KEMET Advances Hybrid Aluminum Polymer Capacitor Technology

KEMET, a subsidiary of Yageo Corporation (“Yageo”) (TAIEX: 2327) and leading global supplier of electronic components, announces the launch of three hybrid aluminum polymer capacitor series: A780, PHA225, and PHH225. These AEC-Q200 qualified capacitors offer a combination of highly conductive polymer technology and liquid electrolytic material in a hybrid design, resulting in an outstanding electrical performance for automotive and industrial applications. This launch aligns with the growing vehicle electrification product market, driven in part by a rising need for 48V architecture in mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEV). According to a September 2020 report by Markets and Markets, the vehicle electrification market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.9% to reach USD $129.6 billion by 2025 from USD $73.7 billion.*

The A780 series is KEMET’s first release of a surface mount (V-Chip) hybrid aluminum polymer capacitor. Both liquid aluminum electrolyte and solid polymer materials are housed in a cylindrical aluminum can and when combined, provide greater advantages such as a higher ripple current, lower equivalent series resistance (ESR), lower leakage current, and exceptional self-healing capability than standard solid polymer aluminum capacitors with no liquid electrolyte. These capacitors can withstand heavy vibrations (up to 30g), meeting the stringent design requirements for automotive powertrain and industrial applications, including engine control units, DC/DC converters, 48V inverters for MHEV, switched-mode power supply (SMPS), and computer voltage regulator modules (VRM).

Further advancing hybrid aluminum polymer capacitor technology, the PHA225 and PHH225 with an axial and radial crown design also offer the same combination of highly conductive polymer and liquid electrolytic material as the A780 series. These capacitors can withstand temperatures up to 140°C, provide extremely high ripple current capability, and self-healing performance. The hybrid construction of polymer and liquid electrolytic provides extremely low and stable ESR across all temperature ranges, thus extending its operating lifetime.

The PHA/PHH 225 capacitor has a small size and high ripple current per unit volume, which is valuable when designing-in for automotive and industrial technologies, such as 48V automotive inverters. By using smaller, high power density hybrid aluminum capacitors in parallel for an existing 48V automotive inverter design, engineers can reduce the number of required components and still maintain high ripple current performance. The PHA225 and PHH225 hybrid series are ideal for designing in high power automotive applications, including DC-Link for 48V inverters, cooling fans, water pumps, power steering, and braking and injection systems.

“The design of the A780, PHA225, and PHH225 series incorporates KEMET’s proprietary hybrid polymer technology and electrolyte material,” said Rui Monteiro, KEMET Director of Aluminum Electrolytic Technology. “These advancements in our polymer and aluminum offering supports the growing automotive electrification trend and provides design engineers with reliable solutions for decoupling, smoothing, filtering, and power conversion.”

The A780, PHA225, and PHH225 series are available immediately via KEMET distributors. To learn more about their capabilities and applications, visit https://ec.kemet.com/aluminum/

Meet PreCusor – The Mobile Dual-FPGA Development Kit

There has recently been a desire and surge in the development of standalone portable hardware development kits with qwerty keyboards and displays all fitted into a smartphone/blackberry-like (with trackpads) form factors, either for the sake of portability, or security and ease of use. One of the recent boards developed on these premises is the precursor; a recently announced FPGA development kit.

Developed by Sutajio Ko-usagi, the company behind several projects like the Fomu FPGA Board,  the Precursor is designed to serve as an all-in-one, powerful but portable, open hardware development platform for secure, mobile computation and communication.

Packed in a pocket friendly 69 mm x 138 mm x 7.2 mm size with a smartphone look, the Precursor, comes with a built-in display, a physical keyboard, and an internal battery which powers the on-board, FPGA-hosted (Xilinx XC7S50 based), soft-core System-on-Chip (SoC).

The goal of the precursor according to the product announcement was to create a solution that was truly portable but also secure and powerful enough for use in security- and privacy-critical applications. To achieve this, the company designed a SOC called “Betrusted-SoC,” which is meant to be the central pillar of security for devices like Precursor.

