Summary of How to Build a Night Light Circuit Using an Arduino
This project explains how to build an automatic night light circuit using an Arduino. The circuit uses a photoresistor and a 10KΩ resistor arranged as a voltage divider to detect ambient light levels. When it gets dark, the Arduino senses the voltage change and activates an LED to provide illumination. This simple, automatic night light mimics common household devices and is made using basic components and Ohm’s law to measure light intensity.
Parts used in the Night Light Circuit:
- Photoresistor
- 10KΩ Resistor
- Arduino
- LED
In this project, we will go over how to build a night light circuit using an arduino.
A night light circuit is a circuit which will turn on when nighttime comes, which is when it gets dark and the place could use some illumination.
It is a common household device that is sold by pretty much all the major retailers.
The device can sense when it gets dark and will switch on a light so that there can be some illumination.
The device we will build in this project will be automatic in nature. As soon as it gets dark, the LED attached to our arduino board will turn on right away, automatically.
For this project, the main component we will use is a photoresistor. When we place a photoresistor in series with a resistor, a voltage divider is formed. Voltage will be allocated to the 2 components based on the each one’s respective resistance. More voltage will fall across the component with the greater resistance, according to ohm’s law, V=IR. We will exploit this principle in this circuit to determine the light level that our circuit is exposed to and this will determine whether our LED turns on or offz
Components Needed for the Night Light Circuit
- Photoresistor
- 10KΩ Resistor
- Arduino
Night Light Circuit Schematic
The schematic for the night light circuit is shown below:
For more detail: How to Build a Night Light Circuit Using an Arduino
