A Simple Light activated switch

Description.
This is the circuit diagram of a light activated switch based on National Semiconductors comparator IC LM 311
and a LDR.
The circuit is based on a voltage comparator circuit wired around IC 1.The non inverting in put of IC1 is given
with a reference voltage of 6V using resistors R3 and R4. The input to the inverting input will be the voltage
across the LDR that is light dependent. At darkness the resistance of the LDR will be high and so do the voltage
across it. At this condition the voltage at the inverting input will be higher than the reference at non inverting pin
and the out put of the comparator will be low(~o V). When the LDR is illuminated ,its resistance drops and so do
the voltage across it.Now the voltage at inverting input will be lower than that at non inverting input and the out
put of the comparator goes high (~12 V). This makes transistor Q1 on and it drives the relay.As a result we get a
relay switching according to the intensity of the light falling on the LDR.

Light Activated Switch Circuit Diagram with Parts List .

Light Activated Switch Circuit Diagram

Notes.

Adjust POT R1 to set the desired light intensity for switching the relay.For this illuminate the LDR with the

desire intensity light.The relay will be either on or off.Adjust POT R1 slowly so that the state of the relay
changes.Thats it.Now the circuit is set for the given intensity of light.
Assemble the circuit on a good quality PCB or common board.
You can use either a 12 V battery or a well regulated & filtered 12V DC mains operated power supply.
The pin 5&6 (Balance & Balance/Strobe ) of IC LM311 are shorted to minimize the chance of oscillations.
The pin out of LM311 is also given together with the circuit diagram.