LFR using BC108 Transistors

This is a Line
Following Robot and is
simplest possible
electronic circuit to
make your first robot.
The key to success of
this Circuit is totally
depended upon DC
geared Motor. Make sure, it is Geared motor. I also first ignored this, and I made whole
circuit and fixed it in the structure of the robot, and in the end the RPM and Torque of
my non-geared simple dc motors was not proper to move robot efficiently on line. In this
robot I have not used any chaster wheel & Strip Sensor part, which are used almost in all
line followers. This make this Robot simplest Line Following Robot Ever

Parts Required:
1. BC 108 Transistors x (2)
2. N4148 Diode x (2)
3. 1M potentiometer x (2)
4. 1K Resistors x (2)
5. Bright White LEDs x (2)
6. LDR x (2)
7. DC geared Motors x (2)
8. 9V Battery

Circuit Diagram
Bread Board Arrangement:

One of the most disadvantage of making this circuit is that with only
transistors its difficult to control speed of motors. The most common,
efficient and reliable method of controlling motor’s speed is through
PWM(pulse width modulation) which make the transistor rapid on/off
switch.
Step by Step Procedure to make this Circuit:

Stripboard Version:
By taking advantage of this small and easy circuit, dont miss to make a Strip board
version. And by making this little easy solding circuit you will be able to reduce the
structure of your robot and make it precise. Best part is, when you use these jumpers
then you dont have to make the sensor strip which is commonly made and used in LFRs.
I also added a ON/OFF switch in this strip board, so that I have to plug in and plug out
the Battery while tuning the sensitivity of LDRs. The reason I left the space beside the
circuit is for keeping the 9V battery over it =) 

The motor used in this video is a simple DC

motor, I used this one just to show you the output. You have to use
the DC geared motor, like ones shown in this figure. The reason for
using DC geared motor is that, Geared DC motors have low RPM and
high Torque. And they are commonly famous by Robot Motors =) so
must Use Geared DC motors for your first robot.

In our case, the method we are using is called as “differential drive

steering method”. It is Jerky and shaggy but still works fine! Here is
the picture taken from emicro.com which defines this differential drive
method properly.
       

The BC108 transistors are designed to be used in their linear region

so that the collector current passed through the DC motors will vary
according to the base current, which is controlled by LDR+10k
trimpot. And like this, DC motor will be given current according to the
light intensity received by LDR.
The trimpot is used to adjust the DC motor speed, and N4148 is used
to protect the BC108 from EMF generated by motor inductor when it
switches off.
The material in the for the track might be different for every other
roboticist. So we can always have different track’s route by simply
varrrying the 10k Trimpot