SYNOPSIS

on
CONTACTLESS TACHOMETER
Mini Project

Done in Sem VI

By
Vikas C. Wadile Roll no.-15
Uday Kommajoshyula Roll no.14
Sumit R. Sharma Roll no.-10
Aman Kumar Benvansi Roll no.-17
Under the guidance of
Ms. Ujwala Tade

Lokmanya Tilak College of Engineering

Electrical Engineering
April 2023
 Declaration
We declare that this synopsis on a mini project titled
“Contactless Tachometer” is originally written by us and
presents our own idea. We have adhered to the Academic
honesty and integrity in the preparation of the synopsis. This
synopsis is not submitted to anywhere else for any type of
degree or award.

Name of students Signature

Date:

Place:
 CERTIFICATE

THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE MINI PROJECT

ENTITLED
“CONTACTLESS TACHOMETER” SUBMITTED
BY
VIKAS WADILE
UDAY KOMMAJOSHYULA
SUMIT SHARMA
AMAN KUMAR BENVANSI
IS THE WORK CARRIED OUT BY THEM UNDER THE
SUPERVISION OF “MS. UJWALA TADE” IN THE VI SEM OF
ELECTRICAL ENGG.
PROJECT COORDINATOR PROJECT GUIDE HOD

INTERNAL EXAMINER:

EXTERNAL EXAMINER:

PLACE:

DATE:
CONTENTS:

1. ABSTRACT
2. INTRODUCTION
3. CONSTRUCTION
4. WORKING PRINCIPLE
5. PROGRAMMING
6. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS
7. ADVANTAGES
8. OTHER INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
9. LITERATURE SURVEY
10. REFERENCE
ABSTRACT:
The project aims at developing a zero-contact tachometer for a brushless dc motor.
Most tachometers use contact-based system to measure speed. But in some cases, it
is not possible to measure the speed of a panel or shaft using contact-based methods
due to technical issues or safety concerns. Our zero-contact speedometer allows for
detecting the speed from a distance of 1-2 cm.
Our system is based on an IR transmitter and receiver to fulfill this purpose. It
makes use of a reflector shaft that reflects IR rays back on each movement. These
arrangements can measure the speed of the motor. The system uses an Arduino for
this purpose.
An IR sensor pair generates a signal on each reflected ray which is transmitted to
the Arduino for processing. The system timer is used to calculate the speed based
on this data. The Arduino is further connected to an LCD display in order to show
the measured speed. This system with little enhancement can be used in cars
bikes, other vehicles, and industrial motors speed testing/measurement.
INTRODUCTION:

In this modern era of industrialization most of the industries contain rotating

objects such as motor, rotor etc for its proper monitoring its speed has to be
measured and controlled. For such measurements, there are many methods and one
of such method is use of tachometer. Tachometer is an instrument which measures
the speed of any rotating objects in revolution per minute (RPM). There exist
mechanical tachometers, where direct contact between motor and the tachometer is
needed for measurement of RPM. This kind of tachometers requires regular
maintenance and is complicated to use. These instruments suffer from wear and
tear. Hence there is a requirement for a contactless digital tachometer which can be
easily used with monitoring system. This paper is about contact-less digital
tachometer designed using infrared methodology. The sensor unit used for
measurement is IR sensor and the processing unit used is Arduino-Uno. The
measured value is displayed using a LCD module. This kind of tachometer can
employed in the region where speed is unit of measurement and size and precision
is a factor. This model can be employed in vehicles and robotic arms. This is also
used in aircraft, rails and traffic engineering to estimate traffic speed and volume
An Arduino is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. An
Arduino contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and
programmable input/output peripherals. Program memory in the form of
ferroelectric RAM, NOR flash or OTP ROM is also often included on chip, as well
as a small amount of RAM. Arduinos are designed for embedded applications, in
contrast to the microprocessors used in personal computers or other general
purpose applications consisting of various discrete chips.
In modern terminology, an Arduino is similar to, but less sophisticated than, a
system on a chip (SoC). An SoC may connect the external Arduino chips as the
motherboard components, but an SoC usually integrates the advanced peripherals
like graphics processing unit (GPU) and Wi-Fi interface controller as its internal
Arduino unit circuits.
CONSTRUCTION:

Sensor Circuit Design:

The sensor circuit consists of an IR transmitter and an IR receiver. An IR LED is

used as the transmitter and a photo diode is used as the receiver. A reflective type of
IR sensor is used in this project. In this type, the IR transmitter and receiver are
placed side -by – side.

