Contact less tachometer

Abstract: A Digital RPM Meter is a measuring instrument

which can measure the rotational speed of a rotary machine
digitally. The industrial name of this instrument is
“Tachometer”. It is an important measuring device in the
field of electrical engineering & widely used in industries
and laboratorial work.

Keywords:Arduino, IR- pair, lcd, attachinterrupt, op-amp.

1. Introduction
In order to constructing a simple digital RPM meter,
we need to work in three different fields. They are- Fig.1

IC 741c:An IC 741c is single op-amp device. An

operational amplifier (op-amp) is a DC-coupled high-
gain electronic voltage amplifier with a differential
input and, usually, a single-ended output. In this
HARDWARE ARDUINO SOFTWARE configuration, an op-amp produces an output
potential (relative to circuit ground) that is typically
hundreds of thousands of times larger than the
potential difference between its input terminals.

In hardware section we design a comparator circuit to

take the inputs using arduino& through the software
section we control the arduino, calculations and
outputs.

2. Hardware
In Hardware section we thoroughly discuss about the Fig.2: Schematic Diagram of 741c.
comparator circuit and the following parts.
Here in our circuit we use this device to convert the
IR PAIR analog voltage signal into digital voltage signal
HARDWARE

which comes from the output of IR-pair.

IC 741c
BJT:A bipolar junction transistor (BJT or bipolar
BJT transistor) is a type of transistor that relies on the
LCD contact of two types of semiconductor for its
operation. BJTs can be used as amplifiers, switches,
IR-PAIR: An IR-Pair is consisted of a infrared LED or in oscillators. BJTs can be found either as
& a phototransistor. Here infrared LED works as individual discrete components, or in large numbers
transmitter & phototransistor works as a receiver. as parts of integrated circuits.
When this pair is accordingly biased with 5V dc
infrared LED begin to transmit the infrared beam. If We use BD135 transistor to improve the output signal
the beam is received through the phototransistor the of op-amp.
output voltage across it is increased.

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 LCD, control the display contrast, and turn on and off
the LED backlight, respectively.

Fig.3 : BD 135

LCD:The LCDs have a parallel interface, meaning

that the microcontroller has to manipulate several
interface pins at once to control the display. The
interface consists of the following pins:
Fig.4(b): Function of LCD’s pins.
A register select (RS) pin that controls where in the
LCD's memory you're writing data to. You can select 3. Arduino
either the data register, which holds what goes on the
screen, or an instruction register, which is where the To take the outputs from comparator circuit &
LCD's controller looks for instructions on what to do compute the data for calculation and to control the
next. LCD, here we use a microcontroller atmega 238p
which comes with aarduino which is an open-source
electronics prototyping platform.Arduino can sense
the environment by receiving input from a variety of
sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling
lights, motors, and other actuators. The
microcontroller on the board is programmed using the
Arduino programming language (based on Wiring)
and the Arduino development environment (based on
Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or
they can communicate with software running on a
computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).We use
arduinouno to make our task easy. The Arduino Uno is
a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328
(datasheet). It has 14 digital input/output pins (of
Fig.4(a): Schematic of LCD which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog
inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a USB
A Read/Write (R/W) pin that selects reading mode or connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset
writing mode.An Enable pin that enables writing to button. It contains everything needed to support the
the registers.8 data pins (D0 -D7). The states of these microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with
pins (high or low) are the bits that you're writing to a a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or
register when you write, or the values you're reading battery to get started."Uno" means one in Italian and
when you read. is named to mark the upcoming release of Arduino
There's also a display constrast pin (Vo), power supply 1.0.
pins (+5V and Gnd) and LED Backlight (Bklt+ and Summary:
BKlt-) pins that you can use to power the