The version of Betrusted-SoC used in Precursor is based on a Xilinx FPGA and some of the features include:

  • XC7S50-1L CSG324I, 80% utilized as of October 2020
  • 100 MHz customized VexRISC-V RV32IMAC + MMU core with 4k caches
  • Crypto primitives
    • Ring oscillator TRNG (compliments off-chip TRNG)
    • JTAG-based self-fusing for on-chip generation and sealing of secret keys
    • AES-128, -192, -256 with ECB, CBC and CTR modes
    • SHA-2 and SHA-512 digests
    • Microcode Curve25519 field arithmetic engine
  • SPI
    • High speed, 100 MHz DDR OPI SPI interface for code ROM
    • Low speed, 20 MHz SDR 1-bit SPI interface to an insecure domain
  • I²C (100 kHz) for system integration
  • Keyboard switch matrix controller with low power standby
  • Bidirectional I²S interface for audio
  • Custom frame buffer-based LCD interface
  • 32-bit async SRAM interface with standby support
  • Standard UART
  • Full speed USB device
  • Hardware Ticktimer
  • 12-bit ADC (system voltage monitor)
  • GPIO for power management and extension

Some general features and specifications of Precursor itself are highlighted below:

  • Made for developers
    • Easy-access developer’s cable (included)
    • Low-level debugging (GDB + Chipscope) and firmware flashing via developer’s cable plugged into a custom Raspberry Pi HAT (included)
    • Middleware debugging via USB cable via wishbone tunnel
    • Open source to the core
      • Inspect, modify and compile your SoC and embedded controller from the source
      • All source files hosted on GitHub for convenient fork, pull request and issue tracking
      • Open source PCB and case design
    • Extendable and modifiable
      • No adhesives holding the bezels in place – just one screwdriver is all it takes
      • Want to add hardware? Maybe a cellular modem? No problem!
        • The battery compartment is a blank check for your peripherals
        • Install a smaller battery for more space
        • Flex PCB breakout for 8x FPGA GPIO into the battery compartment
        • The bezel is made out of FR-4, and can be user-customized to hold additional components
  • Slim and light mobile form factor
    • 69 mm x 138 mm x 7.2 mm
    • 96 grams reference weight
    • Compare to iPhone X at 70.9 mm x 143.6 mm x 7.7 mm and 174 grams
    • Accessible mechanical design
      • 6063 alloy aluminum case -– 3D files provided, so you can mill your own case!
      • FR-4 front bezel -– PCB source provided
      • ABS + PC polymer antenna radome -– 3D printable
  • User-customizable CPUs
    • Xilinx XC7S50 primary System on Chip (SoC) FPGA
      • -L1 speed grade for longer battery life
      • Tested with 100 MHz VexRISC-V, RV32IMAC + MMU, 4k L1 I/D cache
    • iCE40UP5K secondary Embedded Controller (EC) FPGA
      • Manages power, standby, and charging functions
      • Tested with 18 MHz VexRISC-V, RV32I, no cache
  • 16 MB external SRAM
  • 128 MB Flash
    • 100 MHz DDR 8-bit wide bus for fast XIP code performance
  • Dual hardware TRNG
    • External discrete noise generator
    • In-SoC ring oscillator based TRNG
  • Inspectable I/O
    • Physical keyboard with changeable layout overlays
    • 200 ppi black and white LCD (336 x 536 resolution), 100% inspectable with standard optical microscope
    • Both keyboard and LCD are backlit for night-time use
    • Modular keyboard PCB — customize layouts, add sensors, or swap in a touch surface
  • Audio with safe defaults
    • Integrated 0.7 W speaker for notifications
    • Vibration motor
    • 3.5 mm headset jack
    • No integrated microphone — audio surveillance is not possible when headset is unplugged
  • Integrated Wi-Fi
    • Sandboxed in a hardware-delineated untrusted domain
    • Silicon Labs WF200C chipset
  • USB Type-C port
    • Supports charging at 5 V; over-voltage protection tolerant to 20 V
    • Power negotiation to 5 V @ 1.5 A (source and sink)
    • Supports legacy USB 2.0 full-speed PHY
    • Basic DRP negotiation hardware support
  • 1100 mAh Li-Ion battery
    • Integrated gas gauge for more accurate battery life estimate
    • Full charge in about three hours
    • Runtime depends on user application
      • Approx. 100 hours standby with Wi-Fi + embedded controller + static display enabled
      • Approx. 700 mW “on-state” (most features enabled and active, backlight off) power draw, or 5.5 hours continuous use
  • Anti-tamper features
    • User-sealable metal can for trusted components
    • Dedicated real-time clock (RTC) with basic clock integrity monitoring
    • Power monitors trip reset in case of power glitches
    • Always-on accelerometer/gyro to detect movement in standby
    • Support for instant secure erase via battery-backed AES key and self-destruct circuit

The precursor is currently only available through the crowdfunding campaign that was launched recently on crowd supply. Launched with a USD 220,000 funding goal, the campaign has so far raised a total of 162,000 with over 200 backers. The campaign is still on for the next 22 days with the precursor ($512) and limited edition precursor ($768) package still available.

