Introduction

The task requirements of this report were created by the school of Engineering
Design at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff. The purpose of the assignment
was to design a ‘Remotely-Controlled Lighting System’ to a given specification,
perform virtual simulations where necessary and provide costing of the components
used. An overview of the design specification is shown below:

“The completed system will consist of two different physical sub-systems. The first is
a battery-powered, hand held remote control transmitter. It will have only one
button, which when pressed will cause the remotely controlled light to change state.
If the light is already in the on-state, the pressing the remote control button will turn
it off. Alternatively, if the light is already in the off-state, then pressing the remote
control button will turn it on. The second sub-system will comprise the 50 Hz mains-
derived power supply, associated receiver circuitry and the incandescent lighting
load. The lamp is rated at 12V  2%, 10 Watts, and is to be driven from a regulated
power supply that is separate to the one that drives the receiver sub-system. The
worst-case output ripple voltage of the receiver power supply is not to exceed 100
mV peak to peak.”

This report has been separated into three main parts: the design of the system,
virtual simulation of the power supply design and component costing. Throughout
each step I presented full calculations, diagrams and screenshots where applicable.

1
1. System Design

This section is divided into two main parts; design of the remote-controlled
system and design of the power supply. From the specification, I mapped out a
block diagram showing my proposed design:

Transformer &
Rectifier

Regulator 1
Encoder Transmitter (Remote Control
System)
Toggle
Receiver Decoder Transistor &
Relay Coil
Battery
Power

Regulator 2
(Lighting Load) Relay Contact Lighting
Load

Figure 1
Since the power supply had to be designed around the requirements of the
remote-controlled system then I decided to design the remote-controlled system
first.

1.1. Remote-Controlled System Design

As you can see from the previous section, the main components making up
this system are the encoder, transmitter, receiver, decoder, toggle,
transistor and relay coil.

To begin the design process I first began with the encoder configuration.

1.1.1. Encoder & Transmitter Configuration

I decided to use the HT12E RF Encoder for the design as I found that it
was slightly cheaper than the HT12A IR Encoder; however either one
could be used. On the next page (figure 2) you can see the PIN
schematic of the HT12E encoder taken from the data sheet.

2
 Figure 2

With this particular model it is possible to use PINS 10-13 as data lines
or address lines, for this particular use (switching a light on or off) it
was only necessary to use the data from ‘DOUT’ therefore I decided to
use PINS 10-13 as additional address lines. With the encoder set-up in
this configuration it was possible to set 4096 (212) different
combinations for the address line; this makes the address harder to
crack compared to the HT12A encoder.

It is stated in the data sheet that the input voltage (VDD) can operate
at a minimum of 2.4 Volts DC, typically at 5 Volts DC and at a
maximum of 12 Volts DC. Since I wanted this encoder to be part of a
battery powered hand-held device then I chose to use a small battery
recommended for garage door openers, keyless entry and car alarms 1;
a lithium CR3032 3V battery.

Lastly, I had to choose a frequency for the oscillator to oscillate at. I

chose to set the frequency to 3 kHz whilst considering the transmitter
data frequency range of 200 Hz to 4000 Hz. To find the correct
resistance value needed to set the oscillator frequency I used the
following ‘Oscillator Frequency vs. Supply Voltage’ table provided in
the datasheet (see figure 3 on the next page).

1
Eveready Battery Company Inc, Electronic Batteries Cross Referenced by Device Type,
http://www.energizer.com/products/specialtyphotobatteries/watch-button/Pages/PDA-alarm-
remote.aspx, accessed on 05/04/10 @ 15:40

3
 Figure 3
As you can see, with a 3V power supply and a 3 kHz oscillator
frequency, an 820 kΩ resistor must be used.

For the transmitter I chose the QAM-TX1-433 RF module. I chose this

particular model since it has a low operating voltage between 1.5
Volts DC and 5 Volts DC which makes it suitable with the 3 Volt
battery. Also, it has a very stable operating frequency, a sufficient
transmit range (50 meters) and is low cost.

Below is a diagram showing my final design for the encoder and

transmitter:

Figure 4

4
 The address lines were not set to a particular pattern; they were
selected completely at random to avoid the combination being
cracked. When the TE (Transmit Enabled) button is pushed, the
address combination is sent to the transmitter via a single data line.

NOTE: With regards to costing, a ‘momentary’ push button switch

would be needed to toggle TE and a 12-bit DIL switch would be needed
to set the address configuration.

1.1.2. Decoder & Receiver Configuration

Since I had decided to use the HT12E encoder then I had to use the
HT12F decoder to match the number of address lines configured (12).

