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LDR Circuit

The document describes building a simple light sensing circuit using an LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) to control the on/off state of an LED based on light intensity. The circuit uses an LDR, transistor, LED, battery, potentiometer, and resistor. It functions as a voltage divider using the LDR and potentiometer to provide a voltage to the transistor. This controls whether the transistor turns on the LED. The potentiometer allows adjusting the light sensitivity threshold to turn the LED off.

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Piyush Patel
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216 views

LDR Circuit

The document describes building a simple light sensing circuit using an LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) to control the on/off state of an LED based on light intensity. The circuit uses an LDR, transistor, LED, battery, potentiometer, and resistor. It functions as a voltage divider using the LDR and potentiometer to provide a voltage to the transistor. This controls whether the transistor turns on the LED. The potentiometer allows adjusting the light sensitivity threshold to turn the LED off.

Uploaded by

Piyush Patel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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We are going to build a simple 

Light Sensing circuit or Light Detector using


LDR - a resistive light sensor, to control the ON-OFF of the system associated
with respect to the intensity of light that falls on it.

Components Required:
 LDR (Light Dependent Resistor)
 BC547 Transistor
 LED
 Battery 9V DC
 Potentiometer (5KΩ)
 Resistor (1KΩ)
 Connecting Wire
 Breadboard

LDR  (Light Dependent Resistor):


There are many photosensors but a very common, inexpensive and easy to use
one is  LDR  which works effectively even in rough conditions.

LDR is also known as Photo resistor as its resistance varies with variation of
photons or light falling on it, in lamen term. LDR are mostly made by using a
cadmium sulfide (CdS) which is a semiconductor material. As seen in the image
below, LDR is a two terminal device with zig-zag trails from one end to
another. It has an isolation layer above below there is CdS.
In dark, the resistance of LDR is very high in range of MΩ which decreases
when exposed to light. The LDR symbol and its pictorial relationship with light
and resistance is shown below.

Light Detector Sensor Circuit Diagram:


The circuit of light detector is very simple and easy to build with very few
components. As you can see in the LDR circuit diagram, it can be a
distinguished as two smaller circuits; a) Voltage divider made using LDR 
(LDR1) and a Potentiometer (RV1)  b) Output (LED  D1) in our switching circuit
made using a transistor BC547 Q1.

Voltage divider circuit will divide the total VCC=9V DC into two set of voltage
level using two set of resistors, making it possible to give some portion of the
total input to the output. In our case voltage across RV1 will be given to the
transistor Q1.

Let us understand Part a) Voltage divider and its simple calculation:

The general formula for calculating voltage divider output V O with resistor R1
and R2 and input VIN  :-
To calculate Vo (VR2) we have to consider R2 divided by the sum of the two
resistors R1 and R2 multiplied by the total input voltage VIN;

Vo = [R2 / (R1 + R2)] ×VIN

Similarly, in our circuit we need to calculate o/p  voltage of the voltage divider
i.e. VRV1,

VRV1 = [RV1 / (RV1 +R LDR1)] × VIN

The above formula can be used for fixed value accurately.

However in our case, when the light is detected by the LDR and LED is ON,
following is the result:

VIN = 9V, RV1 =1kΩ (pot position), V RV1=0.7 V; R LDR1 = 11857 Ω(≈11k Ω -12k Ω)

Here we had used a variable resistor RV2 as to select the sensitivity of the LDR
to turn OFF in the dark, that is we can select how fast or at what intensity of
light should the LED be switched OFF. This a very efficient way and lot of our
need and purpose of light can be achieved by the use of variable pot. The pot
gives us flexibility to decide the threshold voltage according to different
applications.

Part b) is a simple transistor switching ON/OFF circuit. As we know BC547


transistor switched ON when its base to emitter voltage ≥0.7 V and will be
OFF if <0.7 V.

The above image shows the simulation of this LDR circuit, when there is dark
the LED remains off and when there is light, the LED turns on

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