Asides from the availability via the crowdfunding campaign, the project is also entirely open source, and all design files, schematics, etc are available on the project’s GitHub page.

More information on the project, the crowdfunding campaign, and other details can be found on the project’s page on crowd supply.

Lead Acid Battery Voltage Monitor using ATMEGA328

Monitoring the voltage level of a 12V Lead Acid Battery (SLA) is easy and simple with this project. The board is made using an ATMEGA328 micro-controller and 12 x 5mm LEDs. The ATMEGA328 microcontroller senses the analog voltage on A3 Analog pin and drives 12 LEDs connected to digital I/O pins of the chip. Input voltage from the battery is dropped using divider resistors. Different colors of LEDs used for easy visualization of battery voltage level. The operating supply of the circuit is 7-15V DC. The battery voltage measuring range is 9.75V to 14.5V. LED Vs voltage level can be changed by modifying the Arduino code.arduiop

Lead Acid Battery Voltage Monitor using ATMEGA328 – [Link]

New Light-Powered AI Chip Tries to Mimic Human Brain

Researchers at RMIT University have developed a new kind of artificial intelligence technology that works by imitating the way a human brain processes visual information. It promises to bring together imaging, processing, machine learning, and memory in one single electronic chip powered by light. This nanoscale advancement links the core software needed to drive artificial intelligence with image-capturing hardware in a single electronic device.

This light-driven prototype could empower smarter and smaller autonomous technologies like drones and robotics, plus smart wearables and bionic implants like artificial retinas. The study, from an international team of researchers led by RMIT University, is published in the journal Advanced Materials recently.

Our new technology radically boosts efficiency and accuracy by bringing multiple components and functionalities into a single platform,

Walia, who also co-leads the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group, said. He also added,

Our aim is to replicate a core feature of how the brain learns, through imprinting vision as memory. The prototype we’ve developed is a major leap forward towards neurorobotics, better technologies for human-machine interaction, and scalable bionic systems.

The light-powered AI chip

The prototype is inspired by optogenetics. It is an emerging tool in biotechnology that allows scientists to examine the body’s electrical system with great precision and use light to manipulate neurons. The AI chip is based on an ultra-thin black phosphorous, that changes electrical resistance in response to different wavelengths of light.

Typically artificial intelligence relies heavily on software and off-site data processing, but the new prototype aims to change that by integrating electronic hardware and intelligence together. The best analogy to describe it would be of a dashcam in a car that’s integrated with such neuro-inspired hardware which can recognize lights, signs, objects and make instant decisions, without having to connect to the internet.

This new chip can now capture and automatically enhance images, classify numbers, and be trained to recognize patterns and images with an accuracy rate of over 90%. The device is also compatible with existing electronics and silicon technologies, for effortless future integration.

The different functionalities such as imaging or memory storage are obtained by shining different colors of light on the chip.

By packing so much core functionality into one compact nanoscale device, we can broaden the horizons for machine learning and AI to be integrated into smaller applications,

Ahmed said,

Using our chip with artificial retinas, for example, would enable scientists to miniaturize that emerging technology and improve the accuracy of the bionic eye. Our prototype is a significant advance towards the ultimate in electronics: a brain-on-a-chip that can learn from its environment just like we do.

More information about this new technology can be found in this article published in Advanced Materials.

Tiny Arduino-compatible XIAO board from Seeed Studio Gets a Powerful Expansion Board

Earlier this year, Seeed Studio released the small but powerful Seeeduino XIAO board which has become one of the hottest products in the Seeeduino series. The Seeeduino XIAO is a 23.5mm by 17.5mm Microchip SAM D21 board that packs a fair amount of power in its dual seven-pin breadboard-friendly header. You may adore it for its tiny size, cute design, powerful CPU, and rich GPIO interfaces, but no matter what reason makes Seeeduino XIAO attractive, there’s now one more reason to love it more – the new Seeeduino XIAO Expansion Board. 

