What Is A Light Sensor Circuit?: Manual Control of The Street Lights Major Electrical and Electronic Components

What is a Light Sensor Circuit?
The light sensor circuit is a simple electrical circuit, which can be used to
control the (switch on and off) electrical load appliances like lights, fans,
coolers, air conditioners, street lights, etc., automatically. By using this light
sensor circuit, we can eliminate manual switching as the loads can be
controlled automatically based on the daylight intensity. Hence, we can
describe it as an automatic light sensor.
The light sensor circuit helps to evade the manual control of the street
lights erected on highways which is risky and also causes wastage of
power. The light sensor circuit consists of major electrical and electronic
components such as light sensor, Darlington pair, and relay. To understand
the working operation of the light sensor circuit, we must know a brief about
the components used in designing the light sensor circuit.
Light Sensor
There are different types of light sensors available such as photoresistors,

photodiodes, photovoltaic cells, phototubes, photomultiplier tubes,
phototransistors, charge coupled devices, and so on. But, LDR (Light
Dependent Resistor or photoresistor) is used as a light sensor in this light
sensor circuit. These LDR sensors are passive and doesn’t produce any
electrical energy.
LDR Light Sensor
But, the resistance of the LDR changes with the change in the (light
illuminated on the LDR) daylight intensity. LDR sensor is rugged in nature,
hence can be used even in dirty and rough external environments. Hence,
LDR is preferable compared to other light sensors as it can be used even in
the outdoor lighting of homes and in automatic street lights as well.
LDR Resistance Variation with Variation in Light Intensity
Light Dependent Resistor is a variable resistor that is controlled by light

intensity. LDRs are made of high resistance semiconductor material,
Cadmium Sulphide that exhibits photoconductivity.
Light Intensity vs LDR Resistance

During night time (when the light illuminated on LDR decreases), the LDR
exhibits a very high resistance of around a few MΩ (Mega Ohms). During
daytime, (when the light is illuminated on LDR), resistance of LDR
decreases to around a few 100Ω (hundred Ohms). Hence, the resistance of
LDR is inversely proportional to the light illuminated on LDR.
As shown in the above figure, the LDR consists of two terminals similar to a
general resistor and a wave-shaped design on its top surface. The graph
shown above represents the inverse proportionality of the LDR with the
light intensity.
The major drawback of the LDR is that, it is sensitive to light illuminated on

it irrespective of the nature of light (natural daylight or even artificial light).
Darlington Pair
The back-to-back connection of two transistors is called as a Darlington

pair, this Darlington pair transistor connection is used in this light sensor
circuit.
Darlington Pair
This Darlington pair transistor is also considered as a single transistor that

has very high current gain compared to the general transistor gain. The
product of input current and gain of the transistor gives the input given to
the load through the Darlington pair. We know that, if the base voltage must
be greater than 0.7v, then the transistor switches on – but, in case of
Darlington pair, the base voltage must be 1.4v as the two transistors are
required to be switched on.
Relay
A relay plays a vital role in the light sensor circuit for activating the load or
for connecting the load to the light sensor circuit as well as to the AC
mains.
Relay
Generally, the relay consists of a coil, this coil gets energized whenever it
gets enough supply (required amount of supply depends on the rating of
the relay).
Light Sensor Circuit Working Operation
The light sensor circuit is an electronic circuit designed using (light sensor)
LDR, Darlington pair, relay, diode, and resistors which are connected as
shown in the light sensor circuit diagram. A 230v AC supply is provided to
the load (in this case, the load is represented with a lamp).
The DC voltage required by the light sensor circuit is supplied from a

battery or by using a bridge rectifier circuit. This bridge rectifier circuit
converts the 230v AC supply into a 6v DC. The bridge rectifier circuit
utilizes a step-down transformer to step-down the 230v into 12v. The
diodes connected in the form of a bridge are used to convert the 12v AC
into 12v DC. The IC7806 DC voltage regulator is used to convert the 12v
DC into 6v DC, and then, this 6V DC is supplied to the circuit. A 230v AC
supply for both the load and the bridge rectifier is to be maintained
continuously for uninterrupted operation of the light sensor circuit.
Light Sensor Circuit Diagram
During the daytime, the light sensor LDR has very-low resistance of around
a few 100Ω. Thus, the supply passes through the LDR and ground through
the resistor and variable resistor as shown in the light sensor circuit. This is
due to the fact that the resistance offered by the LDR during daytime or
when the light is illuminated on LDR is less compared to the resistance of
the remaining part of the circuit (that is through relay and Darlington pair).
We are aware of the principle of current, that the current always flow in the
low resistance path.
Thus, the relay coil does not get enough supply to get energized. Hence,
the load is switched off during the daylight.
Similarly, during the night time (when the light illuminated on LDR is very
less), the LDR resistance increases to a very high value of around a few
Mega ohms (approximately 20MΩ). Thus, due to very high resistance of
LDR the current flow is very less or almost zero like an open circuit
condition. Now, the current flows through the low-resistance path such that
it increases base voltage of Darlington pair to reach more than 1.4v. As the
Darlington pair is activated, the relay coil gets enough supply to get
energized, and hence, the load is switched on during night time or when no
light is illuminated on LDR.
Practical Applications of Light Sensor Circuit
The light sensor circuit can be used to design various practical embedded
systems based sensor based projects such as security alarm system by
photo electric sensor, Arduino managed high sensitive LDR based power
saver for street light control system, a solar highway lighting system with
auto turn off in daytime, sunset to sunrise lighting switch, and so on.
Sunset to Sunrise Lighting Switch
The sunset to sunrise lighting switch is an application of light sensor circuit

that is designed to control the automatically based on the light illuminated
on the LDR light sensor.
Light Sensor Circuit Application-Sunset to Sunrise Lighting Switching

Project by Edgefxkits.com
The LDR resistance changes with the change in light intensity illuminated
on LDR. The LDR output is given to 555 timer connected in bistable mode.
The 555 timer output is used to control the triggering of load through a
TRIAC. Thus, this light sensor circuit switches on the load in the evening or
sunset and switches off the load in the morning or sun rise automatically.

What Is A Light Sensor Circuit?: Manual Control of The Street Lights Major Electrical and Electronic Components

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What is a Light Sensor Circuit?

There are different types of light sensors available such as photoresistors,

LDR Light Sensor

Light Dependent Resistor is a variable resistor that is controlled by light

Light Intensity vs LDR Resistance

The major drawback of the LDR is that, it is sensitive to light illuminated on

The back-to-back connection of two transistors is called as a Darlington

This Darlington pair transistor is also considered as a single transistor that

Light Sensor Circuit Working Operation

The DC voltage required by the light sensor circuit is supplied from a

Light Sensor Circuit Diagram

Sunset to Sunrise Lighting Switch

The sunset to sunrise lighting switch is an application of light sensor circuit

Light Sensor Circuit Application-Sunset to Sunrise Lighting Switching

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