shared wiring: detector

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Contactless AC Mains Voltage Detector

This is a CMOS IC (CD4033) based circuit which can be used to detect presence of AC mains voltage without any electrical contact with the conductor carrying AC current/voltage. Thus it can be used to detect mains AC voltage without removing the insulation from the conductor. Just take it in the vicinity of the conductor and it would detect presence of AC voltage. If AC voltage is not present, the display would randomly show any digit (0 through 9) permanently. If mains supply is available in the conductor, the electric field would be induced into the sensing probe. Since IC used is CMOS type, its input impedance is extremely high and thus the induced voltage is sufficient to clock the counter IC. Thus display count advances rapidly from 0 to 9 and then repeats itself. This is the indication for presence of mains supply. Display stops advancing when the unit is taken away from the mains carrying conductor. For compactness, a 9-volt PP3 battery may be used for supply to the gadget.

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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Simple Metal Detector Using 555 Timer

This metal detector electronic project schematic circuit is designed using a simple 555 timer integrated circuit . As you can see in the schematic circuit , this metal detector electronic project requires few external electronic parts . This circuit detects metal and also magnets.

Metal Detector with 555 Timer Circuit Daigram

When a magnet is brought close to the 10mH choke, the output frequency changes. This metal detector project can be powered from a power supply that can provide an output DC voltage between 6 an 12 volt . If a metal is closer to the L1 coil , will produce a change of output oscillation frequency, that will generate a sound in the 8 ohms speaker

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Friday, July 12, 2013

Invisible Broken Wire Detector

Portable loads such as video cameras, halogen flood lights, electrical irons, hand drillers, grinders, and cutters are powered by connecting long 2- or 3-core cables to the mains plug. Due to prolonged usage, the power cord wires are subjected to mechanical strain and stress, which can lead to internal snapping of wires at any point. In such a case most people go for replacing the co e/cable, as finding the exact loca Portable loads such as video cameras, halogen flood lights, electrical irons, hand drillers, grinders, and cutters are powered by connecting long 2- or 3-core cables to the mains plug. Due to prolonged usage, the power cord wires are subjected to mechanical strain and stress, which can lead to internal snapping of wires at any point.

In such a case most people go for replacing the core/cable, as finding the exact location of a broken wire is difficult. In 3-core cables, it appears almost impossible to detect a broken wire and the point of break without physically disturbing all the three wires that are concealed in a PVC jacket. The circuit presented here can easily and quickly detect a broken/faulty wire and its breakage point in 1-core, 2-core, and 3-core cables without physically disturbing wires. It is built using hex inverter CMOS CD4069. Gates N3 and N4 are used as a pulse generator that oscillates at around 1000 Hz in audio range.

The frequency is determined by timing components comprising resistors R3 and R4, and capacitor C1. Gates N1 and N2 are used to sense the presence of 230V AC field around the live wire and buffer weak AC voltage picked from the test probe. The voltage at output pin 10 of gate N2 can enable or inhibit the oscillator circuit. When the test probe is away from any high-voltage AC field, output pin 10 of gate N2 remains low. As a result, diode D3 conducts and inhibits the oscillator circuit from oscillating. Simultaneously, the output of gate N3 at pin 6 goes ‘low’ to cut off transistor T1. As a result, LED1 goes off.

When the test probe is moved closer to 230V AC, 50Hz mains live wire, during every positive halfcycle, output pin 10 of gate N2 goes high. Thus during every positive half-cycle of the mains frequency, the oscillator circuit is allowed to oscillate at around 1 kHz, making red LED (LED1) to blink. (Due to the persistence of vision, the LED appears to be glowing continuously.) This type of blinking reduces consumption of the current from button cells used for power supply. A 3V DC supply is sufficient for powering the whole circuit. AG13 or LR44 type button cells, which are also used inside laser pointers or in LED-based continuity testers, can be used for the circuit.

Circuit diagram :

Invisible Broken Wire Detector Circuit Diagram

The circuit consumes 3 mA during the sensing of AC mains voltage. For audio-visual indication, one may use a small buzzer (usually built inside quartz alarm time pieces) in parallel with one small (3mm) LCD in place of LED1 and resistor R5. In such a case, the current consumption of the circuit will be around 7 mA. Alternatively, one may use two 1.5V R6- or AA-type batteries. Using this gadget, one can also quickly detect fused small filament bulbs in serial loops powered by 230V AC mains.

The whole circuit can be accommodated in a small PVC pipe and used as a handy broken-wire detector. Before detecting broken faulty wires, take out any connected load and find out the faulty wire first by continuity method using any multimeter or continuity tester.

Then connect 230V AC mains live wire at one end of the faulty wire, leaving the other end free. Connect neutral terminal of the mains AC to the remaining wires at one end. However, if any of the remaining wires is also found to be faulty, then both ends of these wires are connected to neutral.

For single-wire testing, connecting neutral only to the live wire at one end is sufficient to detect the breakage point. In this circuit, a 5cm (2-inch) long, thick, single-strand wire is used as the test probe. To detect the breakage point, turn on switch S1 and slowly move the test probe closer to the faulty wire, beginning with the input point of the live wire and proceeding towards its other end.LED1 starts glowing during the presence of AC voltage in faulty wire. When the breakage point is reached, LED1 immediately extinguishes due to the non-availability of mains AC voltage. The point where LED1 is turned off is the exact broken-wire point. While testing a broken 3-core rounded cable wire, bend the probe’s edge in the form of ‘J’ to increase its sensitivity and move the bent edge of the test probe closer over the cable. During testing avoid any strong electric field close to the circuit to avoid false detection.

Sourced by : Streampowers

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Friday, July 5, 2013

Metal Detector Based on the TDA0161

These metal detector circuit diagram is based on the TDA0161 monolithic integrated circuit , designed for metallic body detection by detecting the variations in high frequency Eddy current losses. For detecting metals , TDA0161 require an external LC tuned circuit .

Metal Detector Circuit diagram

Output signal is determined by supply current changes. Independent of supply voltage, this current is high or low according to the presence or the absence of a close metallic object. This metal detector circuit use two LEDs , which offer an visual indication of presence or absence at a metals ,around the coil . To adjust the circuit you need to make sure there is no metal near the coil and then set the fine adjustment to a "Mid position". After that you need to adjust the course adjustment to turn on the LED and , adjust the fine adjustment to turn off the LED.

This detector electronic circuit operates over a wide range input voltage of 4 -35 volts . If you want you can use other values for the Cx capacitor and for L1 inductor ( changing this value will affect the frequency oscillation and the detection range ) .

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Infrared Proximity Detector Alarm Circuit Diagram

This circuit can be built from readily available low-cost components, some of which may even be hiding in your junkbox! The indicated value of 22 Ω for resistor R1 causes an average current of about 65 mA through infrared emitter D1. Because the IRED is pulsed at a duty factor of about 50% through the action of T1 and IC1, a peak current of 128 mA flows during every half cycle. This may seem a lot but in fact is well within the safe speciﬁcation of the LD274. The LM567 PLL IC is configured to supply a switching frequency of about 20 kHz. When the infrared beam emitted by D1 is reflected by a nearby object, IC1, through receiver diode D2 and transistor T2, receives the recovered 20 kHz signal at its input, pin 3.

Circuit Diagram:

Infrared Proximity Detector Alarm Circuit Diagram

Because the ‘567 PLL is then locked, the IC output (pin 8), drops low, triggering the 555 chip in monostable mode (IC2) and so causing acoustic actuator Bz1 to sound. The monostable remains on as long as the reﬂected signal is being received. Because of the presence of T3, capacitor C5 is allowed to charge only when no signal is being received. In that condition, the 555 is turned off automatically after a time determined by R9-C5. Using the component values shown, this will be about 5 seconds. Obviously D1 and D2 should be mounted such that the latter can only pick up reﬂected infrared light.

The choice of the two infrared components used in this circuit will be uncritical but they must be ‘band’ compatible, i.e., generate (D1) and respond to (D2) the same wavelength. The operating point of the receiver input circuit is rather dependent on ambient day-light levels and the value of R4 may need to be adjusted a little to ensure a voltage of between 1.5 V and 4 V on the collector of T1 when no signal is being received. Some dc buzzers cause a lot of back-emf so it may be necessary to insert a diode in series with the output of IC1. If necessary, this diode should preferably be a Schottky type because of the inherent low voltage drop of about 0.4 V as opposed to 0.65 V for a typical small-signal silicon diode.

Source:Elektor

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Friday, March 22, 2013

Motor Turn Stall Detector

In single phase AC induction motors, often used in fridges and washing machines, a start winding is used during the starting phase. When the motor has reached a certain speed, this winding is turned off again. The start winding is slightly out of phase to the run winding. The motor will only start turning when the current through this winding is out of phase to that of the run winding. The phase difference is normally provided by placing a capacitor of several µF in series with the start winding. When the motor reaches a minimum speed, a centrifugal switch turns off the start winding.

The circuit diagram doesn’t show a centrifugal switch; instead it has a triac that is turned on during the staring phase. For clarity, the series capacitor isn’t shown in the diagram. Once the motor turns it will continue to do so as long as it isn’t loaded too much. When it has to drive too heavy a load it will almost certainly stall. A large current starts to flow (as the motor no longer generates a back EMF), which is limited only by the resistance of the winding. This causes the motor to overheat after a certain time and causes permanent damage. It is therefore important to find a way to detect when the motor turns, which happens to be surprisingly easy. When the motor is turning and the start winding is not used, the rotation induces a voltage in this winding.

Motor Turn Stall Detector Circuit diagram:

This voltage will be out of phase since the winding is in a different position to the run winding. When the motor stops turning this voltage is no longer affected and will be in phase with the mains voltage. The graph shows some of the relevant waveforms. More information can be found in the application note for the AN2149 made by Motorola, which can be downloaded from their website at www.motorola.com. We think this contains some useful ideas, but keep in mind that the circuit shown is only partially completed. As it stands, it certainly can’t be put straight to use. We should also draw your attention to the fact that mains voltages can be lethal, so take great care when the mains is connected!

Source : http://www.ecircuitslab.com/2011/07/motor-turn-stall-detector.html

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