KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

PROJECT REPORT

TEMPEARTURE SENSING AUTOMATED FAN CONTROLLER

Submitted by:
Rukesh Koju (41065)

Aashish Karki(41062)
Sanjay Shrestha (41081)
Submitted to:
Dr. Bim Prasad Shrestha
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Kathmandu University

9 February 2012
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bim Prasad Shreshtha and Prof. Dr.
James M. Widmann for providing an opportunity to do this project and providing guidance while
doing this project. We would like to express our gratefulness to Mr. Ramesh Dhoju for
providing his assistance while doing our project. We express our thankfulness to Mr. Raj Kiran
Koju for giving ideas and useful information. This project has broadened our horizon about
Mechatronics.

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 ABSTRACT

Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of mechanical, electronic, and software engineering.

It is the extension and the completion of mechanical systems with sensors and micro-computers.
Mechatronics is a natural stage in the evolutionary process of modern engineering design.This
project is based on the mechatronics.

This project intends to control the speed of fan used with respect to the temperature across
thermistor section and with the increase in temperature the resistance of the thermistor changes.
Due to this there is the voltage difference across the op amp which will run the fan and cool the
thermistor section. When the section is cooled speed of fan is reduced. We can see in central
processing unit of computer, the processor fan automatically adjusts the speed according to the
need to lower temperature.

As the temperature increases current flowing through the thermistor increases which is amplified
and the speed of the fan increases. There are wide applications of this project such as automotive,
hospital, cold store, various home appliances.

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Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..................................................................................................................................i
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................................iii
1.0. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................1
1.1. Project overview...............................................................................................................................1
1.2. Components used.............................................................................................................................2
1.2.2. Zener diode................................................................................................................................2
1.2.3. LM741 op amp...........................................................................................................................3
1.2.4. BD 140.......................................................................................................................................3
1.2.5. BD 139 transistor.......................................................................................................................4
1.2.6. BC 558 transistor.......................................................................................................................4
1.2.7. 6v DC motor...............................................................................................................................4
1.2.8. Thermistor.................................................................................................................................5
1.3. OBJECTIVE.........................................................................................................................................5
2.0. CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING PRINCIPLE.........................................................................................6
2.1. Construction of 12v dc power supply...............................................................................................6
2.1.1. Transformation stage.................................................................................................................6
2.1.2. Rectification stage.....................................................................................................................6
2.1.3. Filtering stage............................................................................................................................7
2.1.4. Regulating Stage........................................................................................................................7
2.2. Component used:.............................................................................................................................7
2.3. Circuit Diagram of power supply.......................................................................................................8
2.4. BLOCK DIAGRAM..............................................................................................................................8
2.5.1. Sensor block...............................................................................................................................9
2.5.2 Amplifier.....................................................................................................................................9
2.5.3. Automatic switching..................................................................................................................9
2.5.4. Output power supply.................................................................................................................9
2.6. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM..........................................................................................................................10
2.7. GANTT CHART.................................................................................................................................11
2.8. COST ESTIMATION..........................................................................................................................12

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3.0. APPLICATION......................................................................................................................................13
3.1. ADVANTAGES..................................................................................................................................13
3.2. LIMITATION....................................................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................15
REFRENCES................................................................................................................................................16

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: pn diode characteristics................................................................................................................4

Figure 2: Zener diode resistance..................................................................................................................5
Figure 4 . BD140 pnp transistor...................................................................................................................6
Figure 3: pin configuration of Opamp..........................................................................................................5
Figure 5: BD 139 npn transistor...................................................................................................................6
Figure 6: BC558 transistor...........................................................................................................................7
Figure 7: dc motor.......................................................................................................................................7
Figure 8: 10K thermistor..............................................................................................................................8
Figure 9:-General block diagram of power supply.......................................................................................9
Figure 10: 12v dc power supply.................................................................................................................10
Figure 11: block diagram of temperature controller2.5. WORKING PRINCIPLE.........................................11
Figure 12: circuit diagram of temperature sensing fan controller.............................................................12

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 CHAPTER 1

1.0. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Project overview

Temperature sensing automated fan controller is the device for controlling the temperature of
power supplying device and other high power semiconductor devices where the temperature of
such devices rises with rise in current level. It helps to ensure that the devices or machines are
never allowed to exceed preset temperature. It automatically regulates the temperature and
maintains the temperature at the desired condition.