The IR transmitter circuit is very simple. The anode of the IR transmitter is

connected to 5V supply and the cathode is connected to ground through a current
limiting resistor of 150Ω. Thus, the IR transmitter starts emitting infrared rays.

IR receiver used in the project is a photo diode and it must be connected in reverse
bias. The negative terminal or cathode is connected to 5V supply and the positive
terminal or anode is connected to ground through a current limiting resistor of
10KΩ.

And finally, the output of the IR receiver is given to the comparator. The comparator
compares the input from the IR receiver with a reference value (which is given
through a 10KΩ Potentiometer). If the input from the IR receiver is greater than the
reference value, the output of the comparator will be HIGH or else, the output will
be LOW.

The following image shows the circuit diagram of the Reflective type IR Sensor used
in this project.

Controller Circuit Design

The controller circuit consists of the Arduino and its interfaces. Here, we chose
Arduino. Arduino reset circuit consists of a push button, a resistor, and a capacitor
with values such that the voltage at the reset pin doesn’t falls below 1.2V and the
timing constant is never less than 100ms. Here, we selected a 10 KΩ resistor and
10µF capacitor.

Since the oscillating frequency of the Arduino is 11.0592MHz, we selected the

values of ceramic capacitors to be 33pF. The EA’ pin must be pulled high via a
10KΩ resistor as we are not using any external memory.

The interfacing between the Arduino and the IR Sensor is accomplished by

connecting the output pin of the IR sensor to PORT3 pin P3.4.
I2C_LCD is an easy-to-use display module, It can make display easier. Using it can
reduce the difficulty of make, so that makers can focus on the core of the work.
We developed the Arduino library for I2C_LCD, user just need a few lines of the
code can achieve complex graphics and text display features. It can replace the serial
monitor of Arduino in some place, you can get running informations without a
computer.

More than that, we also develop the dedicated picture data convert software (bitmap
converter)now is available to support PC platform of windows, Linux, Mac OS.
Through the bitmap convert software you can get your favorite picture displayed on
I2C_LCD, without the need for complex programming.

Features
● Only 2 Arduino pins are occupied (Use I2C interface).
● Supports standard I2C mode (100Kbit/s) and fast I2C mode (400Kbit/s).
● Compatible with multiple communication logic levels: 2.8~5VDC.
● Arduino library supported, use a line of code to complete the display.
● Integrate 7 sizes of ASCll fonts, 5 graphics functions.
WORKING:

When the IR sensor is powered, the IR transmitter starts emitting IR rays. First, we
need to point the light-sensitive probe tip atop the spinning shaft towards the
spinning blade, disk or chuck and read the rpm. The only requirement is to first
place a contrasting color dot. A dot of white color is ideal on the spinning object.
Position it such that the intensity of light reflected from the object’s surface changes
as it rotates. Each time the dot spins past the probe, the momentary increase in
reflected light is detected by the phototransistor. The signal processor and Arduino
circuit count the increase in the number of such light reflections sensed by it and
thereby evaluates the rpm, which is displayed on the I2C module display. The
phototransistor is kept inside a plastic tube, which has a convex lens fitted at one
end. A convex lens of about 1cm diameter and 8- 10cm focal length is a common
item used by watch repairers and in cine film viewer toys. It can be obtained from
them to set up the experiment.

The phototransistor is fixed on a piece of cardboard such that it faces the lens at a
distance of about 8 cm. The leads from the phototransistor are taken out and
connected in the circuit The detected signal is amplified by transistor BC 547 (T5)
and further amplified by operational amplifier CA3140 (IC3). The reference voltage
point for the operational amplifier is obtained by resistor divider network comprising
R2 and R3. The output from pin 6 of IC3 is fed to pin 12 of Arduino. Note that pins
12 and 13 of Arduino are the inputs (+ and -) of its internal analogue comparator. Pin
13 is adjusted to nearly half the supply voltage using a potential divider comprising
resistor R7 and pre-set VR1 across the supply.
 How it works?

1. The pulses picked up by the phototransistor are sensed by the internal

comparator of and, through software, each pulse representing one rotation of
the object is detected.
2. By counting the number of such pulses, on an average per minute basis, the
RPM is evaluated.
3. It is displayed by a software routine to light up I2C module display.
Programming:
The software is written in Assembly language and assembled using Arduino. It is
well commented and easy to understand. It uses Arduino internal timer for
measuring the period of one cycle of the rotation in units of 100 microseconds.
Thus, if the speed is 1500 rpm, it is 25 rps, and the time taken for one cycle is 40
m/s.

