In the making of this project I took help from

many people and I am profoundly grateful to

them. I would like to express my sincere thanks
to my teacher for assigning us this project.
Also I would like to put forth my genuine
gratitude to my parents for their irreplaceable
help and encouragement. It helped me to gain
knowledge of various vitamins. Once again I
would like to thank everybody.

Ever felt frustrated seeing the street

lights being on during day and not at
night when they are required to be?
Or, ever felt too lazy to stand up and
switch on the lights of your room
when it gets dark? And wondered if
this all could be done automatically?
Now it is no longer your fascination.
With the help of a few easily
available parts and some time you
can make your own automatic dark
sensing lamp that turns on when
its dark and switches off while in
light.

50 K
Potentiometer
555 Timer IC
Strip board

470 Resistor

Light Dependent Resistor or Photoresistor

Plus wires 9V Battery and other

miscellaneous items. And most
importantly TIME and PATIENCE!!

Below is the circuitry of the model. The symbols have their usual meanings.

 This circuit uses a popular timer IC 555, which is connected as a comparator with
pin-6 connected with positive rail, the output goes high(1) when the trigger pin 2 is
at lower than one third of the supply voltage. Conversely the output goes low when
it is above the level. So small change in the voltage of pin 2 is enough to change the
level of output (pin 3) from 1 to 0 and 0 to 1. The output has only 2 states, high and
low and cant be in intermediate stage. It is powered by a 9V battery. The entire
circuit is economic in power consumption. Pin 4, 6 and 8 is connected to the positive
supply and pin 1 is grounded. To detect the presence of light an LDR is used.
LDR is a special type of resistor whose value depends on the intensity of light falling
on it- 1 mega ohm in darkness and only 5 K-ohm in light. It responds to a large part
of light spectrum. The potential divider circuit with LDR variable resistance is
connected in series . Voltage, being proportional to the conductance, more voltage
is obtained from the divider when LDR is getting light and low voltage in darkness.
The variable resistance is adjusted so that it crosses potential of one third in
brightness and fall below the same in darkness.
Sensitiveness can be adjusted by this variable resistance. As soon as LDR senses
darkness, the voltage of pin 2 drops below one third of the voltage and that in pin 3
gets high thus LED connected to the output (pin 3) gets activated.

Battery: for powering the circuit a 9V battery has been used.

LDR: a special type of resistance whose value depends on the brightness of light falling in it. It
has a resistance of 1 mega ohm when in darkness and only about 5 kilo ohms in light and
responds to a large part of the light spectrum.
Light Emitting Diode: a diode is a component permitting electricity flow in only one direction.
Because of this, diode is used to rectify AC voltage into a DC voltage. Diodes have two
connections, an anode and a cathode. In schematic representations the triangle points towards
the cathode and anode is the opposite end. Current flows from anode to cathode. Light
emitting diodes, or LEDs, differ from regular diodes in that when a voltage is applied, they emit
light. They are used as indicators, transmitters etc.
Resistors A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical
resistance as a circuit element. The current through a resistor is in direct proportion to the
voltage across the resistor's terminals. Resistors are common elements of electrical networks
and electronic circuits and are ubiquitous in electronic equipment. Practical resistors can be
made of various compounds and films, as well as resistance wire (wire made of a highresistivity alloy, such as nickel-chrome). Resistors are also implemented within integrated
circuits, particularly analog devices, and can also be integrated into hybrid and printed circuits.
Variable Resistor or Potentiometer: A potentiometer , informally a pot, is a three-terminal
resistor with a sliding contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals
are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. A potentiometer
measuring instrument is essentially a voltage divider used for measuring electric potential
(voltage); the component is an implementation of the same principle, hence its name.
Potentiometers are commonly used to control electrical devices such as volume controls on
audio equipment. Potentiometers operated by a mechanism can be used as position
transducers, for example, in a joystick. In our model the Legs 1 and 3 have been grounded and
leg 2 is connected to one end of the Photoresistor.

The hydraulic analogy compares

electric current flowing through
circuits to water flowing through
pipes. When a pipe (left) is filled
with hair (right), it takes a larger
pressure to achieve the same flow
of water. Pushing electric current
through a large resistance is like
pushing water through a pipe
clogged with hair: It requires a
larger push (voltage drop) to drive
the same flow (electric current).
This explains the working of
resistors.

The 555 timer IC is an integrated circuit (chip) used in a variety of timer, pulse
generation, and oscillator applications. The 555 can be used to provide time
delays, as an oscillator, and as a flip-flop element. Derivatives provide up to
four timing circuits in one package. Introduced in 1971 by Signetics, the 555 is
still in widespread use due to its ease of use, low price, and stability.
Depending on the manufacturer, the standard 555 package includes 25
transistors, 2 diodes and 15 resistors on a silicon chip installed in an 8-pin
mini dual-in-line package (DIP-8).Variants available include the 556 (a 14-pin
DIP combining two 555s on one chip), and the two 558 & 559s (both a 16-pin
DIP combining four slightly modified 555s with DIS & THR connected
internally, and TR is falling edge sensitive instead of level sensitive). The
NE555 parts were commercial temperature range, 0 C to +70 C, and the
SE555 part number designated the military temperature range, 55 C to
+125 C. These were available in both high-reliability metal can (T package)
and inexpensive epoxy plastic (V package) packages. Thus the full part
numbers were NE555V, 1 of 9 Pin out diagram NE555T, SE555V, and SE555T.
It has been hypothesized that the 555 got its name from the three 5 kD
resistors used within, but Hans Camenzind has stated that the number was
arbitrary. Low-power versions of the 555 are also available, such as the 7555
and CMOS TLC555. The 7555 is designed to cause less supply noise than the
classic 555 and the manufacturer claims that it usually does not require a
"control" capacitor and in many cases does not require a decoupling
capacitor on the power supply. Such a practice should nevertheless be
avoided, because noise produced by the timer or variation in power
supply voltage might interfere with other parts of a circuit or influence its
threshold voltages.

Pin-out Diagram (the semicircular depression

is used as a reference in identifying the legs.

The dark sensing automatic lamp

model has tremendous utility in
our daily life. Most obviously, it
the product-of-choice for street
lighting thus minimizing the need
of any human intervention as well
as any sort of power wastage.
Other than this the circuit can also
be exploited to make doors that
open automatically on arrival of
any person near it, taps that turn
on automatically when we put our
hand below the outlet among
others.

Symbol for a Photoresistor

An original Signetics dual line