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Junk box Fan Speed Controller

Junk-box Fan Speed Controller Circuit Diagram . My new home theatre receiver was getting rather hot in the close confines of its cabinet, with the temperature reaching over 40°C after only about 30 minutes of use. To help lower the temperature, I decided to install a fan in the cabinet. A 75mm hole was cut in the shelf under the receiver, and a 12V fan salvaged from an old computer power supply was mounted underneath. The fan was powered from a 12V DC plugpack.  This did the job, keeping the temperature below 30°C even after prolonged use on a warm day. However, the fan was annoyingly loud when running at full speed. To reduce the noise level substantially, I built this fan speed controller with temperature feedback. The circuit was culled from variety of ideas found on various sites on the internet, with the final circuit designed from what was in the "junk box". Air temperature in the cabinet is sensed via an LM335 (TS1). Junk-box Fan Speed Controller Circuit Diagram   Junk...

Reservoir Pump Controller

This circuit operates an automotive windscreen washer pump to fill a 20-litre drum from a 205-litre water reservoir. The drum is suspended above a drip line, which irrigates a vegetable garden. Two stainless steel probes mounted in the drum act as sensors for the system. One probe is positioned at the high water mark, the other at about half-full. The pump power is switched by a 12V automotive relay (RLY1). Two op amps (IC1a & IC1b) connected as voltage comparators form the basis of the circuit. Initially, assume a falling water level with the pump switched off. When the water level exposes the lower probe, the non-inverting input (pin 5) of IC1b rises to about 7.4V. With trimpot VR2 correctly adjusted, this will be higher than the voltage on pin 6. The output (pin 7) therefore swings high, biasing Q1 into conduction. This in turn causes Q4 to conduct, switching on the relay and starting the pump. In addition, when Q4 switches on it supplies base current to Q3 via a 6.8kO resistor....

Texas Instruments’ New All in One USB Type C and USB Power Delivery Controller

USB Type-C is a singular cable set out to replace a slew of other connectors by making a standard, future-proof cable. In addition to charging, the USB-C allows data transfer and video as well as connecting to Ethernet. Texas Instruments' announcement of an all-in-one USB Type-C and USB power delivery controller provides a power path that operates as a single or dual-role port which allows for many host and device power implementations. The TPS65982. The TPS65982 allows for delivery of both power and data in several alternate modes. It can be configured to support data as a downstream or upstream-facing port, or as both host and device. It also supports data rates at up to 5.4Gb/s with a standby power of 40µW - more than 50% lower than competitive offerings - to extend battery life. This is especially important in mobile devices like laptops that rely on energy maximization but demand high performance. The USB Type-C included in the new MacBook Retina. In systems requiring up ...

PWM Dimmer Motor Speed Controller

This is yet another project born of necessity. It's a simple circuit, but does exactly what it's designed to do - dim LED lights or control the speed of 12V DC motors. The circuit uses PWM to regulate the effective or average current through the LED array, 12V incandescent lamp (such as a car headlight bulb) or DC motor. The only difference between the two modes of operation is the addition of a power diode for motor speed control, although a small diode should be used for dimmers too, in case long leads are used which will create an inductive back EMF when the MOSFET switches off.    Photo of Completed PWM Dimmer/Speed Control The photo shows what a completed board looks like. Dimensions are 53 x 37mm, so it's possible to install it into quite small spaces. The parts used are readily available, and many subsitiutions are available for both the MOSFET and power diode (the latter is only needed for motor speed control). The opamps should not be substituted, because the ones ...

Speed Controller for Small Cooling Fans

Small cooling fans are used in some equipment for cooling semiconductor devices. The circuit given here is of a simple automatic speed controller for a 12V, 0.6W (or 1.2W) cooling fan that increases the fan’s speed when temperature rises, and vice versa. Circuit and working Fig. 1 shows circuit diagram of the speed controller for a small cooling fan. Resistor R1 limits the initial current for the motor and lowers the speed of rotation, if needed. The temperature control is done with one or more NTC (negative temperature coefficient) thermistors connected in series with the electrical motor. The number of thermistors depends on their power dissipation. Usually you cannot find low-cost NTCs with enough power dissipation. Therefore four of them in parallel are used here. This way power dissipation and self-heating of the NTCs are reduced. It is better to use NTCs with tolerance of ±2%. The NTCLE100E3 are available with nominal values of 3.3-ohm to 470-kilo-ohm and have maximum power dissi...

Simple 10 Amp Solar Charge Controller Circuit Diagram

This is a Simple 10 Amp Solar Charge Controller Circuit Diagram . The SCC2 is a solar charge controller, its function is to regulate the power flowing from a photovoltaic panel into a rechargeable battery. It features easy setup with one potentiometer for the float voltage adjustment, an equalize function for periodic overcharging, and automatic temperature compensation for better charging over a range of temperatures. 10 Amp Solar Charge Controller Circuit Diagram The goal of the circuit design was to make a charge controller with analog simplicity, high efficiency, and reliability. A medium power solar system can be built with a 12V solar panel up to 10 amps, the SCC2, and a rechargeable battery. The SCC2 works with lead acid, NiCD and NiMH batteries with ratings from less than one to several hundred amp-hours. With the appropriate parts selection, the SCC2 can be operated at 6V, 12V, 24V or other voltages. Specifications: Maximum solar panel current: 10 Amps Night time battery drain...