In order for the decoder to read the address line sent from the
encoder then the decoder address lines must be configured in the
‘exact’ same way.

According to the design specification, the decoder had to be powered

by the mains. The datasheet states that the decoder can operate at a
minimum of 2.4 Volts, a typical voltage of 5 Volts, and a maximum
voltage of 12 V. Since there was no need to match a battery type then
I choose the typical operating voltage of 5 Volts. This voltage had to
be correctly set by the voltage regulator and is explained in detail
further on in the report.

In order to set the correct oscillator frequency the datasheet states

that it must be ’50 times’ the frequency of the encoder oscillator.
Since the encoder oscillator frequency was set to 3 kHz then the
decoder oscillator frequency had to be set to 150 kHz. In order to find
the correct resistance for Rosc, I used to the ‘Oscillator Frequency vs.
Supply Voltage’ graph provided in the datasheet (See figure 5 on next
page).

5
 Figure 5
As you can see, with a 5V power supply and a 150 kHz oscillator
frequency, a 51 kΩ resistor must be used.

The QAM-RX2-433 is the recommended receiver to match the QAM-

TX1-433 transmitter. In the datasheet it is recommended that it is
typically supplied with 5 Volts DC.

Below is a diagram showing my final design for the decoder and

receiver:

To Toggle
Switch,
Transistor
& Relay Coil
Circuit

Figure 6
When the decoder finds a matching signal from the encoder, it first
checks the signal 3 times to confirm that it is definitely the correct
signal and then a ‘high’ pulse will be sent out of VT to the toggle
switch.

6
1.1.3. Toggle Switch, Transistor & Relay Coil Circuit

The signal from the output of the decoder cannot be fed straight into
the lighting load; it must be used to activate a switch between the
lighting load and its power source. To do this, I used the following
circuit containing a D-type flip flop toggle switch, Bipolar Junction
Transistor and a Relay Coil:
5V
SN74LVC2G74 D-type Flip Flop

CLK Vcc
From Decoder
Output (VT) D PRE
5V
Q VLR
Tyco 1393793-6 Relay Coil
GND Q

110kΩ R1
R1
Lighting Load
BC547C
15kΩ R2
R2

Regulator 2

Figure 7
Since the output of the D-type flip flop was equal to 5V (Vcc) then I
used a pair of resistors to create a potential divider in order to lower
the voltage at the transistor; I did this to match the BC547C transistor
‘on voltage’ which had to lie between 0.55 V and 0.7 V as
recommended in the data sheet. To work out the resistor values I
used the potential divider rule:

R2
Vout = × Vin
R 1+ R 2

This could be re-arranged to:

R 2×Vin
R 1= −R 2
Vout

I chose Vout to be 0.6 V so that it would meet the transistor on voltage

requirement and I picked a random E12 value for R2 (15 kΩ) so that I
could find the appropriate value for R1. Vin was set by the output of
the d-type flip flop (5V).

7
 15× 5
R 1= −15
0.6

R 1=110=110 kΩ to the nearest E12 value.

As you can see, when the voltage goes high on the decoder output,
the toggle (D-type flip flop) switches and provides a voltage to the
transistor. With 0.6 Volts present at the BJT base pin, the transistor
switches allowing the regulator voltage to flow through to ground and
the relay coil then becomes magnetically charged and closes the relay
contact making the connection between the lighting load and its
power source.

I chose the ‘Tyco 1393793-6’ relay coil as it was non-latching and

operated at typical voltage of 5 volts.

With the remote-control system design complete, I now had to design

an appropriate power supply to meet the specifications of the above
components.

1.2. Power Supply Design

From my block diagram on page 2 (figure 1) you can see that the lighting
load power supply and receiver sub-system are powered from the same
mains connection but separate voltage regulators as specified in the brief.

The first regulator (Regulator 1) will supply the receiver sub-system which
requires around 5 Volts DC (see decoder, receiver, toggle and relay coil
voltage requirements) and the second regulator (Regulator 2) will need to
provide 12 Volts (lighting load requires 12V  2% as specified in brief).
Before choosing the regulators, I first had to choose a suitable Transformer
and design a Rectifier.

1.2.1. Transformer, Rectifier & Smoothing Capacitor

The first consideration I made when choosing a Transformer was that

it is powered by the mains (240 Volts @ 50 Hz). Before I could begin
the calculations, I needed to know an approximate step-down voltage.
Since I knew that voltage would be lost across the diodes and the
lighting load regulator had to be at least 2.5V above the output (at

8
least 14.5 V) then I estimated that 18 Volts would be an appropriate
supply voltage.

