also be used as an “active” system – ie, used in conjunction with a light beam.
Its great advantage here is that, since it responds to fluctuations in light level rather than the crossing of a specific light threshold, it is much more flexible than other typical “active” systems. It can be placed within the line-of-sight of almost any light source, including “vague” ambient light, and simply switched on. As shown, the LDR is wired as part of a voltage divider so that, between darkness and full sunlight, its output at “X” varies between about one-quarter and three-quarters of the supply voltage. A wide variety of sensors may be used in place of the LDR, including photo-transistors, photo-diodes and infrared and ultraviolet devices.
he signal from the sensor is fed to the inputs of comparator IC1 via two 150kO resistors. However, any signal fluctuations will be slightly delayed on pin 3 compared to pin 2, due to the 220nF capacitor. As a result, the pin 6 output of the comparator (IC1) switches low during short-term signal fluctuations and this triggers monostable timer IC2. IC2 in turn switches on transistor Q2 which activates Relay 1. It also lights LED1 via a 1.5kO current-limiting resistor. Trimpot VR2 allows the monostable period to be adjusted between about 3s and 30s.
As with all such circuits, the Super Light Sensor may not work as well under AC lighting as under natural lighting. If AC lighting does prove a problem, a 16µF (16V) electrolytic capacitor can be connected between the sensor output and ground to filter the signal to the comparator. When pin 3 of IC2 goes high, FET Q1 also turns on and pulls pin 2 of IC2 high. This transistor remains on for a very short period after pin 3 goes low again due to the 100nF capacitor on its gate. This “blanking” is done to allow the circuit time to settle again after the relay disengages (and stops drawing current).
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Author: Thomas Scarborough – Copyright: Silicon Chip Electronics Magazine
Link: http://www.extremecircuits.net/
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This entry was posted on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 10:57 pm and is filed under detector, Lighting.
