CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The requirement of headlight is very common during night travel. The same headlight

which assists the driver for better vision during night travel is also responsible for many

accidents that are being caused. The driver has the control of the headlight which can be

switched from high beam (bright) to low beam (dim). The headlight has to be adjusted

according to the light requirement by the driver. During pitch black conditions where there

are no other sources of light, high beam is used to. On all other cases, low beam is

preferred. But in a two-way traffic, there are vehicles plying on both sides of the road. So

when the bright light from the headlight of a vehicle coming from the opposite direction falls

on a person, it glares him for a certain amount of time. This causes disorientation to that

driver. This discomfort will result in involuntary closing of the driver’s eyes momentarily.

This fraction of distraction is the prime cause of many road accidents. The prototype that has

been designed reduces this problem by actually controlling down the bright headlight of our

vehicle to low beam.

1. CURRENT PROBLEMS FACED BY MOTORISTS

Motorists are facing a huge problem due to this high beam light which falls directly

onto their eyes during driving. There are many medical facts and figures which support their

problems of night driving.

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1.1 TROXLER EFFECT

In the medical world, Troxler effect is used to describe a kind of temporary blindness.

It is otherwise known as the ‘fading effect’. A study shows that if our eyes are exposed to a

very bright light source of around 10,000 lumens, we experience a glare. This glare is

produced due to over exposure of the rods and cones inside our eye. Even after the source of

glare is removed, an after-image remains in our eye that creates blind spot. This phenomenon

is called Troxler effect.

1.2 ACCIDENT DUE TO TROXLER EFFECT

As discussed earlier, there are many accidents caused due to Troxler effect. Many

accident reports have been witnessed where a large vehicle, hitting a slow-moving smaller

vehicle while the latter is trying to over-take. Though it might be obvious to blame the driver,

they claim to have not seen the smaller vehicle approaching. This is the most common

example of illustrating the Troxler effect in our day-to-day life. Due to excessive brightness,

the driver of the large vehicle is blinded. So he is unable to notice the smaller vehicle even

though it is right in front of him. This can be avoided if the headlight is controlled to low

beam mode.

B. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This laboratory research project aims to determine the effectiveness of using Triac

Controlled Switch as Headlight Controller.

Specially, the researcher sought to aim the following:

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 1. Will the triac be effective as a switch for headlight controller?

2. Is there any significant difference between the standard switch and a triac controlled

switch?

OBJECTIVES

1. To see if the triac-controlled switch performs effectively.

2. To create a new type of switching that is more reliable and effective.

C. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study aims to provide comfortable driving experience for the driver and also a

safe travel experience for the passengers on the road. Moreover, it will benefit the following:

Future Researchers. This study may be of interest to other researchers to learn more

about creative approaches to the problem of vehicles headlight controllers.

Stakeholders. This study would benefit stakeholders the greatest if they learned more

about electronics research.

D. SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS

The efficacy of the Triac that works as a switch for the headlight is the topic of this

research. This study is limited to acquiring data from prior studies, publications, and journals.

It will also use simulation software to illustrate the created circuit. The Proteus app will be

used to simulate the circuit in this study.

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E. DEFINITION OF TERMS

Vehicle – a thing used for transporting people or goods, especially on land, such as car, truck

or cart.

Headlight – a powerful light at the front of the motor vehicle or railroad engine.

Triac – a three-electrode semiconductor device that will conduct in either direction when

triggered by a positive signal at the gate electrode.

Proteus – a proprietary software tool suite used primarily for electronic design automation;

used to create the circuit.

Thyristor – a four-layered semiconductor rectifier in which a signal at a third electrode

iniates the flow of current between two electrodes.

