Introduction

In this project, we are going to make a day light indicator (dark and light indicator)  which will indicate if
there is a dark or light in the surroundings. Some applications of this circuit are street light controlling,
home/office light controlling, day and night indicators, etc.

Components

 LDR
 IC LM358.
 Resistor 10k, 1k.
 7805 voltage regulator.
 LED

Circuit diagram

Working

You can see the connections in the circuit diagram. Voltage divider is connected in non-
inverting end of LM358 (PIN 3). And inverting end (PIN 2) is connected to the LDR.

At day time when we turn ON the circuit day light is detected and the Output of the
comparator is low. When day light is detected it wills high (which is connected to the
inverting end of comparator) gets higher than the voltage at non-inverting end, then the
output becomes low and LED turns off. When no day light is detected led will on. Voltage at
inverting end, which is also called Threshold Voltage, can be set by replacing resistors.
Higher the voltage at inverting end (-), less sensitive the sensor and Lower the voltage at
inverting end (-), more sensitive the sensor.

LM358
LM358 is an operational amplifier (Op-Amp) and in this circuit we are using it as a voltage
comparator. The LM358 has two independent voltage comparators inside it, which can be
powered by single PIN, so we can use the single IC to build two IR sensor modules. We have
used only one comparator here, which have inputs at PIN 2 & 3 and output at PIN 1. Voltage
comparator has two inputs; one is inverting input and second is non-inverting input (PIN 2 and
3 in LM358). When voltage at non-inverting input (+) is higher than the voltage at inverting
input (-), then the output of comparator (PIN 1) is high. And if the voltage of inverting input (-)
is Higher than non-inverting end (+), then output is LOW.

Application

Street light controlling

Home/office light controlling

Day and night indicators etc.