CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The requirement of headlight is very common during night travel. The same headlight

which assists the driver for better vision during night travel is also responsible for many

accidents that are being caused. The driver has the control of the headlight which can be

switched from high beam (bright) to low beam (dim). The headlight has to be adjusted according

to the light requirement by the driver. During pitch black conditions where there are no other

sources of light, high beam is used to. On all other cases, low beam is preferred but in a two-

way traffic, there are vehicles plying on both sides of the road. When the bright light from the

headlight of a vehicle coming from the opposite direction falls on a person, it glares him for a

certain amount of time, this causes disorientation to that driver, this discomfort will result in

involuntary closing of the driver’s eyes momentarily. This fraction of distraction is the prime

cause of many road accidents. The prototype that has been designed reduces this problem by

actually controlling down the bright headlight of our vehicle to low beam.

1. CURRENT PROBLEMS FACED BY MOTORISTS

Motorists are facing a huge problem due to this high beam light which falls directly onto

their eyes during driving. There are many medical facts and figures which support their problems

of night driving.

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1.1 TROXLER EFFECT

In the medical world, Troxler effect is used to describe a kind of temporary blindness. It

is otherwise known as the ‘fading effect’. A study shows that if our eyes are exposed to a very

bright light source of around 10,000 lumens, we experience a glare. This glare is produced due to

over exposure of the rods and cones inside our eye. Even after the source of glare is removed, an

after-image remains in our eye that creates blind spot. This phenomenon is called Troxler effect.

1.2 ACCIDENT DUE TO TROXLER EFFECT

As discussed earlier, there are many accidents caused due to Troxler effect. Many

accident reports have been witnessed where a large vehicle, hitting a slow-moving smaller

vehicle while the latter is trying to over-take. Though it might be obvious to blame the driver,

they claim to have not seen the smaller vehicle approaching. This is the most common example

of illustrating the Troxler effect in our day-to-day life. Due to excessive brightness, the driver of

the large vehicle is blinded. So he is unable to notice the smaller vehicle even though it is right in

front of him. This can be avoided if the headlight is controlled to low beam mode.

B. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This laboratory research project aims to determine the effectiveness of using Triac

Controlled Switch as Headlight Controller. Specifically, the researcher sought to aim the

following:

1. Will the triac be effective as a switch for headlight controller?

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 2. Is there any significant difference between the standard switch and a triac-controlled

switch?

OBJECTIVES

1. To see if the triac-controlled switch performs effectively.

2. To create a new type of switching that is more reliable and effective.

C. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study aims to provide comfortable driving experience for the driver and also a safe

travel experience for the passengers on the road. Moreover, it will benefit the following:

Future Researchers. This study may be of interest to other researchers to learn more

about creative approaches to the problem of vehicles headlight controllers.

Stakeholders. This study would benefit stakeholders the greatest if they learned more

about electronics research.

Motorist. Motorcycle riders, who likes to ride at night, might be interested in partaking

and using this circuit and installing it on their motorcycles.

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D. SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS

The efficacy of the Triac that works as a switch for the headlight is the topic of this

research. This study is limited to acquiring data from prior studies, publications, and journals. It

will also use simulation software to illustrate the created circuit. The Proteus 8 Professional

application will be used to simulate the circuit in this study.

E. DEFINITION OF TERMS

Vehicle – a thing used for transporting people or goods, especially on land, such as car, truck or

cart.

Headlight – a powerful light at the front of the motor vehicle or railroad engine.

Triac – a three-electrode semiconductor device that will conduct in either direction when

triggered by a positive signal at the gate electrode.

Proteus 8 Professional – a proprietary software tool suite used primarily for electronic design

automation; used to create the circuit.

Thyristor – a four-layered semiconductor rectifier in which a signal at a third electrode iniates

the flow of current between two electrodes.