Intelligent Water Pump Controller with Water level Display

Most of the circuits for multi-level indication/control of water in tanks employ a bunch of wires running between the circuit and the overhead tank, which accounts for almost half the cost of the entire project. Here is an intelligent scanned water-level indicator-cum-pump controller circuit (Fig. 1) that utilises just four wires to the overhead tank to indicate nine different levels. The connection arrangement for the overhead tank (OHT) and the underground tank (UGT) is shown in Fig. 2. Two wires from the circuit in Fig. 1 run to the underground/ground-level tank (to output line K and return line J, respectively) to check the availability of water in the tank before operating the pump, thereby guarding the pump against the damage due to dry running. Fig. 1: Intelligent water-level indicator-cum-water pump controller The scanning section employs an NE555 timer (IC1) wired as an astable multivibrator to oscillate at around 1 kHz. The output of NE555 is connected to CLK inputs of two CD...

Build an Electronic Project of USB Based GPIB Controller

Build an Electronic Project of USB-Based GPIB Controller. Contemporary research laboratories include a variety of instruments that connect using any of several interface methods to a PC for automating procedures and collecting data. Although different communication interfaces exist, the GPIB (general-purpose-interface bus) still enjoys wide popularity. The host PC must include a suitable GPIB controller—an internal interface card or an external device. Newer PC designs are phasing out traditional internal buses, such as PCI, ISA, and EISA, in favor of other standards, so using an external controller offers a more appropriate approach because external I/O ports, such as RS-232 and USB, tend to maintain backward compatibility. This Design Idea covers the development of a GPIB controller, which turned out to be easier and cheaper than commercially available alternatives. The design uses easy-to-obtain components with a total component cost of approximately $ 50. For comparison, a commerci...

Bathroom Fan Controller

Many bathrooms are fitted with a fan to vent  excess humidity while someone is showering. This fan can be connected to the light  switch, but then it runs even if you only want  to brush your teeth. A better solution is to  equip the fan with a humidity sensor. A disadvantage of this approach is that by the time  the humidity sensor switches on the fan, the  room is already too humid. Consequently, we decided to build a circuit  that operates by sensing the temperature of  the hot water line to the shower. The fan runs  as soon as the water line becomes hot. It continues to run for a few minutes after the line  cools down, so that you have considerably  fewer problems with humidity in the bathroom without having the fan run for no reason.   Naturally, this is only possible if you can  fit a temperature sensor somewhere on the  hot water line and the line does not become  warm if hot water is used somewhere else. We use an LM335 as the temperature sensor.  It generates an output volta...

Simple DC Fan Controller

This circuit is ideal to control the cooling fan of heat generated electronic gadgets like power amplifiers. The circuit switches on a fan if it senses a temperature above the set level. The fan automatically turns off when the temperature returns to normal. The circuit uses an NTC (Negative Temperature Coefficient) Thermister to sense heat. NTC Thermister reduces its resistance when the temperature in its vicinity increases.IC1 is used as a voltage comparator with two potential dividers in its inputs. Resistor R1 and VR1 forms one potential divider connected to the non inverting input of IC1 and another potential divider comprising R2 and the 4.7K Thermister supplying a variable voltage to the inverting input of IC1. VR1 is adjusted so as to give slightly lesser voltage at the non inverting input than the inverting input at room temperature. DC Fan Controller Circuit Diagram In this state, output of IC1 will be low and the Fan remains off. When the temperature near the Thermister incr...

Economical Pump Controller Circuit

Circuit Diagram  Description   The automatic pump controller eliminates the need for any manual switching of pumps installed for the purpose of pumping water from a reservoir to an overhead tank (refer Fig. 1). It automatically switches on the pump when the water level in the tank falls below a certain low level (L), provided the water level in the reservoir is above a certain level (R). Subsequently, as the water level in the tank rises to an upper level (M), the pump switched off automatically. The pump is turned on again only when the water level again falls below level L in the tank, provided the level in the reservoir is above R. This automated action continues. The circuit is designed to ‘overlook’ the transient oscillations of the water level which would otherwise cause the logic to change its state rapidly and unnecessarily. The circuit uses a single CMOS chip (CD4001) for logic processing. No use of any moving electro-mechanical parts in the water-level sensor has bee...

Controller fan speeds using LM317 Circuit Diagram

The fan runs continuously in many computers, it may not be necessary. A simple circuit controller can adjust the fan speed according to demand. This not only saves energy but also reduces s irritation fan noise. Only three components are required to enable the fan speed is controlled according to the cooling needs.  An adjustable voltage regulator that this circuit is the LM317 and two resistors form a voltage divider. One of the resistors is an NTC thermistor (temperature-sensitive resistor), while the other is a standard resistor.   Controller fan speeds using LM317 Circuit Diagram