I decided to choose an RS10-5860 Transformer as it is suitable with

240 Volts input, provides 18 Volts output and 1.1 Amps of current.
Also, it was the cheapest I could find that matched my required
specification.

The current specification was based on the current being drawn by

the load and the receiver system circuit. To work out the current
drawn by the load (ILoad) I used the following formula:

W 10
= =0.83 Amps
V 12

The values for W and V were taken from the lighting load
specification; 12 V @ 10 W.

To find the current being drawn by the receiver system circuit, I

summed the typical current values of the receiver, decoder, toggle
and relay coil as specified in the datasheets:

 Receiver - 3.5 mA
 Decoder - 0.2 mA
 Toggle - 100 mA
 Relay Coil – 80 mA

Total = 0.18 Amps

Therefore an approximate current amount being drawn by the system

was equal to 1.01 Amps. This confirmed that my chosen transformer
was able to provide enough current.

Below is a circuit representation of the transformer:

Fuse

125 mA

240 V @ 50Hz 18 V

Figure 8

9
To find an appropriate value for the fuse I used the following formula:

Vout
× Iout=Iin
Vin

18
×1.01=75 mA
240

I choose to use a 125 mA fuse since it was the closest value I could
find above 75 mA.

The next part of the power supply chain was the rectifier. I chose to
use a common bridge rectifier with four silicon diodes; I chose 1N4148
silicon diodes as they have a reasonably small voltage drop of 0.7 V.
See the rectifier circuit diagram below.

18 VRMS from
Transformer Smoothing
C Capacitor

Figure 9
Before I could continue any calculations I first had to convert the RMS
voltage to a peak voltage:

18 x √ 2 = 25.46 V peak

The job of the rectifier is to convert the A.C voltage into a D.C voltage.
With the bridge rectifier, only two diodes allow a voltage to pass
through at one time. Since there is a voltage drop (Vf) of 0.7 V across
each diode and only two diodes active at one instant, then the total
voltage drop across the rectifier is 1.4 V.

25.46 – 1.4 = 24.06 Volts peak

With the wave fully rectified, the signal then had to be passed through
a capacitor to smooth out the ripple; this is known as the smoothing
capacitor. To work out a value for the capacitor, I wanted to make

10
sure that ripple at the input of Regulator 1 was small enough so that
the output would not exceed 100 mV peak to peak as specified in the
brief. To do this, I used the ‘ripple rejection’ information from the
μA7805C datasheet (see page 13 for Regulator 1 choice).

Ripple Rejection = -78 dB

Therefore:

Vout Ripple
−78=20 log
Vin Ripple

Now by re-arranging this formula, I could find the maximum input

ripple voltage:

0.1
−3.9=log
Vin Ripple

Vout ripple is the desired ripple as specified in the brief; 100 mV peak
to peak (0.1 Volts).

0.1
10−3.9 =
Vin Ripple

0.1
Vin Ripple= −3.9
=0.1 ×103.9
10

Vin Ripple=794 Volts

From this you can see that for Regulator 1 to provide an output ripple
no bigger than 100 mV peak to peak, the input ripple could be as big
as 794 Volts peak to peak. Since I knew that whatever capacitor I
chose would satisfy this ripple amount, I decided to base the
calculation of the smoothing capacitor around the voltage
requirements of Regulator 2.

Regulator 2 was required to provide 12 Volts to the lighting load;

therefore I chose the μA7812C regulator (see page 13). According to
the μA7812C regulator datasheet, the voltage input had to be at least
2.5 Volts above the output voltage; therefore the voltage input of
Regulator 2 had to be 14.5 Volts or above.

11
Since there was already 17 Volts RMS at the regulator input (24.06 ÷
√2) without a smoothing capacitor then the difference between the
peak and the average (taken as RMS value) was equal to 7.06 Volts;
therefore the required ripple had to be equal to 14.12 peak to peak in
order to provide 17 Volts DC. With the required ripple voltage found I
could now find the capacitor value which would provide this result
using the following formula:

I×T
C=
Vripple

To use this formula I had to find values for the current and the period.

The current referred to in this formula could be taken as the current

being drawn by the load ‘ILoad’ which was found previously as 0.83
Amps.

To find the period, I had to consider that the 50 Hz mains signal had
been fully wave rectified which means it had been converted to a 100
Hz signal. Therefore:

1 1
T= = =0.01 Seconds
f 100

With the current, period and required Vripple now found, I could
complete the formula to find C:

I Load ×T 0.83 ×0.01

C= C=
Vripple 14.12

C=¿587.9 μF = 680 μF (next highest E12 value)

I chose the next highest E12 value to make sure that the requirement
would definitely be met; in this case the capacitor would exceed the
requirement.