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 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter shows the related literature reviewed by the researchers and how these

studies relate with Headlight Controller: A Prototype for Vehicles.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES AND STUDIES

Motorcycle accidents

In 2008 to 2017, there have been 261 patients that have been admitted in Philippine

General Hospital because of road accidents during nighttime. Throughout the years, the most

involved vehicle to be in an accident is a motorcycle with the most common form of accident

is vehicle-to-vehicle collision (Lu JL. et al., 2021). In a different study, there are more risk of

road accidents at nighttime than daytime, the rate of lethal accidents that happen during

nighttime is 4.6 higher than during the daytime, one of the reasons for nighttime accidents to

happen is due to the driver’s inability to evaluate the gap between their vehicle and other

motorists and this is due to glare effect that comes from other vehicle’s headlight (Basu &

Saha, 2022).

Headlight System

Driving at nighttime is, without a doubt, more dangerous than during the daytime. It is

common sense to have a working headlight during the nighttime and use it to find your route

and to see where you’re headed, it is also used to see if there are any obstacles on the

highway and to let other incoming motorist know that you are driving in the highway.

Having a working headlight is great but it is also dangerous for you and other motorist if the

headlight is too bright, in that case, it might lead to road accidents that’s why it is important

to have varying intensity of the luminosity of the headlight (Shahriar, K., 2021). The use of

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conventional headlight system incorporates fixed direction lamps, with higher or lower beam

configuration which is not suitable to night driving as they do not properly illuminate the

road during turning or gradient travel of vehicle (Shingate et al, 2019). Hence, with the use of

triac to control the brightness of the headlight, motorist could find the optimal level of

brightness when driving at night.

Related Studies

Several research papers uses different methods to control the brightness of their

vehicle’s headlight to prevent glare, one design detects an incoming high-beamed headlight

and use light dependent resistor or LDR to automatically adjust the headlight of the driving

vehicle (Jadhav A., et al, 2022) but this might cause problems, for example, the LDR might

mistakenly detect a certain light source, for instance, a bug along the road, resulting to the

circuit to trigger. Other designs use LabVIEW to automatically adjust the brightness of the

vehicle’s headlight based on the illumination of the surroundings (Ramachandran K., et al,

2018) but this would cause problems when driving in the highway at night. Some uses

BH1750 module and MPU6050 module to detect an incoming vehicle and to assess road

contours respectively. This means that the brightness of the headlight automatically adjusts

when the module detects an incoming vehicle and when the vehicle is going uphill or

downhill (Muhammad F, et al., 2020). Another design uses an economical device called

Arduino to not just automatically adjust the brightness of the headlight of the vehicle when

the device detects an incoming vehicle but it also has the ability to steer the headlight for

curved path (Kumar S. S., et al., 2019), this is helpful because conventional headlights only

beams in a forward direction while with the use of this device, the path would be lit up.

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 Conceptual Design

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Motorist
Headlight Control
(Motorcycle Driver)

Headlight Control
Prototype
(Circuit)

Moderator Variable

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 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH LOCALE

This study will be conducted in face-to-face and some online discussion at Western

Mindanao State University is located in Zamboanga City, Philippines has two campuses the

A campus and B campus. The location of the research is the Western Mindanao State

University itself during face-to-face schedule of the junior-year students of the Bachelor of

Science in Electrical Engineering. Since the schedule is face-to-face every other week,

Discussions are done through online meeting using a social media platforms such as

messenger on schedule for online classes.

RESEARCH DESIGN

This study utilizes the Experimental and Quantitative research. Since we aim to get the

affectivity of the triac transistor.

A. GENERAL PROCEDURES

I. CONCEPTUALIZATION

1. We the researchers talk about what project will make and came up with

“HEADLIGHT CONTROLLER A PROTOTYPE FOR VEHICLES”.

And decide what circuit design will be used.

2. The researchers look for an application to help simulate the circuit of

the project. The researcher chose the “PROTEUS” software to simulate

the circuit.

3. Observe the simulation if its working and taking notes of the outcome.

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II. MATERIAL/ COMPONENTS

1. With all consideration of the materials compatibility of the circuit

design, the researchers will used in research project.

