THEORY RESISTORS

Resistors are used to control the flow of current and to provide desired amount of voltage. Resistors depends on resistance value, tolerance, power rating and temperature coefficient. The resistors used in this fire alarm are carbon composition fixed resistors i.e. their value does not change with variation in applied voltage, temperature and light intensity. They are made by mixing carbon powder and inserting binders to produce the desire value of resistance. Its value is calculated using color code.

Carbon Resistor

Symbol of resistance

Ist band Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Gray White Golden

IInd band 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -

IIIrd band 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -

Tolerance x100 x101 x102 x103 x104 x105 x106 x107 x108 x109 x.1 5%

The value of four resistances used in the circuit are: 1. R1 The color of the bands are Brown, Black, Red and Golden respectively. Therefore, its value = 10 x 102 ohms = Tolerance= 5% 2. R2 The color bands are yellow, blue, red and golden respectively Therefore, its value = 46 x 102 ohms Tolerance= 5% 3. R3 The color bands are brown, black, orange and golden respectively Therefore, its value = 10 x 103 ohms Tolerance= 5% 4. R4 The color bands are yellow, blue, orange and golden respectively Therefore, its value = 46 x 103 ohms Tolerance= 5%

CAPACITORS
Capacitor opposes the change in voltage by means of energy storage in the form of electrostatic energy. Ceramic capacitors (C1,C2) are used here, it is so named because it contains a ceramic dielectric.

Capacitor Symbol

Ceramic Capacitor

Ceramic capacitors usually range in value from 1 picofarad to 0.01 microfarad and may be used with voltages as high as 30,000 volts. The capacitors used in this fire alarm have capacitance (C1, C2) = 0.01 F and C3= 100 F/ 16 V.

TRANSISTOR
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals. It is made of a solid piece of semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current flowing through another pair of terminals. Transistors amplify current, for example they can be used to amplify the small output current from a logic IC so that it can operate a lamp, relay or other high current device. In many circuits a resistor is used to convert the changing current to a changing voltage, so the transistor is being used to amplify voltage. A transistor may be used as a switch (either fully on with maximum current, or fully off with no current) and as an amplifier (always partly on).

Transistor Transistors are composed of three parts a base, a collector, and an emitter. The base is the gate controller device for the larger electrical supply. The collector is the larger electrical supply, and the emitter is the outlet for that supply. Here, an NPN transistor (T1) is used.

npn transistor symbol

GERMANIUM DIODE
Diodes allow electricity to flow in only one direction. The arrow of the circuit symbol shows the direction in which the current can flow.

Symbol of diode A Germanium Diode will typically have a forward voltage drop of just 0.3 volts which means they are much more efficient. This means that the germanium diode is better at small signal rectification applications, such as AM radio detectors, allowing a smaller tuner tank circuit.

IC 555 timer
The 555 Timer IC is an integrated circuit (chip) implementing a variety of timer and multivibrator applications. Here the IC 555 is connected in astable mode (free running mode). In free running move the 555 can operate as an oscillator. Uses include LED and lamp flashers, pulse generation, logic clocks, tone generation, security alarms, pulse position modulation, etc.

Astable mode

Standard 555 Astable Circuit

In astable mode, the '555 timer ' puts out a continuous stream of rectangular pulses having a specified frequency. Resistor R1 is connected between VCC and the discharge pin (pin 7) and another resistor (R2) is connected between the discharge pin (pin 7), and the trigger (pin 2) and threshold (pin 6) pins that share a common node. Hence the capacitor is charged through R1 and R2, and discharged only through R2, since pin 7 has low impedance to ground during output low intervals of the cycle, therefore discharging the capacitor.

POTENTIOMETER
Sometimes it is necessary to have a resistor in a circuit whose value can be changed after the circuit has been built. This might be to allow the circuit to be fine tuned by the manufacturer, or adjusted by the user e.g. to change the volume on a radio. The type of resistor required in this situation is called a potentiometer. The reason for the name is that this type of resistance can also be used as a potential divider (see below). These resistors can be mounted on the front panel of the case (usually when the operation of the system is adjusted by the user with a knob). Or they can be PCBmounted (usually to allow adjustment by the manufacturer).

PCB mounted preset variable resistor

PROCEDURE
Connect all the components on PCB as per circuit diagram. Here an IC based fire alarm is described. This circuit is made around 555 IC (timer). A reverse biased germanium diode is used as a heat sensor here. At room temperature the diode has very high reverse resistance (over 10 k). No effect is produced by it on transistor T1 which conducts and beeps the reset pin 4 of IC-1 at ground level and so the alarm does not sound. When temperature in the vicinity of diode D1 (the sensor) is increases in case of a fire, the reverse resistance of D1 drops. At about 70C its resistance drops to a value below 1 k. This stops T1s conduction; the ICs reset pin 4 becomes positive through resistor R2, which sounds the alarm.

APPARATUS
Resistors:
R1 (1K) R2 (4.7K) R3 (10K) R4 (47K) VR1 (100K)

Capacitors:
C1 and C2 (0.01 F) C3 100 F/16V

IC (timer):
IC1 IC 555 (with 8 pin IC base)

Transistor:
T1 (BC 548)

Speaker:
LS 8

Diode:
D1 Germanium Diode DR 25

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Battery 9V