High power amplifier and other power supplying semiconductor devices get their temperature
rises when operating and overheating of devices causes the reduction of performance and also it
may lead to permanent damage of the device. So to reduce these effects this project helps in
safety of such device. It avoids the damage of device or system thermally.

The thermal controller principle which is used in this project to control the rotation of the fan can
be applied to almost anything for the control. It is extremely sensitive, with few degree changes
in temperature it senses and turns on the fan and the system is cooled and after the system is
cooled the fan turn off.

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1.2. Components used

1.2.1. Ordinary silicon diode P-N junction diode

Figure 1: pn diode characteristics

A discrete diode is single pn junctions that has been fitted with the appropriate case and to which
externally accessible leads have been attached .the lead allow us to make electrical connections
to the anode and the cathode sections of the diode. The diode is extremely useful component in
electronic instruments. Many electronics instruments we use are made of pn junction.
Understanding of diodes makes us easy to analyze many circuits. The voltage drop for silicon
diode is about0.7v to 0.6 volt. The silicon diodes conduct current but does not stores energy.

1.2.2. Zener diode

A Zener diode is a special kind of diode which allows current to flow in the forward direction
same as an ideal diode, but will also permit it to flow in the reverse direction when the voltage is
above a certain value known as the breakdown voltage, "Zener knee voltage" or "Zener voltage."
A conventional solid-state diode will not allow significant
current. if it is reverse-biased below its reverse breakdown
voltage. When the reverse bias breakdown voltage is
exceeded, a conventional diode is subject to high current due
to avalanche breakdown the diode exhibits a voltage drop due
to its junction built-in voltage.The amount of the voltage drop
depends on the semiconductor material and the doping
concentrations.
Figure 2: Zener diode resistance

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1.2.3. LM741 op amp

The LM741 is a high performance operational amplifier with high open-loop gain, internal
compensation, high common mode rejection ratio and exceptional temperature stability. The
LM741 is short-circuit-protected and allows for nulling of offset voltage. We can use it to
amplify the differential signal with inverting and non-inverting gain

FEATURES

• Internal frequency compensation

• Short circuit protection
• Excellent temperature stability
• High input voltage range

1.2.4. BD 140
Figure 3: pin configuration of Opamp

BD 140 is the high power switching

PNP transistor which have high current gain of 25(min) to
180(max).These transistor of high stability and these are
somewhat immune to the change in temperature .these are
available in plastic package and metal contact is tied to
collector to heat dissipation.

1-Emitter
2- Collector
3-Base

Figure 4 . BD140 pnp transistor

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1.2.5. BD 139 transistor

BD 139 is the high power switching npn transistor these acts as complementary to BD 140 these
transistors also have high current gain of 40(min)to 250(max).These transistor has high stability
and these are somewhat immune to the change in temperature
.these are available in plastic package and metal contact is tied to
collector to heat dissipation.

1) Emitter
2) Collector
3) Base

Figure 5: BD 139 npn transistor

1.2.6. BC 558 transistor

BC 559 are the small signal switching PNP transistor .these are
available in plastic package and have low voltage and current gain
.these transistor are mainly used in switching logic and for general
amplification purpose .

1) Collector
2) Base
3) Emitter

Figure 6: BC558 transistor

1.2.7. 6v DC motor

6 volt Dc motor are the permanent magnet motor which runs with 6 volt dc power .These motor
draws about 200mA current at running. These motors can be used as fan by joining the wing to
in their shafts. These are available in various size, shape and power. Their capacity depends on
their current rating and these are sufficient to blow the air for cooling purpose. These fans can be

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made to run in both clockwise and anti-clockwise
direction by changing the polarity of input voltage.

Figure 7: dc motor

1.2.8. Thermistor

Thermistor are the semiconductor devices having negative temperature coefficient (i.e. their
resistance falls with increase in temperature)this is due to increase in temperature cause to
increase in charge carriers thereby decrease in resistance . These are very much sensitive to
change in temperature and has non linear resistance-temperature.

Figure 8: 10K thermistor

1.3. OBJECTIVE

The main objectives of the project are as follows:

 To design temperature controlled fan system

 To study its application in mechatronics

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 CHAPTER 2

2.0. CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING PRINCIPLE

2.1. Construction of 12v dc power supply

Almost all low voltage equipments requires dc source. For example mobiles, televisions, radios,
computers, and most of the electronic equipment. DC power supply is that electronic device
which is able to give constant DC voltage as an output with an AC input. In today’s generation it
has been the most important device in our daily work.