2. Halogen Lamp - An incandescent lamp called a halogen lamp has a

tungsten filament that is enclosed in a small, transparent envelope that

is filled with an inert gas and a trace amount of a halogen gas, such

iodine or bromine.

3. Triac - A TRIAC is a bidirectional, three-electrode AC switch that

allows electrons to flow in either direction. It is the equivalent of two

SCRs connected in a reverse-parallel arrangement with gates

connected to each other. A TRIAC is triggered into conduction in both

directions by a gate signal like that of an SCR.

4. Resistor - A resistor is an electrical component that limits or regulates

the flow of electrical current in an electronic circuit. Resistors can also

be used to provide a specific voltage for an active device such as a

transistor.

5. Capacitor - A capacitor is a device that uses the accumulation of

electric charges on two nearby surfaces that are electrically isolated

from one another to store electrical energy in an electric field. It has

two terminals and is a passive electrical component. Capacitance refers

to a capacitor's effect.

6. Variable Resistor - Since the resistance of variable resistors can be

adjusted to a certain value, they are frequently employed in electrical

circuits to change the value of current or voltage. With variable

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 resistors, you may change the resistance while maintaining a constant

current to change the voltage value.

7. Battery - Batteries for motorcycles and powersports typically come in

four varieties: conventional batteries. AGM Sealed with No

Maintenance. AGM Maintenance Free Factory Activated.

III. SIMULATION

1. The researchers will decide what triac will be used in the project

2. Then the researchers will make a design circuit in the software

application which is the “PROTEUS” will plot the design the

researchers came up with.

3. And lastly, researcher will test if the design works by simulating. To

see if it is working.

Components and their values

COMPONENTS VALUES
Battery 14 V
Variable Resistor 1k Ω
Capacitor 1 µF
Resistor 20k Ω
30k Ω
200k Ω
Triac Triggering Current – 1 mA
Holding Current – 5 mA
Halogen Lamp 12 V
Table 1: This table shows the deployed components used in the designed circuit. Together

with the values as per component used.

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 CHAPTER IV

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After all the data gathering process, the researchers presented the tables and the

results of the project for further analysis.

A. SIMULATION DESIGN

Figure 1. This figure shows the design circuit for the project. This design will be used to

simulate and for gathering data.

The switch is for the whole circuit to power up and to control the light if it is needed

to be used. And the light of the vehicles are used in night time. By the help of the switch, you

can use the circuit in nighttime only and whenever you want to use it.

For the triac to be trigger on, it needs a 1 mA as its trigger point. Which the total

resistor and the load voltage provide so it will turn on by simply adding the R1 and the R2

since they are in series and used the formula for the parallel which is 𝑅𝑇 = 1⁄𝑅1 +

1⁄ 1
𝑅2 + ⁄𝑅3, and then divide it by the load voltage which output will trigger the triac.

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Figure 2. This figure shows the low beam, the lowest brightness the circuit can produces.

As for the high beam the variable resistor should be at 0% which is 0 ohms, and as for

the low beam the variable resistor is at 100% which is 1k ohms. As you can see at the Figure

1, the variable resistors at 0% supplies 9.35 Volts to power the halogen lamp. As the halogen

lamp is powered by 9.35 Volts, it acts as a high beam and it is bright, while as the variable

resistor increases to 100% it reduces the supply voltage to 0.81 Volts which only lights low

or as we researchers refers to as low beam. As you can see in Figure 2.

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Result for 25% of the variable resistor.

Figure 3. This figure shows the percentage used in the variable resistor and how much volts

it generates at 25%, which the volts generated is 9.48V.

Result for 50% of the variable resistor.

Figure 4. This figure shows the percentage used in the variable resistor and how much volts

it generates at 50%, which the volts generated is 7.77V.

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Result for 75% of the variable resistor.

Figure 5. This figure shows the percentage used in the variable resistor and how much volts

it generates at 75%, which the volts generated is 6.85V.

Result for 100% of the variable resistor.