“Seeeduino XIAO Expansion Board is a powerful functional expansion board for Seeeduino XIAO of only half the Raspberry Pi 4 size,” says Seeed Studio. “It enables building prototypes and projects in an easy and quick way. With its rich peripherals, you could explore infinite possibilities of Seeeduino XIAO.”

The Seeeduino XIAO Expansion Board is a high-performance board that fulfills the needs of rapid prototyping and peripheral expansion. It has up to four convenient plug and play grove connectors that support multiple data protocols, an expandable memory slot that makes it possible to allocate more libraries needed in prototyping and project building, as well as a battery management system that supports both USB and lipo battery power supply, and an easy onboard battery recharge. The Seeeduino XIAO Expansion Board is compact and elegant in size and can be used for tiny and wearable projects.

Features and Specifications of the Seeeduino XIAO Expansion Board include: 

  • Supports Circuit Python
  • Does not require soldering
  • 0.96″ OLED display panel (visual data to display without PC serial monitor; enables debug in a more efficient way)
  • A mini SD Card slot for storage (enough memory for adding libraries and using circuit python)
  • Passive buzzer
  • 5V servo connector
  • 1x Ready-to-use Reset button (no need for jumper wire and short circuit, reset easily with just one click)
  • 1x User button
  • 2x Grove I2C
  • 1x Grove UART
  • 1x A0/D0 Grove
  • JST2.0 connector
  • Single-wire debug (SWD) pin header (makes debugger connection and firmware download much easier)
  • High-precision PCF8563T/5 real-time clock (helps to maintain accurate time when the main power is turned off)
  • CR1220 RTC battery
  • Power supply: 5V / 3.7V Lithium Battery
  • Charging current: Maximum of 460mA

The Seeeduino XIAO expansion board is currently available for preorder at $14.90, but the company has promised to give out the board at a cheaper price ($9.90) to the first 200 customers to place an order. All you need to do if you are in luck is to use the coupon code “LoveXiao” at checkout. The board however is estimated to be available in late November.

More information may be found on the company’s product page.

STONE HMI ESP32 Weather Station using STVC101WT-01 TFT LCD module

In the application of this paper, I will use the STONE TFT LCD screen, esp32 microprocessor, photosensitive resistance sensor, and DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor to realize the real-time monitoring of the surrounding environment and push the collected data to the TFT LCD screen for display. The communication mode of esp32 and STONE TFT LCD adopts serial port communication.

This application function is divided into three parts: temperature monitoring, humidity monitoring, and light monitoring. After startup, there will be a boot interface first. After a moment, you will enter the main function interface. In this interface, we can select the monitoring items, such as temperature, humidity and illumination. There will be a text box under the temperature monitoring interface to display the temperature data transmitted from esp32, a “start” button, and a “stop” button to start and stop the temperature monitoring. If you want to exit the interface, you can select the “return” button; the second item is humidity monitoring, and there is also a text box under this interface for displaying esp 32. For the humidity data transmitted, the “start” and “stop” buttons are used to start and stop monitoring, and a return button is used to exit the current interface. The third item is light intensity monitoring. Different from the previous two functions, counting is used here, and one is added every time there is light.

Design sketch:

To make this application, first of all, on device selection, this application needs to use DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor, photosensitive resistance sensor, some DuPont wires, an esp32 as the main controller, and a STONE TFT LCD screen for communication with the MCU.

Related devices:

Information interaction between STONE TFT LCD and esp32:

  • The serial port screen of STONE TFT LCD realizes the function of button switching interface;
  • STONE TFT LCD serial port screen can automatically jump to the main interface after startup;
  • The serial port screen of STONE TFT LCD realizes variable display function;
  • The serial port screen of STONE TFT LCD realizes data variable distribution;

Esp32 peripheral control:

  • Esp32 realizes the data acquisition and analysis of photosensitive resistance sensor;
  • Esp32 realizes the data adoption and analysis of DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor;
  • Esp32 can upload valid data to TFT LCD screen.

