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Circuit with time delay

A

Thread Starter

alpha5rose

Joined Apr 15, 2010
2
I have a project for school and could use some advice on where to start -

I must build or develop device that will operate for exactly 14 sec after being started. At the end of 14 sec, the device must either turn on a small light bulb or ring a bell. After the initial run, I will have to change the time interval by plus or minus 3 seconds.

What's allowed:
homemade electrical devices
stored potential energy in form of springs, rubber bands
gravitational potential energy
batteries for lighting bulb or ringing bell
windup toys not initially designed for specific time intervals
pendulums of our own design

What's not allowed:
commercial electronic timing devices
commercial clocks
any 110volt operated devices
any device that will not sit on top of tables
no chemical reactions
any device that has no circuitry used to light bulb/ring bell

I have no problem creating a circuit to light a light bulb, but wondering on how to achieve time delay without timing device. Thoughts???

Thank you!
 
R

roltex_rohit123

Joined Jan 1, 2010
72
alpha5rose said:
I have a project for school and could use some advice on where to start -

I must build or develop device that will operate for exactly 14 sec after being started. At the end of 14 sec, the device must either turn on a small light bulb or ring a bell. After the initial run, I will have to change the time interval by plus or minus 3 seconds.

What's allowed:
homemade electrical devices
stored potential energy in form of springs, rubber bands
gravitational potential energy
batteries for lighting bulb or ringing bell
windup toys not initially designed for specific time intervals
pendulums of our own design

What's not allowed:
commercial electronic timing devices
commercial clocks
any 110volt operated devices
any device that will not sit on top of tables
no chemical reactions
any device that has no circuitry used to light bulb/ring bell

I have no problem creating a circuit to light a light bulb, but wondering on how to achieve time delay without timing device. Thoughts???

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Hmm.. thats great. so you dont want to use electronic timers. NE555 would have been the best. anyways do one thing. get a scrap wound uo spring alarm clock. the alarm goes exactly 1 min or half min. confirm it first. there is a mechanism to increase or decrease the speed of that clock study it. get your device assembled as it is and adjust the speed. you can get from 1 sec to any amount you want.
 
Markd77

Markd77

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,806
How close to 14 seconds does it have to be? +/- 0.5 seconds? Exactly 14 seconds is not possible without an atomic clock and even then I'm not sure.
 
BMorse

BMorse

Joined Sep 26, 2009
2,675
I would second Beenthere's suggestion, this would be the simplest way to achieve timing. Your "timing" devices could be small bags of sand, that is slowly let out (similar to an hour glass) by changing the amount of sand in each bag you can decrease increase the time delay.... of course you will have to play around with it a bit and see what rate the sand needs to flow out and how much sand would be required to get a 14 second, +/- 3 second time delays...

B. Morse
 
Wendy

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,421
A simple 555 monostable would do it, if you are asking for what I think you are asking.

This falls under the homemade electrical devices.

Bill's Index

555 Monostable

Of course, you have to adjust it yourself. Or make something that will more a simple pot to make the timing change.
 
BMorse

BMorse

Joined Sep 26, 2009
2,675
Bill_Marsden said:
A simple 555 monostable would do it, if you are asking for what I think you are asking.

This falls under the homemade electrical devices.

Bill's Index

555 Monostable

Of course, you have to adjust it yourself. Or make something that will more a simple pot to make the timing change.
Click to expand...

wouldn't that fall under the "commercial electronic timing devices" category?? since it is a commercially available timer IC.

B. Morse
 
A

Thread Starter

alpha5rose

Joined Apr 15, 2010
2
Thanks for the ideas. I do have to agree that the 555 would be considered a commercial timing device so have to go down a different path. That would definitely be the easiest but not within the confines of this project.

I like the ideas of a weight or sand dropping onto the mechanism/switch to serve as the delay. I wasn't even thinking in those directions. If anyone else has ideas.... the more the merrier.

Thank you all
;)
 
retched

retched

Joined Dec 5, 2009
5,207
Ancient engineers used water often as a timer. Unlike sand, water flows at the same rate over and over.. Unlike water, sand doesn't evaporate which could cause long term problems..

You should look up 'water clock' to see some elaborate designs using water for timekeeping.
 
ixisuprflyixi

ixisuprflyixi

Joined Sep 16, 2007
52
I know its not used often because it is somewhat imprecise but a simple RC circuit to achieve a time delay is very simple. A potentiometer is connected to positive voltage (doesnt really matter what voltage lets say 12V) through a momentary switch and a capacitor of some value is connected between the wiper end of the pot and ground then connect the junction between the cap and the pot to the base of a NPN transistor. simply adjust the pot to achieve your intended delay. I use the RC time constant all the time in simple timing circuits, where super-precise timing is not needed. Hope that helps. then simply readjust the pot to get the +/-3 seconds of delay again.
 
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