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 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter shows the related literature reviewed by the researchers and how these

studies relate with Headlight Controller: A Prototype for Vehicles.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES AND STUDIES

Motorcycle accidents

In 2008 to 2017, there have been 261 patients that have been admitted in Philippine

General Hospital because of road accidents during nighttime. Throughout the years, the most

involved vehicle to be in an accident is a motorcycle with the most common form of accident is

vehicle-to-vehicle collision (Lu JL. et al., 2021). In a different study, there are more risk of road

accidents at nighttime than daytime, the rate of lethal accidents that happen during nighttime is

4.6 higher than during the daytime, one of the reasons for nighttime accidents to happen is due to

the driver’s inability to evaluate the gap between their vehicle and other motorists and this is due

to glare effect that comes from other vehicle’s headlight (Basu & Saha, 2022).

Headlight System

Driving at nighttime is, without a doubt, more dangerous than during the daytime. It is

common sense to have a working headlight during the nighttime and use it to find your route and

to see where you’re headed, it is also used to see if there are any obstacles on the highway and to

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let other incoming motorist know that you are driving in the highway. Having a working

headlight is great but it is also dangerous for you and other motorist if the headlight is too bright,

in that case, it might lead to road accidents that’s why it is important to have varying intensity of

the luminosity of the headlight (Shahriar, K., 2021). The use of conventional headlight system

incorporates fixed direction lamps, with higher or lower beam configuration which is not suitable

to night driving as they do not properly illuminate the road during turning or gradient travel of

vehicle (Shingate et al, 2019). Hence, with the use of triac to control the brightness of the

headlight, motorist could find the optimal level of brightness when driving at night.

Related Studies

Several research papers uses different methods to control the brightness of their vehicle’s

headlight to prevent glare, one design detects an incoming high-beamed headlight and use light

dependent resistor or LDR to automatically adjust the headlight of the driving vehicle (Jadhav

A., et al, 2022) but this might cause problems, for example, the LDR might mistakenly detect a

certain light source, for instance, a bug along the road, resulting to the circuit to trigger. Other

designs use LabVIEW to automatically adjust the brightness of the vehicle’s headlight based on

the illumination of the surroundings (Ramachandran K., et al, 2018) but this would cause

problems when driving in the highway at night. Some uses BH1750 module and MPU6050

module to detect an incoming vehicle and to assess road contours respectively. This means that

the brightness of the headlight automatically adjusts when the module detects an incoming

vehicle and when the vehicle is going uphill or downhill (Muhammad F, et al., 2020). Another

design uses an economical device called Arduino to not just automatically adjust the brightness

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of the headlight of the vehicle when the device detects an incoming vehicle but it also has the

ability to steer the headlight for curved path (Kumar S. S., et al., 2019), this is helpful because

conventional headlights only beams in a forward direction while with the use of this device, the

path would be lit up.

Conceptual Design

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Headlight Control Motorist(Motorcycle

Driver)

Moderator Variable
Headlight Control
Prototype
(Circuit)

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

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RESEARCH LOCALE

This study will be conducted in face-to-face and some online discussion at Western

Mindanao State University is located in Zamboanga City, Philippines has two campuses the A

campus and B campus. The location of the research is the Western Mindanao State University

itself during face-to-face schedule of the junior-year students of the Bachelor of Science in

Electrical Engineering. Since the schedule is face-to-face every other week, Discussions are done

through online meeting using a social media platform such as messenger on schedule for online

classes.

RESEARCH DESIGN

This study utilizes the Experimental and Quantitative research. Since we aim to get the

affectivity of the triac transistor.

General Procedures

I. Conceptualization

1. We the researchers talk about what project will make and came up with

“HEADLIGHT CONTROLLER: A PROTOTYPE FOR VEHICLES” and decide

what circuit design will be used.

2. The researchers look for an application to help simulate the circuit of the project.

The researchers chose the Proteus 8 Professional version 8.11 programmable

software to simulate the circuit.

3. Observe the simulation if its working and taking notes of the outcome.

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II. Material/Components

1. With all consideration of the materials compatibility of the circuit design, the

researchers will used in research project.

2. Halogen Lamp - An incandescent lamp called a halogen lamp has a tungsten

filament that is enclosed in a small, transparent envelope that is filled with an

inert gas and a trace amount of a halogen gas, such iodine or bromine.

3. Triac - A triac is a bidirectional, three-electrode AC switch that allows electrons

to flow in either direction. It is the equivalent of two SCRs connected in a reverse-

parallel arrangement with gates connected to each other. A triac is triggered into

conduction in both directions by a gate signal like that of an SCR.