Figure 9:-General block diagram of power supply

The construction of DC power supply includes the transformation stage, rectification stage,
filtering stage and regulating stage.

2.1.1. Transformation stage

By changing the number of turns, the secondary voltage can easily be stepped up or stepped
down from the input voltage. Transformer provides an electrical isolation from the mains.
The governing equation of transformer is: Vp /Vs= Np /Ns

2.1.2. Rectification stage

The bridge rectifier is a full-wave rectifier since current flows through the load during both half
cycles of the applied alternating voltage. It will have a voltage drop of approximately 1.4 Volts

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in both half cycle in relation to the input. One advantage of a bridge rectifier over a conventional
full-wave rectifier is that with a given transformer, the bridge rectifier produces a voltage output
that is nearly twice the one of the conventional full-wave circuit. A second advantage of the
bridge rectifier is the low ratio of peak inverse voltage to average output voltage.

2.1.3. Filtering stage

By placing a filter circuits between the output of the rectifier and rest of the circuit a
substantially pure dc waveform is generated. A capacitor gets charged up in the first half of a
pulse and discharges when the input voltage of the filter goes lower than the charged capacitor.
Thus, the output voltage of the filtering never reaches 0 volts.

2.1.4. Regulating Stage

The purpose of the voltage regulator is to provide an output voltage with little or no variation.
They maintain power supply voltage within specified limits. Voltage regulators may be variable
or fixed. Fixed voltage regulators require 2 volts more than their output and are basically easy to
use. Variable voltage regulators are controllable if the input voltage is derived from a
potentiometer between the reference voltage and ground, the output can then be varied between 0
and the reference voltage multiplied by the gain of the circuit. The potentiometer setting and the
ratio of the resistors determine the output voltage.

2.2. Component used:

1) 6-0-6, 500mA transformer
2) 4 diodes1N4004
3) 7812 voltage regulator IC and heat sink
4) led indicator
5) 560Ω resistor
6) PCB board
7) 1000 µF capacitor

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2.3. Circuit Diagram of power supply

Figure 10: 12v dc power supply

2.4. BLOCK DIAGRAM

Figure 11: block diagram of temperature controller2.5. WORKING PRINCIPLE

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This project is based on thermal sensing and controlling mechanism. Different parts and
elements have their own working ,the circuit can be described by dividing the whole section in to
the different four parts viz;

1) Sensor block
2) Amplifier
3) Automatic switching
4) Output power supply

2.5.1. Sensor block

Temperature sensing is one of the main functions of the circuit. Any change in temperature
should be sensed for controlling fan speed. Here we use thermistor as the sensor. Thermistors are
very sensitive with temperature up to some limit. In the thermistor more current flow through it
when the temperature across it rises at a fixed voltage.

2.5.2 Amplifier
The signal came from sensor is very poor and have weak energy so as it boost up the signal the amplifier
block is used. In our project we have used an operational amplifier (Opamp) to increase the voltage level
by proper biasing we manage the amplifier to amplify the signal to high level.

Here we have use LM 741 Opamp; the main advantage with using this amplifier is that it only amplifies
the differential signal and have very low amplifying ratio for common mode signal

2.5.3. Automatic switching

In this block automatic switching to ON and OFF is performed. Semiconductor transistors have
very less switching time and have good performance so these transistors can be used as switch.
In circuit diagram we can see that when the amplifier give high output the diode goes in reverse
biasing mode so high voltage goes on the base terminal of switching transistor(BD 140) and the
transistor is emitter biased to give high output which is drawn from collector emitter junction.

2.5.4. Output power supply

The voltage across collector to emitter junction is used to drive the fan also beside the switching
operation of BD 140 transistor it also gives high current gain and provide high current to the load
(fan)

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2.6. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

Figure 12: circuit diagram of temperature sensing fan controller

It uses Op amp as amplifier .Here thermistor (10 k) act as the sensor and two transistors BC558
(PNP) and BD 139 are used as switching transistor .From these combination we can also get high
current gain. This is a very flexible circuit, and its use is only limited by imagination, as there are
many other uses for a sensitive thermal controller.

In this circuit, when there is rise in the temperature of the system then the thermistor senses
and the thermistor is also heated up. Due to the heating the resistance of the thermistor
changes which causes more current to flow through it. The positive terminal of the thermistor
is connected at point 3 and the negative terminal is connected to point 2 of the Op amp. Due
to the rise in temperature, the resistance changes and the voltage difference is created at the
point 2 and point 3 of the Op amp which amplifies the signal. The voltage at the output of the
Op amp is higher than the voltage across resistor 7. So, due to high voltage the current flow
through the transistor which make the turn on the fan.

