Name : ________________

Class : ____ Section : ____

Roll no. : _______________
Subject : ______________
School : _______________

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CERTIFICATE

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 INDEX
1. Certificate of Excellence
2. Acknowledgement
3. Aim of project
4. Introduction
5. Theory
6. Apparatus required
7. Procedure followed
8. Observation
9. Conclusions
10. Precautions
11. Bibliography

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks to my
Physics teacher as well as our Principal Mam who
gave me the golden opportunity to do this
wonderful project in PHYSICS, which also helped
me in doing a lot of Research. I came to know
about many new things. This project couldn't
have been satisfactorily completed without the
support and guidance of MY parents.

I would like to thank my parents who helped me

in gathering diverse information, collecting data
and guiding me from time to time in making this
project, despite their busy schedule. They gave
me different ideas in making this project unique.

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 AIM OF PROJECT
The aim of the project is to demonstrate the
underlying principles of electrical conduction under
the influence of light. Various applications are
possible by employing this simple principle such as
(A) Automatic switching of street lamps, (b)
Intruder's alarm, (¢) Morning wake up alarm, (d) Fire
alarm, (e) Light intensity meters, ( Automatic
elevator doors etc. to name a few.

In this project, I have demonstrated the intruder's

alarm in a simple manner which is easy to
understand. The heart of the project is an LDR or
Light Dependent Resistor. This project could have
been done using a photo-voltaic cell in place of
LDR but the circuit would have become
complicated in the case of photocell.

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 INTRODUCTION
A photoresistor or light-dependent resistor(LDR) is a
light-controlled variable resistor. The resistance of a
photoresistor decreases with increasing incident light
intensity in other words, it exhibits Photoconductivity.
A photoresistor can be applied in light-sensitive
detector circuits, and light and dark activated
switching circuits. These resistors use pure
semiconductors like silicon or germanium. When the
light falls on the LDR, then the electrons get excited
by the incident photons and move from the valence
band to the conduction band and therefore the
number of charge carriers increases. In other words,
the conductivity goes up.

Distinction needs to be made here between

photocells and LDRS. in a photocell, when it is
excited by light (photons), electricity is generated.
Unlike photocells, LDRs, do not generate electricity
but only change their conductivity.
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 THEORY
Alight dependent resistor works on the principle of
photo conductivity. Photo conductivity is an electro-
optical phenomenon in which the material's conductivity
is increased when
light is absorbed by
the material. Modern
light dependent
resistors are made
of materials such as
lead sulphide, lead
selenide, indium antimonide and most commonly cadmium
sulphide (Cds) and cadmium selenide.

When light falls i.e. when the photons fall on the

material, the electrons in the valence band of the
semiconductor material are excited to the conduction
band. These photons in the incident light should have
energy greater than the band gap of the semiconductor
material to make the electrons jump from the valence
band to the conduction band.

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Hence when light having enough energy strikes on the
device, more and more electrons are excited to the
conduction band
which results in
large number of
charge carriers.
The result of this
process is more
and more current
starts flowing
through the device
when the circuit is closed and hence it is said that the
resistance of the device has been decreased. This is the
most common working principle of LDR.

This can be clearly seen form the graph The resistance

of the LDR falls rapidly with the increasing intensity of
the incident light.

The converse is also true when light intensity is reduced

or cut off.

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APPARATUS REQUIRED

The project consists of the following apparatus:

1. Light source (white, ultra-violet and laser)

2. LDR
3. Switching circuit
4. Relay
5. Buzzer
6. Batteries
7. Housing for the above

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PROCEDURE FOLLOWED
An empty cardboard box was used to mimic a
house. An opening was cut on the box to
presenta door. Behind the door, a light source is
placed and in the line of vision of the light
source, an LDR is also placed.

A circuit is connected to the LDR which

switches on a relay when the light beam is
intercepted. A schematic diagram of the set-up
is shown below

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As seen in the above diagram, a light source i
positioned behind the door on the right hand
side and an LDR is placed in the same line of
vision at the opposite end of the door. When the
light beam falls on the LDR, it lowers the
resistance of the same and this activates the
switching transistor circuit. The transistor circuit
(described later) is connected to a relay which is
in turn connected to an external buzzer.

The relay is a special type of switch which is

driven by its magnetic coil. The relay has two
positions. In de-energized condition, position-1
will be active and in energized condition,
position-2 will be active.

When the circuit is powered, the relay goes to

position-1 to which the buzzer is connected.
Thus, the buzzer will start ringing. But when the
light source is switched on, the resistance of
LDR falls and this drives the transistor switching
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circuit and the relay gets energized. This puts
the relay switch in positon-2, which cuts off the
buzzer. In this condition, whenever the light
beam is intercepted by an opaque object, the
LDR stops receiving the incident light and its
resistance becomes high. This de-energizes the
relay and puts it to position-1 and the buzzer
starts ringing.