4. Resistor - A resistor is an electrical component that limits or regulates the flow of

electrical current in an electronic circuit. Resistors can also be used to provide a

specific voltage for an active device such as a transistor.

5. Capacitor - A capacitor is a device that uses the accumulation of electric charges

on two nearby surfaces that are electrically isolated from one another to store

electrical energy in an electric field. It has two terminals and is a passive electrical

component. Capacitance refers to a capacitor's effect.

6. Variable Resistor - Since the resistance of variable resistors can be adjusted to a

certain value, they are frequently employed in electrical circuits to change the

value of current or voltage. With variable resistors, you may change the resistance

while maintaining a constant current to change the voltage value.

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 7. Battery - Batteries for motorcycles and powersports typically come in four

varieties: conventional batteries. AGM Sealed with No Maintenance. AGM

Maintenance Free Factory Activated.

III. Simulation

1. The researchers will decide what triac will be used in the project

2. Then the researchers will make a design of the circuit in the software application,

which is the Proteus 8 Professional version 8.11, in this programmable software,

the researchers will plot the design the researchers came up with.

3. And lastly, researcher will test if the design works by simulating. To see if it is

working.

Components and their values

COMPONENTS VALUES

Battery 14 V

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 Variable Resistor 1k Ω

Capacitor 1 µF

Resistor 20k Ω

30k Ω

200k Ω

Triac Triggering Current – 1 mA

Holding Current – 5 mA

Halogen Lamp 12 V

Table 1: This table shows the deployed components used in the designed circuit. Together with

the values as per component used.

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

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 After all the data gathering process, the researchers presented the tables and the results of

the project for further analysis.

SIMULATION DESIGN

Figure 1. This figure shows the design circuit for the project. This design will be used to

simulate and for gathering data.

The switch is for the whole circuit to power up and to control the light if it is needed to be

used. And the light of the vehicles are used in nighttime. By the help of the switch, you can use

the circuit in nighttime only and whenever you want to use it.

For the triac to be trigger on, it needs a 1 mA as its trigger point. Which the total resistor

and the load voltage provide so it will turn on by simply adding the R1 and the R2 since they are

1 1 1
in series and used the formula for the parallel which is RT = + + , and then divide it by
R1 R2 R3

the load voltage which output will trigger the triac.

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Figure 2. This figure shows the low beam, the lowest brightness the circuit can produces.

As for the high beam the variable resistor should be at 0% which is 0 ohms, and as for the

low beam the variable resistor is at 100% which is 1k ohms. As you can see at the Figure 1, the

variable resistors at 0% supplies 9.35 Volts to power the halogen lamp. As the halogen lamp is

powered by 9.35 Volts, it acts as a high beam and it is bright, while as the variable resistor

increases to 100% it reduces the supply voltage to 0.81 Volts which only lights low or as we

researchers refers to as low beam. As you can see in Figure 2.

Result for 25% of the variable resistor

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Figure 3. This figure shows the percentage used in the variable resistor and how much volts it

generates at 25%, which the volts generated is 9.48V.

Result for 50% of the variable resistor

Figure 4. This figure shows the percentage used in the variable resistor and how much volts it

generates at 50%, which the volts generated is 7.77V.

Result for 75% of the variable resistor

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Figure 5. This figure shows the percentage used in the variable resistor and how much volts it

generates at 75%, which the volts generated is 6.85V.

Result for 100% of the variable resistor

Figure 5. This figure shows the percentage used in the variable resistor and how much volts it

generates at 100%, which the volts generated is 0.81V.

SUMMARY OF THE RESULT

VARIABLE RESISTOR VOLTAGE GENERATED

0% 9.31 V

25% 9.48 V

50% 7.77 V

75% 6.85 V

100% 0.81 V

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Table 2. This shows the corresponding variable resistor percentage and its voltage generated. As

the variable resistor increases in percentage the voltage generated is lower, which produces a

dimmer and dimmer light as the variable resistor percentage increases.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. Will the triac be effective as a switch for headlight controller?

After further checking and simulating the data results shows it is effective and also

reliable, since it shows in the data gathered how it changes in brightness as we increase the

variable resistor.