We have the relation V=IR for calculation of the resistance and voltage when the
temperature changes the resistance changes and hence the voltage across the pin 2 and pin 3
are changed which actuates the fan.

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2.7. GANTT CHART

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2.8. COST ESTIMATION
S.N Material Quantity Cost (Rs)

1. Thermistor(10KΏ) 2 30

2. Transistor BC 558 1pckt 15

3. Transistor BD 139 1pckt 15

4. Zener diode 1pckt 25

5. Diode 1pckt 15

6. Resistors 10Ώ, 100Ώ, 1pckt 25

1KΏ,10KΏ,100KΏ each

7. Potentiometer (100KΏ, 500Ώ) 2 30

8. Transformer 1 250

9. Capacitor 10µF ,1000µF 2 30

10. Regulator 7812 2 30

11. Op amp 741IC 2 60

12. Op amp 741 Bed 1 5

13. LED 1 5

14. Jumper wire 2m 30

15. Parallel PCB 1 60

16. DC motor 1 90

17. Miscellaneous 150

Total 840

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 CHAPTER 3

3.0. APPLICATION
Temperature controller is one of the most used equipment in the electronic devices. This
mechanism is not required in small devices of which temperature doesn’t rises enough in these
devices we can simply use metal case as heat sink but in the devices where temperature rises to
high level metal case is not efficient to dissipate heat here we need any other means.
Temperature controlling by blowing the dry air to the surface of hot parts is one of the mostly
used ,reliable and cheap means to reduce the temperature of devices It has wide range of
application some of them can be summarized below

 In the high power supplying amplifier

 In high heat dissipating devices e.g.:-CPU
 In hospitals for maintaining the temperature at the neonatal intensive care unit.
 In the motor engine which become very hot after long operation.
 In the cold storages where we need to maintain temperature to a fixed level.
 This can also be used in living rooms for maintaining the temperature.
 In industries where high heat to be dissipated through machines.
 This is also useful in robotics where heat sensing and controlling is required also its own
parts can become hot after long use.
 In the mines and energy production houses where fixed temperature is required.

3.1. ADVANTAGES
It is very simple and cheap project. This project is mainly advantages over conventional air
blower fan in cost of power consumption. As the energy crises is being huge problem and
constantly running fans draws high energy than speed controlled fans .our project is based on
speed controlling of fan and thus it can take a step to save the energy. The speed of the fan
determines the power consumption level of system and in our project the fan speed maintained
by the surrounding temperature ( speed rises in high temperature and falls in low temperature )
thus the power consumed is also maintained with temperature and being efficient and reliable to
control the temperature we can say that this is advantageous.

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This project is much reliable and useful because this project doesn’t include any programming
technique to control the fan speed thus there is no need of controlling ICs and additional
programming. This circuit doesn’t need the PWM controller to operate fan so it is more efficient
and useful.

3.2. LIMITATION

This project is almost efficient and has not highly considerable limitation. The main limitation of
this circuit is it can’t drive high power DC motor for this we must use relay to make this more
reliable. The output current and voltage is limited to 1300mAand10volt.and thus for high current
drawing motor can’t be run. There is also some obstruction in precision making .typically diode
and thermistor need temperature change of 1-2ºc to flow the substantial amount of current .also
the potentiometer used has limitation in precision making.

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 CONCLUSION
This project is mainly focused to the field of mechatronics and power electronics where the
temperature of the whole system plays a key factor. We have prepared this project suitable for
the 12 volt DC power supply and can be extended in the high level of power and also this project
can be modify by suing photo diode and precision temperature sensor(LM 35) IC which is
seems to be applicable i.n other fields such as light monitoring, line tracking in robotics in
robotics This project is seems to be much more efficient use full and reliable for controlling the
temperature of the power supplying devices and other high power semiconductor devices where
temperature of such devices rises with increase in current level.

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 REFRENCES
1. Theodore F.Bogart Jr ,2008, Electronic devices and Circuits,pearson education,India
2. Jb Gupta ,2007,Electronic device and circuits,katson books,India
3. Boca Raton The Electrical Engineering Handbook, CRC Press, data sheet,
4. http://www.wikipedia.com/electronic project(4 December 2011)
5. http//www.google.com/project_search/mini+project(8 December 2011)
6. http://sound.wetrch.com/project 38 ( 7 December 2011)

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