Friday 23 March 2012

Project : Fastest Finger First Indicator


Introduction 

Quiz-type game shows are increasingly becoming popular on television these days. In such games, fastest finger first indicators (FFFIs) are used to test the player’s reaction time. The player’s designated number is displayed with an audio alarm when the player presses his entry button.
Circuit Diagram

 
Working
             The circuit presented here determines as to which of the four contestants first pressed the button and locks out the remaining three entries. Simultaneously, an audio alarm and the correct decimal number display of the corresponding contestant are activated.

                 When a contestant presses his switch, the corresponding output of latch IC2 (7475) changes its logic state from 1 to 0. The combinational circuitry comprising dual 4-input NAND gates of IC3 (7420) locks out subsequent entries by producing the appropriate latch-disable signal.

              Priority encoder IC4 (74147) encodes the active-low input condition into the corresponding binary coded decimal (BCD) number output. The outputs of IC4 after inversion by inverter gates inside hex inverter 74LS04 (IC5) are coupled to BCDto- 7-segment decoder/display driver IC6 (7447). The output of IC6 drives common anode 7-segment LED display (DIS.1, FND507 or LT542).

              The audio alarm generator comprises clock oscillator IC7 (555), whose output drives a loudspeaker. The oscillator frequency can be varied with the help of preset VR1. Logic 0 state at one of the outputs of IC2 produces logic 1 input condition at pin 4 of IC7, there by enabling the audio oscillator.

              IC7 needs +12V DC supply for sufficient alarm level. The remaining circuit operates on regulated +5V DC supply, which is obtained using IC1 (7805).

              Once the organiser identifies the contestant who pressed the switch first, he disables the audio alarm and at the same time forces the digital display to ‘0’ by pressing reset push button S5.

With a slight modification, this circuit can accommodate more than four contestants.



Datasheets
                         IC 7475
                         IC 74LS147
                         IC 74LS04
                         IC NE555
                         IC 74LS47
                         IC 7805
                         IC 74LS20
                         7 Segment Display



-Ankur Pipara
   +91-7737448468
       

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Project : Fire Alarm

 

Description

Here is a simple fire alarm circuit based on a Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) and lamp pair for sensing the fire. The alarm works by sensing the smoke produced during fire. The circuit produces an audible alarm when the fire breaks out with smoke.

When there is no smoke the light from the bulb will be directly falling on the LDR. The LDR resistance will be low and so the voltage across it (below 0.6V). The transistor will be OFF and nothing happens. When there is sufficient smoke to mask the light from falling on LDR, the LDR resistance increases and so do the voltage across it. Now the transistor will switch to ON. This gives power to the IC1 and it outputs 5V. This powers the tone generator IC UM66 (IC2)  to play a music. This music will be amplified by IC3 (TDA 2002) to drive the speaker. Resistor R6 is meant for protecting the transistor when R4 is turned towards low resistance values. Resistor R2 and R1 forms a feedback network for the TDA2002 and C1 couples the feed back signal from the junction of R1 & R2 to the inverting input of the same IC.

The diode D1 and D2 in combination drops 1.4 V to give the rated voltage (3.5V ) to UM66. UM66 cannot withstand more than 4V.

Circuit diagram

                                                             Fire alarm circuit
Notes:
  • The speaker can be a 32Ω tweeter.
  • POT R4 can be used to adjust the sensitivity of the alarm.
  • POT R3 can be used for varying the volume of the alarm.
  • Any general purpose NPN transistor(like BC548,BC148,2N222) can be used for Q1.
  • The circuit can be powered from a 9V battery or a 9V DC power supply.
  • Instead of bulb you can use a bright LED with a 1K resistor series to it.

Power supply for the circuit

A well regulated power supply is essential for this circuit because even slight variations in the supply voltage could alter the biasing of the transistor used in the fire sensing section and this could seriously affect the circuit’s performance.

                                                      9V/500mA power supply circuit
A regulated 9V/500mA power supply that can be used for powering the basic fire alarm circuit and its modified versions is shown above. Transformer T1 is a 230V primary, 12V secondary, 500mA step down transformer. D1 is a 1A bridge which performs the job of rectification. Capacitor C1 filters the rectifier output and C2 is the AC by-pass capacitor. IC1 (7809) is a 9V fixed positive voltage regulator. The output of the rectifier+filter section is connected to the input of 7805 and a regulated steady 9V is obtained at its output. S1 is the ON/OFF switch. F1 is a 500mA safety fuse.

Relay version of the circuit

Here the above fire alarm circuit is modified to operate a relay when the fire breaks out. The usage of relay makes the circuit able to switch high power warning devices like alarms, bells,beacon lights etc that operates from the mains.

                                                      Relay version of the circuit


Two additional transistors are used with the basic fire sensing circuitry (consisting of Q1, R4, R5 and L1) to attain the target. Whenever the fire breaks out the transistor Q1 is switched ON. The collector voltage of Q1 drops to 0.2V and the transistor Q2 gets switched OFF. This makes the collector voltage of Q2 rise towards 9V and this result in the switching ON of transistor Q3. The relay connected at the collector of Q3 is activated and the load connected through the relay contact is driven. Resistors R7 and R8 limits the collector current of Q1 and Q2 respectively. D1 is a freewheeling diode which protects Q3 from the voltage spikes induced when the relay is switched. Resistor R9 controls the base current of transistor Q3 (2N2222).


 Datasheets
                  IC 7805
                  IC UM66T
                  IC TDA 2002

- Ankur Pipara
   +91-7737448468