2. Is there any significant difference between the standard switch and a triac-controlled

switch?

The difference between the standard switch and triac-controlled switch are triac-

controlled switch has many choices of how bright will use for the halogen lamp or the headlight,

in the project we pick to test the 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%and the 100%. As for the standard switch it

only has two the high and low beam.

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 CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter will cover the conclusion of the research. Moreover, it will also provide the

summary as well as some recommendations for future researchers.

SUMMARY

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 This research aims to make a circuit wherein motorist can ride comfortably by letting

them adjust the luminosity of their headlight brightness in their comfort. This research was

conducted in both Western Mindanao State University, Normal Road, Zamboanga City in the

mode of face-to-face and the house and dormitory of each researcher in the mode of online set-

up. The researchers searched, simulated, and did the research for an estimated time of 10 weeks.

The programming software that is used in making the circuit and simulating it is called Proteus 8

Professional, the researchers bid their time to find the best components and to make the circuit

concise yet efficient. In summary on the circuit, it is working and is ready to be prototyped.

CONCLUSION

To sum up all the findings up, this study focuses on the efficacy of the triac that works as

a triggering switch device for the headlight.

The researchers simulated the circuit in Proteus app and presented findings carefully for

it to be as valid as possible. The result shows that the triac is effective in handling the voltages

and currents to brighten and dim lights. It is also effective and reliable because it changes as we

increase the variable resistor. When comparing to a standard switch, the triac triggering switch

has many choices of how bright will use for the headlight whilst for the standard switch it only

has direct high and low beam.

ADVANTAGES

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  Triac as a switching device is much more energy-efficient than traditional light

switches.

 Motorcycle driver can use this circuit to find the optimal brightness if headlight

beam in comfort.

DISADVANTAGE

 It can be triggered in any direction, so we need to be careful about triggering

circuit.

 The source of the circuit is in alternating current (AC) so the person interested in

installing it on their motorcycle would need to purchase a small inverter in order

for the circuit to work properly.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the simulations

 Use a programming software that is up to date to have better experience with no

problem simulating.

 Use a reliable or dependable programming software to support your study and to

have an accurate data.

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 For Future Research

 Future researchers might use other type of thyristor that can hold larger value of

voltages.

 Since the circuit of this research manually adjusts the brightness of a headlight,

future researchers could use other type of thyristor in their circuit to automatically

adjust the brightness of the headlight when it detects a light source during

nighttime.

REFERENCES

Electronic Source

Ajay, S., Prasanna, N., Rajmohan, S., Roshan, B., & Saravanan, P. T. A Retrofit for Controlling

the Brightness of an Automotive Headlight to Reduce Glare by using Embedded C

Program on a PIC Microcontroller.

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Basu, S., & Saha, P. (2022). Evaluation of risk factors for road accidents under mixed traffic:

Case study on Indian highways. IATSS Research.

Jadhav, A. S., Joshi, V., & Pawar, R. V. (2022, August). Automatic Headlight Intensity Control

using Light Dependent Resistor. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 2325, No.

1, p. 012001). IOP Publishing.

Kumar, S. S., Santhiya, E., Sivasakthi, S., Fahim, H. R., & Madhusudanan, G. (2019). Adaptive

Headlights System for Vehicle using Arduino.

Lu, J. L., Herbosa, T. J., & Lu, S. F. D. (2021). Epidemiologic profile of vehicular accident

patients in the largest hospital in the Philippines covering ten years. Acta medica

Philippina, 55(6).

Muhammad, F., Yanto, D. D., Wiryadinata, R., & Martiningsih, W. (2020) Design of Automatic

Headlight Based on Road Contour and Other Headlight Light.

Ramachandran, K., Thangaraj, P. P., Elangovan, L., Sugumar, P., & Vijayalakshmi, G. (2018).

Automated Headlight Control using LabVIEW. Journal for Research| Volume, 3(12).

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Shahriar, K. M. F. (2021). Automatic headlight controlling of vehicle using ambient light sensor

based on phototransistor. ScienceOpen Preprints.

Shingate, P., Jadhav, G., Khilare, A., Hulawale, M., & Patil, R. R. (2019). Design and

Fabrication of Adaptive Headlight System.

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