The timer uses an interrupt to count overflows every 100 microseconds and so the
number counted by the timer program in this case will be ‘400.’ This is divided by
‘600,000’ (so many 100/µs present in a minute), giving a result of ‘1500.’ This
gives the rpm. These digits are displayed on the 4-digit, I2C module display. To
perform the division, subroutine UDIV32 is employed, which is a standard
subroutine available for Arduino for 32-bit number by 16-bit number division. It
has an accuracy of 5 rpm in a 2000-rpm count.

Tachometer
Code:
#include <LiquidCrystal_I2C.h>
LiquidCrystal_I2C lcd(0x27,16,2);

float value=0;
float rev=0;
int rpm;
int oldtime=0;
int time;

void isr()
{
rev++;
}

void setup()
{
lcd.init();
lcd.init();
lcd.backlight();
attachInterrupt(0,isr,RISING);
}

void loop()
{
delay(1000);
detachInterrupt(0);
time=millis()-oldtime;
rpm=(rev/time)*60000/7;
oldtime=millis();
rev=0;
lcd.clear();
lcd.setCursor(0,0);
lcd.print(" Tachometer ");
lcd.setCursor(0,1);
lcd.print("RPM");
lcd.setCursor(5,1);
lcd.print(rpm);
lcd.print(" ");
attachInterrupt(0,isr,RISING);

}
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS:

WEAKNESS:
1. The ICs used in this circuit are CMOS devices and are highly static,
making it impossible to touch them with bare hands.
2. It has limited life time due to use of battery for powering the
circuit.
3. Speed calculation may be affected by the varying duty cycle of the timer.

STRENGTH:
1. The current design is an embedded application which is used to calculate
the speed of the motor without the need of tachometer.
2. In this application IR frequencies are used to calculate the speed of the
motor.
3. It gives better performance and reliability.
4. Light in weight as compared to the conventional tachometer.
5. Compact in size.
6. It is portable so we can carry it to large rotating machine to note the
RPM. Accuracy is high as compare to conventional tachometer.
OTHER INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS:

● Light sensing & controlling devices

● Temperature sensing and controlling devices
● Fire detection & safety devices
● Industrial instrumentation devices
● Process control devices
LITERATURE SURVEY:

Arduino-Uno board is used for controlling part. The IR sensor consists of LED and
photodiode. Motor rotates in front of sensor; this interrupts the light and forms pulse
which is given as input to Arduino. Arduino takes average of 3 consecutive readings
and displays it LCD. Also, the system has Arduino program for threshold value of
motor speed and if the speed exceeds this value, then the motor will be turned off.
The project mainly on digital tachometer which gives output directly i.e., Numeric
digital output. The author has made used of the infrared transmission technique; thus,
the system has a controller sensor and display unit, Arduino-uno as the controlling
unit. This project presents a new approach for contactless speed monitoring and
displaying. Here the tachometer contactless which measures the speed in RPM is
designed with the help of Arduino. The author uses Arduino. This is programmed in
c program and complied using keil complier. It describes the basic construction of a
low-cost optical tachometer and analyzes its performance. The basic tachometer
circuit consists of two stages. In the first stage monostable wired around IC NE555 is
used, and in the second stage a digital counter based 4-digit counter IC 74C926 is
used for the construction of the tachometer. A 5V regulated power supply circuit and
an infrared light source circuit are also used. The instrument can measure speed up to
2000 RPM. It presents the design of a very flexible, low-cost speed evaluation
system. The system provides a fast dynamic response and a high accuracy over a
wide speed range. The proposed design is suitable for a wide range of applications
and can be integrated as part of an existing tachometer assembly. Hardware
requirements and appropriate software structures for a Arduino implementation are
discussed.
This project designs a tachometer which works on the principle of an induction
machine. It must have windings on the stator as well as rotor. One of the windings is
connected to the supply. When the rotor of this tachometer is coupled to the drive,
the frequency of EMF induced in the rotor winding will depend on the speed of the
rotor. Since the speed of the drive is very low, the frequency of the induced EMF is
in the same range as that of applied voltage. This frequency can be easily measured
using counters. In this project a new approach to the digital measurement of angular
velocity is presented. This new instrument performs the division by time that has
been carefully avoided in the existing instruments. The accuracy and resolution of
the transducer does not depend upon the number of revolutions. The measurements
can be made in a very short time.
REFERENCE:

1. https://www.electronicshub.org/contactless-digital-tach
ometer-using-arduino/
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348938114_
Contactless_digital_tachometer_using_arduino
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino