Extend Timer Range For The 555

Anyone who has designed circuits using the 555 timer chip will, at some time have wished that it could be programmed for longer timing periods. Timing periods greater than a few minutes are difficult to achieve because component leakage currents in large timing capacitors become significant. There is however no reason to opt for a purely digital solution just yet. The circuit shown here uses a 555 timer in the design but nevertheless achieves a timing interval of up to an hour! The trick here is to feed the timing capacitor not with a constant voltage but with a pulsed dc voltage. The pulses are derived from the un smoothed low voltage output of the power supply bridge rectifier.

 Extend Timer Range Circuit 

The power supply output is not referenced to earth potential and the pulsing full wave rectified signal is fed to the base of T1 via resistor R1. A 100-Hz square wave signal is produced on the collector of T1 as the transistor switches. The positive half of this waveform charges up the timing capacitor C1 via D2 and P1. Diode D2 prevents the charge on C1 from discharging through T1 when the square wave signal goes low. Push-button S1 is used to start the timing period. This method of charging uses relatively low component values for P1 (2.2 MΩ) and C1 (100 to 200 µF) but achieves timing periods of up to an hour which is much longer than a standard 555 circuit configuration.

Circuit Source:  CircuitsProject

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Long range Burglar Alarm Using Laser Torch

Laser torch-based burglar alarms normally work in darkness only. But this long-range photoelectric alarm can work reliably in daytime also to warn you against intruders in your big compounds, etc. The alarm comprises laser transmitter and receiver units, which are to be mounted on the opposite pillars of the entry gate. Whenever anyone enters to interrupt the transmitted laser beam falling on the receiver, the buzzer in the receiver schema sounds an alarm.

The range of this burglar alarm is around 30 metres, which means you can place the transmitter and the receiver up to 30 metres apart. Since the laser torch can transmit light up to a distance of 500 metres, this range can be increased by orienting the phototransistor sensor properly. To avoid false triggering by sunlight, mount the phototransistor sensor such that it doesn’t directly face sunlight.

Fig. 1: Circuit of laser torch based transmitter

The transmitter schema is powered by 3V DC. The astable multivibrator built around timer 7555 (IC1) produces 5.25kHz frequency. CMOS version of timer 7555 is used for low-voltage operation. The body of the laser torch is connected to the emitter of npn transistor T1 and the spring-loaded lead protruding from inside the torch is connected to the ground.

The receiver schema is powered by 12V DC. It uses photoDarlington 2N5777 (T2) to sense the laser beam transmitted from the laser torch. The output beam signals from photoDarlington are given to the two-stage amplifier followed by switching schema, etc. As long as the laser beam falls on photoDarlington T2, relay RL1 remains un-energised and the buzzer does not sound. Also, LED1 doesn’t glow.

Fig. 2: Receiver schema

When anyone interrupts the laser beam falling on photoDarlington T2, npn transistor T6 stops conducting and npn transistor T7 is driven into conduction. As a result, LED1 glows and relay RL1 energises to sound the buzzer for a few seconds (determined by the values of resistor R15 and capacitor C10). At the same time, the large indication load (230V AC alarm for louder sounds or any other device for momentary indication) also gets activated as it is connected to 230V AC mains via normally opened (N/O) contact of relay RL1.

Sourced By: EFY Author: Pradeep G.

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