Brief schematic diagram of the project:

Module introduction

Temperature and humidity sensor

The DHT11 temperature sensor I use can monitor the temperature and humidity of the surrounding environment. The working voltage is 3.3V ~ 5V, and the signal output form is digital output. It is suitable for this project, but it is difficult to develop.

Because of the Arduino ide development, we must install “dhtnew.h” library to use this module.

Photosensitive sensor

This time, the sensitive photosensitive resistance sensor is used, and the comparator output is used. The signal is clean, the waveform is good, and the driving capacity is more than 15mA. The same working voltage is 3.3V and 5V. There are analog signal output and digital signal output respectively. It is very convenient to develop. When the ambient light brightness can not reach the set threshold, the do terminal outputs high level, and when the ambient light brightness exceeds the set threshold value Do output low level.

ESP32

Esp32 is a general-purpose wifi-bt-ble MCU module with powerful functions and wide applications. It can be used in low-power sensor networks and demanding tasks, such as voice coding, audio streaming and MP3 decoding. It also integrates a wealth of peripherals, including capacitive touch sensor, Hall sensor, low noise sensor amplifier, SD card interface, Ethernet interface, high-speed SDIO / SPI, UART, I2S and I2C. It can achieve the maximum range of wireless communication. It has the best performance in high integration, wireless transmission distance, power consumption and network connectivity.

STVC101WT-01

  • 10.1 inch 1024×600 industrial grade TFT panel and 4-wire resistance touch screen;
  • brightness is 300cd / m2, LED backlight;
  • RGB color is 65K;
  • visual area is 222.7mm * 125.3mm;
  • visual angle is 70 / 70 / 50 / 60;
  • working life is 20000 hours. 32-bit cortex-m4 200Hz CPU;
  • CPLD epm240 TFT-LCD controller;
  • 128MB (or 1GB) flash memory;
  • USB port (U disk) download;
  • toolbox software for GUI design, simple and powerful hex instructions.

Basic functions

  • Touch screen control / display image / display text / display curve / read and write data / play video and audio. It is suitable for various industries.
  • UART interface is RS232 / RS485 / TTL;
  • voltage is 6v-35v;
  • power consumption is 3.0w;
  • working temperature is – 20 ℃ / + 70 ℃;
  • air humidity is 60 ℃ 90%.

STVC101WT-01 module communicates with MCU through serial port, which needs to be used in this project. We only need to add the designed UI picture through the upper computer through the menu bar options to buttons, text boxes, background pictures, and page logic, then generate the configuration file, and finally download it to the display screen to run.

The manual can be downloaded through the official website: https://www.stoneitech.com/support/download

In addition to the data manual, there are user manuals, common development tools, drivers, some simple routine demos, video tutorials, and some for testing projects.

Design and production

ESP32

First of all, before developing esp32 code, you need to go to the official website to download and install the development environment, that is, Arduino IDE, and enter the Arduino official website: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software.

After the completion of the installation of new projects, and add the relevant code, the most important time to receive buf.

 

TOOL 2019

Download tools

To develop based on our STONE TFT LCD, we need to use a host computer development software tool 2019. On this host computer, all screen related settings are carried out on this host computer.

How to download it? Click the link below to enter the official website: https://www.stoneitech.com/support/download/software

After the download, because the tool is not installed, it can be placed anywhere on the hard disk and can be run by double-clicking.

New project

Find the tool 2019.exe in the directory and double-click to open it.

Select “New project”, set the screen size to 1024 * 600, and set the project name to STONE. Finally, select the path to save the project, and then click OK.

Add picture

After the previous step is completed, first delete the default blue background image, and then need to add the image needed by this application, these pictures are made in advance. The size of the background image should be consistent with the actual size of the screen, that is, 1024 * 600.

Find the picture file directory, right-click to select add, and select the desired picture in the pop-up window.

Interface

Page Jump settings

In the display, we will inevitably use the function of switching pages. Here, take the temperature interface as an example.

First, add a button control to the temperature, select the “button” control, and draw the corresponding area; then, in the feature setting on the right, set the button effect. Here, select Page 1, that is, when the button is pressed, the effect of page 1 will be displayed in the corresponding area; then, select the page switching function, and the page No. 3 selected here will immediately press this button Switch to page 3, which is the temperature display interface.

