Relay Toggle Circuit Using a 555 Timer

This 555 timer circuit below toggles a relay when a button is pressed. Pins 2 and 6, the threshold and trigger inputs, are held at 1/2 the supply voltage by the two 10K resistors. When the output is high, the capacitor charges through the 100K resistor, and discharges when the output is low. When the button is pressed, the capacitor voltage is applied to pins 2 and 6 which causes the output to change to the opposite state. When the button is released, the capacitor will charge or discharge to the new level at the output (pin 3). The parts are not critical, the resistors can be somewhat higher or lower, but the 2 resistors at pins 2 and 6 should be equal values, and the resistor connected to the cap should be 10 times greater or more.
Advantages of this circuit are the large hystersis range at the input which avoids false triggering, and only a few parts are needed for construction. One disadvantage is the relay may be engaged when power is first applied. To solve this problem, you could tie the reset line (pin 4) to another resistor/capacitor combination with the capacitor at ground and the resistor at the +V point. This will cause pin 4 to be held near ground for a short period which will reset the output when power is applied.
The 100 ohm resistor and 100uF capacitor serve to filter noise on the supply line if the circuit is used in a automotive application. They may not be necessary. The circuit may work well without those parts.

Touch Activated Light

The circuits below light a 20 watt lamp when the contacts are touched and the skin resistance is about 2 Megs or less. The circuit on the left uses a power MOSFET which turns on when the voltage between the source and gate is around 6 volts. The gate of the MOSFET draws no current so the voltage on the gate will be half the supply voltage or 6 volts when the resistance across the touch contacts is equal to the fixed resistance (2 Megs) between the source and gate.
The circuit on the right uses three bipolar transistors to accomplish the same result with the touch contact referenced to the negative or ground end of the supply. Since the base of a bipolar transistor draws current and the current gain is usually less than 200, three transistors are needed to raise the microamp current level through the touch contacts to a couple amps needed by the light. For additional current, the lamp could be replaced with a 12 volt relay and diode across the coil.

Varying brightness AC lamp

In this circuit, an SCR is used to slowly vary the intensity of a 120 volt light bulb by controlling the time that the AC line voltage is applied to the lamp during each half cycle. Caution: The circuit is directly connected to the AC power line and should be placed inside an enclosure that will prevent direct contact with any of the components. To avoid electrical shock, do not touch any part of the circuit while it is connected to the AC power line. A 2K, 10 watt power resistor is used to drop the line voltage down to 9 volts DC. This resistor will dissipate about 7 watts and needs some ventilation. Operation: A couple NPN transistors are used to detect the beginning of each half cycle and trigger a delay timer which in turn triggers the SCR at the end of the delay time. The delay time is established by a current source which is controlled by a 4017 decade counter. The first count (pin 3) sets the current to a minimum which corresponds to about 7 milliseconds of delay, or most of the half cycle time so that the lamp is almost off. Full brightness is obtained on the sixth count (pin 1) which is not connected so that the current will be maximum and provide a minimum delay and trigger the SCR near the beginning of the cycle. The remaining 8 counts increment the brightness 4 steps up and 4 steps down between maximum and minimum. Each step up or down provides about twice or half the power, so that the intensity appears to change linearly. The brightness of each step can be adjusted with the 4 resistors (4.3K, 4.7K, 5.6K, 7.5K) connected to the counter outputs.
The circuit has been built by Don Warkentien (WODEW) who suggsted adding a small 47uF capacitor from ground to the junction of the current source transistor (PNP) to reduce the digital stepping effect so the lamp will brighten and fade in a smoother fashion. The value of this capacitor will depend on the 4017 counting rate, a faster rate would require a smaller capacitor.

Variable Voltage and Current Power Supply

Another method of using opamps to regulate a power supply is shown below. The power transformer requires an additional winding to supply the op-amps with a bipolar voltage (+/- 8 volts), and the negative voltage is also used to generate a reference voltage below ground so that the output voltage can be adjusted all the way down to 0. Current limiting is accomplished by sensing the voltage drop across a small resistor placed in series with the negative supply line. As the current increases, the voltage at the wiper of the 500 ohm pot rises until it becomes equal or slightly more positive than the voltage at the (+) input of the opamp. The opamp output then moves negative and reduces the voltage at the base of the 2N3053 transistor which in turn reduces the current to the 2N3055 pass transistor so that the current stays at a constant level even if the supply is shorted. Current limiting range is about 0 - 3 amps with components shown. The TIP32 and 2N3055 pass transistors should be mounted on suitable heat sinks and the 0.2 ohm current sensing resistor should be rated at 2 watts or more. The heat produced by the pass transistor will be the product of the difference in voltage between the input and output, and the load current. So, for example if the input voltage (at the collector of the pass transistor) is 25 and the output is adjusted for 6 volts and the load is drawing 1 amp, the heat dissipated by the pass transistor would be (25-6) * 1 = 19 watts. In the circuit below, the switch could be set to the 18 volt position to reduce the heat generated to about 12 watts.

Expandable 16 Stage LED Sequencer

The circuit below uses a hex Schmitt Trigger inverter (74HC14) and two 8 bit Serial-In/Parallel-Out shift registers (74HCT164 or 74HC164) to sequence 16 LEDs. The circuit can be expanded to greater lengths by cascading additional shift registers and connecting the 8th output (pin 13) to the data input (pin 1) of the succeeding stage. A Schmitt trigger oscillator (74HC14 pin 1 and 2) produces the clock signal for the shift registers, the rate being approximately 1/RC. Two additional Schmitt Trigger stages are used to reset and load the registers when power is turned on. Timing is not critical, however the output at pin 8 of the Schmitt Trigger must remain high during the first LOW to HIGH clock transition at pin 8 of the registers, and must return low before the second rising edge to load a single bit. If the clock rate is increased, the length of the signal at pin 9 of the Schmitt Trigger should be reduced proportionally to avoid loading more than one bit. The HCT devices will normally provide about 4 mA (source or sink) from each output but can supply greater currents (possibly 25 mA) if only one output is loaded. The common 150 ohm resistor restricts the current below 25 mA using a 6 volt power source. If the circuit is operated with two or more LEDs on at the same time, resistors may be needed in series with each LED to avoid exceeding the maximum total output current for each IC of 25 mA. For greater brightness, individual buffer transistors can be used as shown in the 10 stage LED sequencer on this same page.