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Do It Yourself Design RPM / Tacho Meter Simplified Approach by Jonjett

The document describes a simple RPM/tachometer design using the LM2917 frequency-to-voltage converter IC. For a single cylinder 4-stroke engine, the pulse frequency from the ignition system is directly related to RPM by the formula RPM = Pulse Frequency x 60. The LM2917 circuit uses the pulse frequency as input and outputs a voltage proportional to RPM. A sample circuit is provided using common components connected to a vehicle's CDI module. The output can be read on a voltmeter or displayed with LEDs using the LM3914 dot/bar graph IC.

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16 views1 page

Do It Yourself Design RPM / Tacho Meter Simplified Approach by Jonjett

The document describes a simple RPM/tachometer design using the LM2917 frequency-to-voltage converter IC. For a single cylinder 4-stroke engine, the pulse frequency from the ignition system is directly related to RPM by the formula RPM = Pulse Frequency x 60. The LM2917 circuit uses the pulse frequency as input and outputs a voltage proportional to RPM. A sample circuit is provided using common components connected to a vehicle's CDI module. The output can be read on a voltmeter or displayed with LEDs using the LM3914 dot/bar graph IC.

Uploaded by

Ver Samson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Do It Yourself Design

RPM / Tacho Meter


Simplified Approach by Jonjett
A special purpose IC LM2917 can be used easily to design a simple RPM/Tacho meter. The IC functions as a frequency
to voltage converter. The ignition pulses that can be derived from CDI output (or B+ for HT coils) will be used as the
input frequency.
For a 4-Stroke single cylinder engine, there would be one spark (pulse) per revolution, the relationship therefore for the
pulse frequency and the resulting RPM would be :
RPM = Pulse Freq(Hertz) * 60
A 20 Hz pulse therefore is equivalent to 1200 RPM. The design requirement using this LM2917 evolves roughly on just
2 components, R1 and C1. The output voltage from a given pulse frequency would be :
V Out (Volts) = Vcc (volts) * R1(ohms) * C1(farad) * Fin (Hz)

(Where Fin is the input pulse frequency )

A sample design connected directly to the CDI output is shown below;


1N4001

+ 12V
.1uf

10K

1N4148

GND

11

470
9

1N4148

Tacho IN

10
Tacho V Out

LM2917
5

10K
47K

4.7K

12
10K

1K
PN100
.1uf

10K

10K
C2
.1uf C1
.02uF 1uf

R1
100K

For a maximum expected RPM of 14000, the resulting required input pulse frequency would be 233 Hz.
With Vcc = 12V , and C1 set to 0.02 uF, and R1 set to 100K ohms, the expected max output would be;
Max Vout = 12 * 100000 * .00000002 * 233 = 5.5 Volts
A voltmeter with a 5Volts range can then be scaled and used to display RPM for this purpose. The 1N4001 diode in
series with the +12V supply serves to lessen the Vcc to 11.3Volts (to achieve around 5V max output) and to serve
against accidental reverse polarity installation as well. R1 can be replaced with a potentiometer so that it can be
adjusted to match the ranging (calibration).
To use LEDs as display, the popular LM3914 Dot/Bar graph IC can be used. Input scaling for this IC can be set so that
at 5 volts, all 10 Leds will be on (for bar mode). Or several LM3914 IC's can be used to achieve more resolution, using
3 LM3914 can display 30 led resolution. From example above, at max 14000 rpm, for a 30 led display, each led that is on
indicates 466 RPM.
For more details on LM2917 and LM3914, kindly search them on Google as these are quite popular IC's.
== Jonjett = =

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