Text display settings

In the temperature display interface, a text display control is needed to display the real-time temperature data transferred from esp32. Therefore, it is necessary to add a data variable control, as shown in the figure below.

Then set the control.

First of all, you need to set the variable address of the control. This address is very important. The data of MCU can only be displayed by sending data to this address. Then set the display format. Here, select 2-digit integer and 1-digit decimal. If you think the displayed font size is too small to see clearly, you can also adjust the font size. Finally, the alignment method is used. Generally, I choose the center alignment However, there are also left and right alignment options.

Key command control

Sometimes the STONE TFT LCD also needs to control the microcontroller to achieve a two-way interaction. This is also the case here. It is necessary to realize the functions of start acquisition and stop acquisition. Take stop button as an example.

Select the “return pressed key value” control, which is different from “button”. It can send the key value to the MCU, so that the SCM can make corresponding response.

First of all, set the key effect. Select Page 1 here. When the key is pressed, the effect of page 1 will be displayed. There is no need to switch the page here, so select null. It should be noted that a variable address should also be set. This variable address cannot be repeated, otherwise it may be invalid. The variable address here is set to 0x000E, and a key value needs to be set to 0x0003, this value will also be issued as the key is pressed.

After setting, click compile, and then insert the U disk. After the identification is completed, click download to copy the project into the U disk, and plug in the display screen to upgrade. In this way, the whole project is completed.

Code

if(Serial.available() != 0)

  {

    for(cout_i = 0; cout_i < 9; cout_i ++)

    {

        RecievedTemp[cout_i] = Serial.read();

    }

    switch(RecievedTemp[5])

    {

    case 0x0D://Temperature start

        TemperatureBool = true;

        break;

    case 0x0E://Temperature stop

        TemperatureBool = false;

        TemperatureOutput[6] = 0;

        TemperatureOutput[7] = 0;

        Serial.write(TemperatureOutput, 8);

        break;

    case 0x0F://Temperature back

        TemperatureBool = false;

        break;

    case 0x11://Humidity start

      HumidityBool = true;

        break;

    case 0x12://Humidity stop

        HumidityBool = false;

        HumidityValue = 0;

        HumidityOutput[7] = HumidityValue;

        Serial.write(HumidityOutput, 8);

        break;

    case 0x10://Humidity back

        HumidityBool = false;

        break;

    case 0x14://illumination start

      illuminationBool = true;

      illuminationState = false;

        break;

    case 0x15://illumination stop

      illuminationBool = false;

      illuminationValue = 0;

      illuminationOutput[7] = illuminationValue;

      Serial.write(illuminationOutput, 8);

        break;

    case 0x13://illumination back

      illuminationValue = 0;

      illuminationBool = false;

      break;

    default:

        break;

    }

Photos

Lead Acid Battery Voltage Monitor using ATMEGA328

Monitoring the voltage level of a 12V Lead Acid Battery (SLA) is easy and simple with this project. The board is made using an ATMEGA328 micro-controller and 12 x 5mm LEDs. The ATMEGA328 microcontroller senses the analog voltage on A3 Analog pin and drives 12 LEDs connected to digital I/O pins of the chip. Input voltage from the battery is dropped using divider resistors. Different colors of LEDs used for easy visualization of battery voltage level. The operating supply of the circuit is 7-15V DC. The battery voltage measuring range is 9.75V to 14.5V. LED Vs voltage level can be changed by modifying the Arduino code.

Example Code is available, check on downloads below. This Code is written with the help of Arduino IDE, so new ATMEGA328 chip requires bootloader burning and code uploading, more info on programming the chip is available here:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/BuiltInExamples/ArduinoToBreadboard

Features

  • Supply 7-15V (Advisable to use 9V PP3 Battery) @ 80mA
  • Measuring Range 9.75V to 14.5V
  • Blue LED = Fully Discharged or Faulty Battery
  • Green LEDs = Healthy Battery
  • Yellow/Red= Over Charged Battery

Schematic

Parts List

Voltage Table

Connections

Gerber View

Photos

Video


Analog Light Sensor + Light Sensitive Switch using OPT101

You may have seen many light-sensitive switch circuits based on an LDR sensor. Usually, the sensitivity of the LDR based light sensor is poor. We wanted a very sensitive light switch hence we decided to make a circuit based on a light sensor rather than LDR. After a little research on the internet, we found the OPT101 light sensor chip which includes a photodiode and a transimpedance amplifier in one package. The OPT101 light sensor provides an analog voltage output linearly proportional to light intensity.