With the Transformer and Rectifier designed, I could now move on to

choose the required Regulators.

12
1.2.2. Regulator 1

I chose to use the μA7805C regulator for ‘Regulator 1’since it has a

typical output voltage of 5 V to match the voltage needs of the
Receiver, Decoder, Toggle and Relay Coil. According to the datasheet,
for the output to be 5 Volts then the input voltage had to be between
7 V and 25 V RMS (at least 2 Volts bigger than the output); the input
voltage was set as 17 Volts DC.

Below is a circuit diagram showing the Regulator with noise rejection

capacitors as recommended in the datasheet:

μA7805C
Regulator

Vin = 17 V IN OUT Vout = 5 V

Common

0.33 μF 0.1 μF

Figure 10

1.2.3. Regulator 2

I chose Regulator 2 as the regulator to feed the lighting load. Since I

wanted the output to provide 12V ± 2% then I choose the μA7812C
regulator.

According to the datasheet, for the output to be 12 Volts then the

input voltage had to be between 14.5 V and 30 V (at least 2.5 Volts
bigger than the output); the input voltage was set as 17 Volts DC.

One the next page (figure 11) is a circuit diagram showing the
Regulator with noise rejection capacitors as recommended in the
datasheet.

13
 μA7812C
Regulator

Vin = 17 V IN OUT Vout = 12 V

Common

0.33 μF 0.1 μF

Figure 11

1.2.4. Heat-sink Calculation & Design

Since voltage regulators dissipate power in the form of heat then it is

often required to attach a suitable heat-sink. The first step to
calculating whether or not a heat-sink is needed is to calculate the
power dissipation from the regulator using the following formula:

Pdiss=Voltage Drop × I

Therefore, for Regulator 1:

Pdiss=(17−5)×0.18

Pdiss=2.16 Watts

For Regulator 2:

Pdiss=(17−12)× 0.83

Pdiss=4.15 Watts

According to the datasheet, the regulators were able to dissipate up

to 2 Watts successfully in a ‘free-air’ temperature of 25 oC. For this
reason I decided to find a heat-sink for each regulator since both
regulators needed to dissipate more than 2 Watts.

I did consider leaving Regulator 1 without a heat-sink as it was only

dissipating 0.16 Watts more than the limit, but I decided against it
since the free-air dissipation is even less as the ambient temperature
increases above 25oC.

14
The heat dissipation system can be thought of as the equivalent circuit
below:

θJC 4oC/W

150oC TJ
θCs 1oC/W

θSA

TA 70oC

Figure 12

 TJ is taken as the maximum junction temperature taken from the

datasheet (150oC).
 θJC is taken as the thermal resistance from junction to case and is
given in the datasheet as 4oC/W.
 θCS is taken as the thermal resistance from case to sink and refers
to the thermal grease; this was taken as an average of 1oC/W.
 θSA is taken as the thermal resistance from the sink to ambient; this
is the unknown that must be found in order to find an appropriate
heat-sink.
 TA is taken as the maximum ambient temperature; I based this on
an assumption that the system would not be used in temperatures
exceeding 70oC.

To find the unknown (θSA) I used the following formula:

TJ −TA=Pdiss (θJC +θCS+θSA)

This could be re-arranged to:

TJ−TA
−( θJC+θCS )=θSA
Pdiss

15
 Therefore, to find θSA for Regulator 1:

150−70
−( 4+1 ) =32.04 ° C /W
2.16

And for Regulator 2:

150−70
−( 4+1 ) =14.28° C /W
4.15

With the values for θSA found, I chose the following heat-sinks:

 Regulator 1 – PF720 28oC/W Heat-sink

 Regulator 2 – SW252 13oC/W Heat-sink

I choose heat-sinks with a slightly better temperature per Watt

difference so as to exceed the requirements.

2. Virtual Simulation

Since there are many considerations to make when designing the power supply, I
decided to perform a virtual simulation in order to confirm that the power
requirements for the system were being met.

It was stated in the assignment brief that is was not required to simulate the
mains transformer and that it could be assumed that the transformer could be
represented as a ‘Thevenin equivalent’ a.c generator of 22 volts peak amplitude
with an output resistance of 0.9 ohms.

To perform the simulation I used National Instruments Multisim 10. On the next
page is a screenshot of the power supply circuit (figure 13).

16
 Regulator 1

Regulator 2

Figure 13
Unfortunately, the software did not have the exact regulator model types, so I
used equivalent regulators; a TA7805F (5 Volts) and a TA7812F (12 Volts).