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Microcontroller: ATmega328 Memory: The ATmega328 has 32 KB (with 0.5 KB
Operating Voltage: 5V used for the bootloader). It also has 2 KB of SRAM
Input Voltage 7-12V and 1 KB of EEPROM (which can be read and
(recommended): written with the EEPROM library).
Input Voltage (limits): 6-20V
Digital I/O Pins: 14 (of which 6 provide Input and Output:Each of the 14 digital pins on the
PWM output) Uno can be used as an input or output, using
Analog Input Pins: 6 pinMode(), digitalWrite(), and digitalRead()
DC Current per I/O Pin 40 mA functions. They operate at 5 volts. Each pin can
DC Current for 3.3V Pin 50 mA provide or receive a maximum of 40 mA and has an
Flash Memory 32 KB (ATmega328) of internal pull-up resistor (disconnected by default) of
which 0.5 KB used by 20-50 kOhms. In addition, some pins have
bootloader specialized functions:
SRAM 2 KB (ATmega328)
EEPROM 1 KB (ATmega328)
Clock Speed 16 MHz

Power: The Arduino Uno can be powered via the

USB connection or with an external power supply.
The power source is selected automatically.External
(non-USB) power can come either from an AC-to-DC
adapter (wall-wart) or battery. The adapter can be
connected by plugging a 2.1mm center-positive plug
into the board's power jack. Leads from a battery can
be inserted in the Gnd and Vin pin headers of the
POWER connector.The power pins are as Fig.5 : Arduino Uno Schematic
follows:VIN: The input voltage to the Arduino board
when it's using an external power source (as opposed Serial: 0 (RX) and 1 (TX). Used to receive (RX) and
to 5 volts from the USB connection or other regulated transmit (TX) TTL serial data. These pins are
power source). You can supply voltage through this connected to the corresponding pins of the
pin, or, if supplying voltage via the power jack, ATmega8U2 USB-to-TTL Serial chip.
access it through this pin. External Interrupts: 2 and 3. These pins can be
configured to trigger an interrupt on a low value, a
5V:This pin outputs a regulated 5V from the
rising or falling edge, or a change in value. See the
regulator on the board. The board can be supplied
attachInterrupt() function for details.
with power either from the DC power jack (7 - 12V),
the USB connector (5V), or the VIN pin of the board PWM: 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11. Provide 8-bit PWM
(7-12V). Supplying voltage via the 5V or 3.3V pins output with the analogWrite() function.
bypasses the regulator, and can damage your board.
We don't advise it. SPI: 10 (SS), 11 (MOSI), 12 (MISO), 13 (SCK).
These pins support SPI communication using the SPI
3V:A 3.3 volt supply generated by the on-board library.
regulator. Maximum current draw is 50 mA.
LED: 13. There is a built-in LED connected to digital
GND: Ground pins. pin 13: When the pin is HIGH value, the LED is on,
when the pin is LOW, it's off.
IOREF: This pin on the Arduino board provides the
voltage reference with which the microcontroller The Uno has 6 analog inputs, labeled A0 through A5,
operates. A properly configured shield can read the each of which provide 10 bits of resolution (i.e. 1024
IOREF pin voltage and select the appropriate power different values). By default they measure from
source or enable voltage translators on the outputs for ground to 5 volts, though is it possible to change the
working with the 5V or 3.3V. upper end of their range using the AREF pin and the

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analogReference() function. Additionally, some pins setCursor(): Position the LCD cursor; that is, set the
have specialized functionality: location at which subsequent text written to the LCD
will be displayed. Syntax: lcd.setCursor(col, row).
TWI: A4 or SDA pin and A5 or SCL pin. Support Parameters-lcd: a variable of type LiquidCrystal. col:
TWI communication using the Wire library. There are the column at which to position the cursor (with 0
a couple of other pins on the board: being the first column).row: the row at which to
AREF: Reference voltage for the analog inputs. position the cursor (with 0 being the first row).
Used with analogReference(). print(): Prints text to the LCD.Syntax:
Reset:Bring this line LOW to reset the lcd.print(data).Parameters-lcd: a variable of type
microcontroller. Typically used to add a reset button to LiquidCrystal.data: the data to print (char, byte, int,
shields which block the one on the board. long, or string).