Thus, to summarize, we can say that as long as

the light source is on and the LDR is illuminated,
the buzzer will not ring. But the moment, the
light source is interrupted, the buzzer will start
ringing.

We can Imagine the interruption of the light

beam to be caused by an intruder and hence this
arrangement can automatically detect any
intruder by turning on the buzzer.

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The buzzer is just one of the devices we have
connected to the relay. As such we can connect
many devices to the relay such as sirens, flashing
lights or even an automatic dialer to the nearest
police station. This intruder alarm can be easily
set up in houses, banks, schools etc.

The same circuit can be rewired to reverse the

effect of light. Viz. we can make the buzzer ring
whenever, light is present and interestingly this
set up can be used as a morning alarm.

Circuit Diagram
Now, let us understand how the switching takes
place when the LDR is illuminated by light. For the
automatic switching, we have used the following
circuit consisting of Transistor. One of the most
common uses for transistors is an electronic
circuit is as simple switches. In short, a transistor
conducts current across the collector-emitter
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path only when sufficient voltage is applied to its
base. When no
sufficient base
voltage is
present, the switch
is off. When
sufficient base
voltage is present,
the switch is on.

The circuit uses two transistors, connected in

series. The base voltage of the first transistor is
adjusted carefully through the variable resistor
(potentiometer) so that the slightest increase in
the base voltage can fire the transistor T1. Thus,
when there is no light on the LDR, the transistor
remains un-fired. But when light falls on the LDR,
the LDR starts conducting and the net base
voltage of transistor T1 crosses the threshold
voltage, causing T1 to fire. As a consequence, the
collector current of T2 is now large enough to
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energize the relay. The relay gets energized and
changes the contact position from 1 to 2. When
light is cut off, the base voltage of T1 falls back to
less than the threshold voltage of its base-emitter
junction and therefore, the relay gets de-
energized.

As stated earlier, the relay is connected to a

buzzer through a battery. So, whenever, light is
interrupted, the relay goes to position-1 where, the
buzzer is connected and the buzzer starts ringing.

The ringing buzzer wards off the intruder and also

alerts the neighbors about the intrusion. In addition
to the buzzer, one can also connect a high
intensity flash light to warn the people in the
neighborhood about the intrusion.

Needless to say, one has also to install a stealth

switch that is known only to the owner so that the
owner can disable it for his own entry.

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 OBSERVATION
In the set up described, the following
observations were made by Aman varying the
nature of light source, Akash varying the
translucency of the interceptor object.

Table of observations

S. NO. Type of Material of Result

Light Source Interceptor
Opaque Buzzer Rings
1 White light
Transparent Buzzer does
not ring.
Near ultra- Opaque Buzzer Rings
2 violet Transparent Buzzer does
not ring.
Low Opaque Buzzer Rings
3 intensity Transparent Buzzer does
red laser not ring.

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Extension of scope in future

The device was also tested under invisible light using

a TV remote control as an infrared light source. The
same observations were made as above. This
extends the scope of the project to the invisible
light sources such as ultraviolet and infrared. The
advantage is that; we can dupe the intruder by using
invisible light as the light rays will not be visible even
in the night.

Another interesting application that can be thought

of is an automatic "people counter" that can be used
to measure the number of people traversing a certain
passage or entrance in an auditorium or theatre.
It can also be used as a "traffic counter" in check
posts and toll gates.
For this, we have to simply
replace the buzzer with a
"digital counter". A typical
digital counter is
shown in the accompanying
picture.
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 CONCLUSION
Based on the observation above, it can be
concluded that the LDR based electronic
switch can be successfully deployed for the
following applications:

1. Intruder detection / burglar's alarm for

home uses.
2. Anti-theft alarm for Banks and offices.
3. People Counter at Auditoriums.
4. Vehicle counter at traffic check posts.

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 PRECAUTIONS
The project uses certain devices that can
be harmful to humans and animals if proper
caution and care are not observed.
1. Laser diode : Although we have used a
low intensity laser, this can be harmful if
aimed accidently at the eyes or if the
reflected beam is seen through naked
eye. It is suggested to wear protective
sun-glasses while assembling /
positioning the light source.
2. Ultraviolet LED : UV LED with wavelengths
between 315 and 400 nm, which emits the
least energetic and harmful type of UV
light. However, prolonged exposure should
be avoided which can damage the skin and
eyes.

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3. Buzzer : This device emits high
frequency audio sounds that can damage
the ears when put close to the ears or
heard for prolonged period.
4.The LDR : Should a need arise to destroy
the project; care should be taken to
dispose off the LDR properly as it contains
harmful chemicals that can damage the
environment.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. www.google.com
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/
3. www.electriclainstruments.com
4. www.ncert.com
5. www.youtube.com

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 HAN K
T
YOU

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