Sensing ambient light

Status
Not open for further replies.

premkumar9

Member
Hi,
I need to sense the ambient light for controlling the intensity of a street flash light. Planning to use an LDR. The circuit will be in a box under the solar panel. Should I take out the LDR through wire connection and face it upwards (to avoid vehicle head lights directly falling on it).
 
When you say "street flash light", what do you mean?

As far as oncoming car headlights, just face it in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the headlights.

On another note, have you considered using one of these: OPT101 from Texas Instruments . I just finished building a project using one of these, for a light intensity project, and they work great. Just send the voltage to the ADC of a uController of your choice, with whatever logic you want to use.
 
Maybe in India the street lights flash on and off all night? Because the electricity fails so frequently?
 
There are many requests on these forums for inverters and crystal controlled clocks from people in India.
Their electricity fails often and the voltage and frequency vary all over the place.
The power meters are bypassed so that electricity is stolen and even the copper wires are stolen.

It is a different world over there.
Unbelievable.
 
premkumar9 said:
The circuit will be in a box under the solar panel.
Click to expand...
I wonder if you could use the solar panel output voltage for sensing also. Have you checked the output characteristics of the panel when the light is low and it is no longer charging the battery?
 
LDR facing upwards will catch dust. Just face it towards forest horizontal to ground. Keep it away from direct sunlight. Your circuit is okey?
 
Sometimes I've gone to my childhood........

Today only I understood MSPaint is such a versatile program to express our artistic skills........
 

Attachments

  • light.jpeg
    28 KB · Views: 2,438
Solar Charge Controller

These handle every thing for you, just need solar panel, battery, and lights (load). Even different timing modes (16 I think, been about a year since I hooked mine up), 7 of them flash. It would be difficult to build your own, and save money.

For a solar streetlight, you are going to need some pretty bright lights, don't think LEDs will do it. If people are stealing copper wire, got a hunch a huge solar panel and battery wouldn't last very long...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Question
No contact AC voltage sensing
Replies
11
Views
919
lilimike
R
  • Solved
Cant Light up UV lightbulb!
Replies
8
Views
648
ZipZapOuch
G
  • Question
Light dimmer circuit
Replies
12
Views
2K
Tony Stewart
D
  • Question
Led light turn on at specific Voltage
2 3
Replies
43
Views
4K
Tex260Z
T
S
  • Question
converting Old camera display to light screen
Replies
5
Views
1K
ZipZapOuch
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…