Analog Light Sensor + Light Sensitive Switch using OPT101 – [Link]

Texas Instruments TPS92610-Q1 Automotive Single-Channel LED Drivers

Texas Instruments TPS92610-Q1 Automotive Single-Channel LED Driver is a simple and ideal solution to deliver constant current for a single LED string with full LED diagnostics. The device operates from an automotive car battery. The TPS92610-Q1 addresses different requirements using the TPS9261x-Q1, TPS9263x-Q1, and TPS9283x-Q1 devices within the one-fails–all-fail feature. The TPS92610-Q1 devices are AEC-Q100 qualified for automotive applications.

Features

  • Qualified for Automotive Applications
  • AEC-Q100 Qualified With the Following Results:
    • Temperature Grade 1: –40°C to 125°C Ambient Operating Temperature Range
    • Device HBM ESD Classification Level H2
    • Device CDM ESD Classification Level C3B
  • Single-Channel Constant-Current LED Driver With PWM Dimming
  • Wide Input-Voltage Range: 4.5V-40V
  • Operating Junction Temperature Range: –40°C to 150°C
  • Constant Output Current, Adjustable by Sense Resistor
  • Precision Current Regulation, Tolerance ±4.6% Across Junction Temperature –40°C to 150°C
  • Maximum Current: 450mA
  • Heat Sharing With External Resistor
  • Low Dropout Voltage (Sense–Resistor Voltage Drop Included)
    • Maximum Dropout: 150mV at 10mA
    • Maximum Dropout: 400mV at 70mA
    • Maximum Dropout: 700mV at 150mA
    • Maximum Dropout: 1.3V at 300mA
  • Diagnostics and Protection
    • Single-LED Short-Circuit Detection With Auto-Recovery
    • LED Open-Circuit and Short-Circuit Detection With Auto-Recovery
    • Diagnostic-Enable With Adjustable Threshold for Low-Dropout Operation
    • Fault Bus up to 15 Devices, Configurable As Either One-Fails–All-Fail or Only-Failed-Channel-Off
    • Low Quiescent Current and Fault-Mode Current (<250µA per Device)

more information: https://www.ti.com/product/TPS92610-Q1

Analog Light Sensor + Light Sensitive Switch using OPT101

You may have seen many light-sensitive switch circuits based on an LDR sensor. Usually, the sensitivity of the LDR based light sensor is poor. We wanted a very sensitive light switch hence we decided to make a circuit based on a light sensor rather than LDR. After a little research on the internet, we found the OPT101 light sensor chip which includes a photodiode and a transimpedance amplifier in one package. The OPT101 light sensor provides an analog voltage output linearly proportional to light intensity.

This board has a dual function, it can act as a Light Sensor and a Light Sensitive switch. The operating supply of the circuit is 12V DC and draws 45mA current when Relay is ON. When light falls on the OPT101 sensor and the intensity of light reaches above the set point it triggers the relay. A separate header connector is provided to output the sensor analog value. The output of the sensor is almost 0 (Zero) when it’s in a dark area and goes high till 11.25V when it has access to full light. The sensitivity of the switch is adjustable using the onboard trimmer pot. LM358 op-amp acts as a comparator, BC847 transistor helps to drive the relay, diode D1 protects the transistor from back-EMF of inductive load (Relay). D2 is the power LED and D3 LED indicates the relay ON/OFF function. Relay has SPDT switch with NO (normally open)/NC (Normally Closed) contacts. The contact rating of the relay is 10A and the switching voltage 277V AC, 28V DC Max.

Features

  • Operating Power Supply 12V DC
  • Current Consumption 45mA (When Relay is in ON)
  • SPDT Relay
  • Contact Rating of Relay 10Amps and Switching Voltage 28V DC or 277V AC Max
  • CN3 Sensor Direct Output (0 to 11.25V + 12V DC Supply + GND)
  • D3 LED Relay Operations
  • D1 Power LED
  • PR1 Sensitivity Adjust
  • PCB Dimensions 69.85 x 26.67 mm

Schematic

Parts List

Connections

Gerber View

Photos

Video

OPT101 Datasheet

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