Hi, I have been trying to design a circuit to monitor my 12V leisure car battery, I'm thinking this should be fairly simple, but its been years since I did any real electronics.
So the basic idea: Use the circular bargraph to indicate the level of the battery when a momentary push button is pressed
the circular LED bar graph: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11492
So the range of the battery would be something like 10.5V to 13.5V, there are 32 LEDs in pairs, so essentially 16.
1. So if we take the first LED pair, this should illuminate when less than 10.5V, so that should be easy, as long as there is some life in the battery it should illuminate
2. The next LED should only illuminate at the next step, 16 LEDs, 3V range 16/3= steps of 0.2V So at the following steps:
10.5, 10.7, 10.9, 11.1, 11.3, 11.5, 11.7, 11.9, 12.1, 12.3, 12.5, 12.7, 12.9, 13.1, 13.3, 13.5.
So for 10.7V I guess I should use resistor before each LED.
3. The LEDs should light up after a momentary push switch is triggered, I would like this to be graceful, so the ring lights up smoothly one LED at a time as the voltage increases, I guess capacitors between the resistors and LEDs?
This is the simplest way I can think of doing it, I have seen circuits which use a LM339 chip, but that can only monitor 4 voltages, perhaps 4 of these in series could do the job? http://www.electroschematics.com/7068/lm339-lm239-lm2901-datasheet/ I think this is the way to go rather than using inline resistor/ capacitor pairs?
So I am a clear novice when it comes to electronics (but I'm enthusiastic), so if anyone can help me with this I would be more than happy to put together a how to so others can copy/develop it, something similar has been done before: http://www.instructables.com/id/Car-battery-tester/
In that example only one bar is lit, I want the other bars to stay lit.
I can use Eagle to make the PCB diagram and get it printed, but I need to figure out what components I need and how to do it!
Thanks for any help.
Gary
So the basic idea: Use the circular bargraph to indicate the level of the battery when a momentary push button is pressed
the circular LED bar graph: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11492
So the range of the battery would be something like 10.5V to 13.5V, there are 32 LEDs in pairs, so essentially 16.
1. So if we take the first LED pair, this should illuminate when less than 10.5V, so that should be easy, as long as there is some life in the battery it should illuminate
2. The next LED should only illuminate at the next step, 16 LEDs, 3V range 16/3= steps of 0.2V So at the following steps:
10.5, 10.7, 10.9, 11.1, 11.3, 11.5, 11.7, 11.9, 12.1, 12.3, 12.5, 12.7, 12.9, 13.1, 13.3, 13.5.
So for 10.7V I guess I should use resistor before each LED.
3. The LEDs should light up after a momentary push switch is triggered, I would like this to be graceful, so the ring lights up smoothly one LED at a time as the voltage increases, I guess capacitors between the resistors and LEDs?
This is the simplest way I can think of doing it, I have seen circuits which use a LM339 chip, but that can only monitor 4 voltages, perhaps 4 of these in series could do the job? http://www.electroschematics.com/7068/lm339-lm239-lm2901-datasheet/ I think this is the way to go rather than using inline resistor/ capacitor pairs?
So I am a clear novice when it comes to electronics (but I'm enthusiastic), so if anyone can help me with this I would be more than happy to put together a how to so others can copy/develop it, something similar has been done before: http://www.instructables.com/id/Car-battery-tester/
In that example only one bar is lit, I want the other bars to stay lit.
I can use Eagle to make the PCB diagram and get it printed, but I need to figure out what components I need and how to do it!
Thanks for any help.
Gary
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