attachInterrupt(): Specifies a named Interrupt

4. SOFTWARE
Service Routine (ISR) to call when an interrupt
A program needs to link between arduino and the occurs. Replaces any previous function that was
hardware. This program is written on C++ language at attached to the interrupt. Most Arduino boards have
arduino IDE platform. The program is given below: two external interrupts: numbers 0 (on digital pin 2)
and 1 (on digital pin 3).Interrupts are useful for
making things happen automatically in
microcontroller programs, and can help solve timing
problems. Good tasks for using an interrupt may
include reading a rotary encoder, or monitoring user
input. Syntax: attachInterrupt(interrupt, ISR, mode).
Parameters-interrupt: the number of the interrupt (int).
ISR: the ISR to call when the interrupt occurs; this
function must take no parameters and return nothing.
This function is sometimes referred to as an interrupt
service routine. mode: defines when the interrupt
should be triggered. Four contstantsare predefined as
valid values:LOW to trigger the interrupt whenever
the pin is low. CHANGE to trigger the interrupt
whenever the pin changes value. RISING to trigger
when the pin goes from low to high. FALLING for
when the pin goes from high to low.

5. Troubleshooting
Circuit Diagram:

Here we discussed the built in function that were used

to complete the program:

begin(): Initializes the interface to the LCD screen,

and specifies the dimensions (width and height) of the
display. begin() needs to be called before any other
LCD library commands.Syntax: lcd.begin(cols, rows).
Parameters- lcd: a variable of type LiquidCrystal.cols:
the number of columns that the display hasrows: the
number of rows that the display has.

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 Fig. 6: The project Diagram Instead of reflection of beam method cutting of beam
method can be applied to measure the speed of a fan.
Here we use IC 7805 for voltage regulation so that
we can get 5V constant dc supply from its output. Reflecting distance can be increased by varying the
Then we setup the comparator circuit. When the IR- voltage of pin 3 of IC 741.
pair is disconnected we set the voltage of pin 3 of IC
By change the coding we can make a people counter.
741 at 0.34V & voltage of pin 2 is 0.15V. As a result
we get high output voltage at pin 6 about 4.23V. Here
8. Future Development
we use reflection method to link between Infrared
 People counter.
LED & phototransistor. When this pair is connected
 Controlling the switching system of a room.
the pin 2 voltage goes high about 4.6V. As a result we
get the lower output voltage about 1.13V. To improve 9. Costing &Equipments
these outputs we use a BJT BD135. We connect a Name Specification Quantity Price(BDT)
resistor valued 470 ohm with the collector to pull-up IR- pair - 1 pair 10/-
the output voltage 4.23V to 5V. We also connect a led Voltage 7805 1 pc 20/-
parallel with that resistor to indicate when the link is Regulator
created between the infrared led & phototransistor. Resistance 100Ω, 220Ω, 1 pc 5/-
The output from the collector is then connected to the 470Ω, 4.7K
digital pin 2 of arduino. To control the lcd we use the Ω, 5.6K Ω.
following connection: Trimmer 50K Ω 3 pc 9/-
LED - 1 pc 3/-
Arduino Pin out LCD Pin out Op-amp IC 741 1 pc 15/-
12 RS BJT BD 135 1 pc 15/-
11 E LCD 16*2 1 pc 170/-
10 DB 0 Arduino Uno R3 1 pc 1200/-
09 DB 1 Conneting - - 20/-
08 DB 2 wire
07 DB 3 Bread - 1 pc 180/-
06 DB 4 Board
05 DB 5 TOTAL = 1624/-
04 DB 6
03 DB 7
10. Limitations
 A good reflector is needed.
The rest pins are connected as following:  Reflection distance should be minimum for
good accuracy.
LCD pin out Connected to  Direct sunlight may hamper the accuracy.
VSS Ground
R/W Ground
11. Reference
Vcc 5V  Coughling& Driscoll, Operational amplifier
Vo Mid- point of a 50 K & Linear integrated Circuits, 6th edition,
trimmer Prentice- Hall India.
LED + 5V  Arduino.cc (http://arduino.cc/)
LED- Ground  ZulkarnimeSifat, ex-student of AUST,
Project Engineer, Bangladesh Army.
 Jeremy Blum, Video lectures,
6. Development (http://www.jeremyblum.com/category/ardui
no-tutorials/).
We use our rpm meter to control the speed of a low
volt DC motor. For this we only need to develop our
coding section not the hardware section.

7. Modification

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