Figure 5. This figure shows the percentage used in the variable resistor and how much volts

it generates at 100%, which the volts generated is 0.81V.

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SUMMARY OF THE RESULT

VARIABLE RESISTOR VOLTAGE GENERATED

0% 9.31 V
25% 9.48 V
50% 7.77 V
75% 6.85 V
100% 0.81 V
Table 2. This shows the corresponding variable resistor percentage and its voltage generated.

As the variable resistor increases in percentage the voltage generated is lower, which

produces a dimmer and dimmer light as the variable resistor percentage increases.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. Will the triac be effective as a switch for headlight controller?

After further checking and simulating the data results shows it is effective and also

reliable, since it shows in the data gathered how it changes in brightness as we increase the

variable resistor.

2. Is there any significant difference between the standard switch and a triac-controlled

switch?

The difference between the standard switch and triac controlled switch are triac

controlled switch has many choices of how bright will use for the halogen lamp or the

headlight, in the project we pick to test the 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%and the 100%. As for the

standard switch it only has two the high and low beam.

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 CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter will cover the conclusion of the research. Moreover, it will also provide

the summary as well as some recommendations for future researchers.

CONCLUSION

To sum up all the findings up, this study focuses on the efficacy of the triac that works

as a triggering switch device for the headlight.

The researchers simulated the circuit in Proteus app and presented findings carefully

for it to be as valid as possible. The result shows that the triac is effective in handling the

voltages and currents to brighten and dim lights. It is also effective and reliable because it

changes as we increase the variable resistor. When comparing to a standard switch, the triac

triggering switch has many choices of how bright will use for the headlight whilst for the

standard switch it only has direct high and low beam.

ADVANTAGES

• Triac as a switching device are much more energy-efficient than traditional

light switches.

• Motorcycle driver can use this circuit to find the optimal brightness if

headlight beam in comfort.

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DISADVANTAGE

• It can be triggered in any direction, so we need to be careful about triggering

circuit.

RECOMMENDATION

• Future researchers might use other type of thyristor that can hold larger value

of voltages

• Use a reliable or dependable programming software to support your study and

to have an accurate data

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 REFERENCES

Ajay, S., Prasanna, N., Rajmohan, S., Roshan, B., & Saravanan, P. T. A Retrofit for

Controlling the Brightness of an Automotive Headlight to Reduce Glare by using

Embedded C Program on a PIC Microcontroller.

Basu, S., & Saha, P. (2022). Evaluation of risk factors for road accidents under mixed traffic:

Case study on Indian highways. IATSS Research.

Jadhav, A. S., Joshi, V., & Pawar, R. V. (2022, August). Automatic Headlight Intensity

Control using Light Dependent Resistor. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series

(Vol. 2325, No. 1, p. 012001). IOP Publishing.

Kumar, S. S., Santhiya, E., Sivasakthi, S., Fahim, H. R., & Madhusudanan, G. (2019).

Adaptive Headlights System for Vehicle using Arduino.

Lu, J. L., Herbosa, T. J., & Lu, S. F. D. (2021). Epidemiologic profile of vehicular accident

patients in the largest hospital in the Philippines covering ten years. Acta medica

Philippina, 55(6).

Muhammad, F., Yanto, D. D., Wiryadinata, R., & Martiningsih, W. (2020) Design of

Automatic Headlight Based on Road Contour and Other Headlight Light.

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Ramachandran, K., Thangaraj, P. P., Elangovan, L., Sugumar, P., & Vijayalakshmi, G.

(2018). Automated Headlight Control using LabVIEW. Journal for Research|

Volume, 3(12).

Shahriar, K. M. F. (2021). Automatic headlight controlling of vehicle using ambient light

sensor based on phototransistor. ScienceOpen Preprints.

Shingate, P., Jadhav, G., Khilare, A., Hulawale, M., & Patil, R. R. (2019). Design and

Fabrication of Adaptive Headlight System.

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