As you can see from the multi-meter results, 5.004 Volts was being provided by
Regulator 1 and 11.973 Volts was being provided by Regulator 2, this matched
the desired values of 5 Volts and 12 Volts.

To confirm that my calculation for the capacitor ensured a reasonably minimum

ripple I decided to measure it using an oscilloscope:

Figure 14

As you can see (circled above), the ripple is approximately 103.55 mV peak to
peak which meant that the ripple requirements were exceeded for both
Regulators.

17
3. Components Costing

With the design and simulation complete, I decided to find an approximate cost
for the system. Below is a table showing each component and its associated
price:

Component Model/Type Cost Each Qty Website Total

Encoder HT12E £0.57 1 Rapidonline.com £0.57
Transmitter QAM-TX1-433 £2.29 1 Onecall.farnell.com £2.29
Decoder HT12F £0.72 1 Rapidonline.com £0.72
Receiver QAM-RX2-433 £2.76 1 Onecall.farnell.com £2.76
Push Button Switch R12-81 RED £0.37 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.37
Lithium Battery CR3032 – 3V £0.68 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.68
12 bit DIL Switch MCEI-12 £0.41 2 Onecall.farnell.com £0.82
D-Type Flip-Flop SN74LVC2G74DCTR £0.48 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.48
BJT Transistor BC547C £0.04 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.04
Relay Coil Tyco 1393793-6 £1.06 1 Onecall.farnell.com £1.06
Resistor 820 kΩ £0.02 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.02
Resistor 51 kΩ £0.02 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.02
Resistor 15 kΩ £0.02 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.02
Resistor 110 kΩ £0.02 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.02

Transformer RS10-5860 £5.55 1 rs-online.com £5.55

Diode 1N4148 £0.03 4 Onecall.farnell.com £0.12
Smoothing Cap Electrolit 680 μF £0.16 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.16
Regulator 1 μA7805CKTE £0.31 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.31
Regulator 2 μA7812CKTE £0.38 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.38
Heatsink PF720 £0.23 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.23
Heatsink SW252 £0.66 1 Onecall.farnell.com £0.66
Fuse 125 mA £0.13 1 Rapidonline.com £0.13
Plug BS 1363 £1.04 1 Onecall.farnell.com £1.04
Capacitor 0.33 μF £0.04 2 Onecall.farnell.com £0.08
Capacitor 0.1 μF £0.04 2 Onecall.farnell.com £0.08

TOTAL £18.61
Figure 15
This is only an approximate cost and does not include components such as the
printed circuit board, cables and enclosures.

As you can see, the total cost of the system is £18.56. To see how reasonable this
price was, I decided to compare the cost with 3 other remotely-controlled
lighting systems of a similar specification (see figure 16 on the next page).

Description Website Price

Wireless Light & Appliance Remote Control Overstock.com £18.17
Remote Control & Receiver Light Pack U-diy.co.uk £18.99

18
 Infrared Remote Control Light Switch Maplin.co.uk £24.99
Figure 16

Comparing the cost of my system to already existing systems, I would say that
the total price was fairly reasonable. If I was to set up a company then I would
most likely be able to get a ‘trade’ price on the components which would lower
the cost. Also, the prices given for my components was the individual price per
component, however if the components are bought in bulk then the individual
price per component works out cheaper.

Conclusion

One assumption that I made in my design was that all the components were working
at 100% efficiency; therefore there may have been slight voltage and current

19
variables not taken into consideration. However, I made sure that all voltage and
current values were in reasonable limits. For example, I made sure not to set a
voltage of 2.9 when the maximum voltage allowed was 3 Volts. All of the voltage and
current values were in reasonable limits so that if variable component tolerances
caused a slightly higher or lower output than expected, the system would not be
affected.

After I had finished my design, I worried that even though the RF encoder and
decoder were cheaper than the IR versions, the price of the RF transmitter and
receiver were more expensive than the IR emitter and receiver; to confirm this I
decided to find the total cost of the IR components. What I found was that even
though the price of an IR emitter was a lot cheaper than the RF transmitter, the IR
receiver circuit cost approximately the same price as the RF transmitter and receiver
together, therefore my initial choice proved to be the wisest.

Bibliography

20
Books:

 Electronic & Electical Engineering: Principles and Practice (Third Edition 2002)
– Warnes, L

Websites:

 Onecall.farnell.com

 www.electronicsandyou.com

 www.energizer.com

 www.maplin.co.uk

 www.overstock.com

 www.rapidonline.com

 www.rs-online.com

 www.u-diy.co.uk

 www.wikipedia.com

21