Showing posts with label counter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label counter. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Light Gate with Counter Circuit Diagram

The circuit described here counts the number of times that an infrared beam is interrupted. It could be used to count the number of people entering a room, for instance, or how often a ball or another object passes through an opening (handy for playing shuffleboard). The heart of the circuit consists of you guessed it a light gate! Diode D1 is an IR diode that normally illuminates IR transistor T1. The light falling on T1 causes it to conduct to a certain extent. The resulting voltage on the collector of T1 should be just low enough to prevent the following transistor (T2) from conducting. This voltage can be adjusted within certain limits using P1. 

Circuit diagram :



Light Gate with Counter Circuit Diagram

As soon as an object comes between D1 and T1, the light shining on T1 will be partially or fully blocked, causing the IR transistor to conduct less current. As a result, the voltage on its collector will increase, producing a brief rise in the voltage on the base of T2. This will cause T2 to conduct and generate a negative edge at IC1. This negative edge will trigger the monostable multivibrator, which will then hold the output signal on pin 3 ‘high’ for a certain length of time (in this case, one second). Atthis point, two things will occur. First, a buzzer will be energised by the output of IC1 and produce a tone for approximately one second. When the buzzer stops, a negative edge will be applied to the clock input of IC2, causing the counter in IC2 to be incremented by 1. IC2 is conveniently equipped with an internal binary-to-BCD decoder, so its outputs only have to be buffered by IC3 and T3 to allow the state of the counter to be shown on the 7-segment display. Switch S1 can be used to reset the counter to zero. 

If a one-second interval does not suit your wishes, you can modify the values of R3 or C1 to adjust the time. Increasing the value of R3 lengthens the interval, and decreasing it naturally shortens the interval. The same is true of C1. When building the circuit, make sure that T1 is well illuminated by the light from D1, while at the same time ensuring that T1 ‘sees’ as little ambient light as possible. This can best be done by fitting T1 in a small tube that is precisely aimed toward D1. The longer the tube, the less ambient light will reach T1. The sensitivity of the circuit can be adjusted using P1.


Author : T.Hareendran - Copyright : Elektor
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Friday, August 15, 2014

Digital Step Km Counter

Digital Step-Km Counter Circuit Diagram. This schema measures the distance covered during a walk. Hardware is located in a small box slipped in pants pocket and the display is conceived in the following manner: the leftmost display D2 (the most significant digit) shows 0 to 9 Km. and its dot is always on to separate Km. from hm. The rightmost display D1 (the least significant digit) shows hundreds meters and its dot illuminates after every 50 meters of walking. A beeper (excusable), signals each count unit, occurring every two steps. A normal step was calculated to span around 78 centimeters, thus the LED signaling 50 meters illuminates after 64 steps (or 32 operations of the mercury switch), the display indicates 100 meters after 128 steps and so on.

For low battery consumption the display illuminates only on request, pushing on P2. Accidental reset of the counters is avoided because to reset the schema both pushbuttons must be operated together. Obviously, this is not a precision meter, but its approximation degree was found good for this kind of device. In any case, the most critical thing to do is the correct placement of the mercury switch inside of the box and the setting of its sloping degree.

Circuit diagram:
digital_step_km_counter_schema_diagram
Digital Step-Km Counter Circuit Diagram

Parts:
R1 = 22K 1/4W Resistor
R2 = 2.2M 1/4W Resistor
R3 = 22K 1/4W Resistor
R4 = 1M 1/4W Resistor
R5 = 4.7K 1/4W Resistor
R6 = 47R 1/4W Resistor
R7 = 4.7K 1/4W Resistor
R8 = 4.7K 1/4W Resistor
R9 = 1K 1/4W Resistor
C1 = 47nF 63V Polyester Capacitor
C2 = 100nF 63V Polyester Capacitor
C3 = 10nF 63V Polyester Capacitor
C4 = 10µF 25V Electrolytic Capacitor
D1 = Common-cathode 7-segment LED mini-display (Hundreds meters)
D2 = Common-cathode 7-segment LED mini-display (Kilometers)
Q1 = BC327 45V 800mA PNP Transistors
Q2 = BC327 45V 800mA PNP Transistors
P1 = SPST Pushbutton (Reset)
P2 = SPST Pushbutton (Display)
IC1 = 4093 Quad 2 input Schmitt NAND Gate IC
IC2 = 4024 7 stage ripple counter IC
IC3 = 4026 Decade counter with decoded 7-segment display outputs IC
IC4 = 4026 Decade counter with decoded 7-segment display outputs IC
SW1 = SPST Mercury Switch, called also Tilt Switch
SW2 = SPST Slider Switch (Sound on-off)
SW3 = SPST Slider Switch (Power on-off)
BZ = Piezo sounder
B1 = 3V Battery (2 AA 1.5V Cells in series)

Circuit operation:

IC 1A & IC 1B form a monostable multi vibrator providing some degree of freedom from excessive bouncing of the mercury switch. Therefore a clean square pulse enters IC2 that divides by 64. Q2 drives the LED dot-segment of D1 every 32 pulses counted by IC2. Either IC3 & IC4 divide by 10 and drive the displays. P1 resets the counters and P2 enables the displays. IC1C generates an audio frequency square wave that is enabled for a short time at each monostable count. Q1 drives the piezo sounder and SW2 allows disabling the beep.

Notes:
  • Experiment with placement and sloping degree of mercury switch inside the box: this is very critical.
  • Try to obtain a pulse every two walking steps. Listening to the beeper is extremely useful during setup.
  • Trim R6 value to change beeper sound power.
  • Push P1 and P2 to reset.
  • This schema is primarily intended for walking purposes. For jogging, further great care must be used with mercury switch placement to avoid undesired counts.
  • When the display is disabled current consumption is negligible, therefore SW3 can be omitted.
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