PWM LED DIMMER

USING IC 555
Y
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h
K
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1

JSS Academy of
Technical Education,
Noida,Uttar
Pradesh,India.

Abstract​-​--How to change
the ​brightness​ of a ​LED​? Whether led
lights are dimmable? Is it possible to
adjust the brightness of LEDs? LED is
basically a diode, when the forward
voltage exceeds 0.7 volt, it starts to glow,
and if the forward voltage is less than 0.7
volt, it will be in the OFF state. What
happens if we are providing a high
voltage to the LED so as to increase the
brightness?

Will it be a practical solution? No, it will

lead to the burning of LED. So what we
can do to adjust the brightness of LEDs?
Here Circuits Gallery comes with a
simple LED brightness control circuit
using (​Pulse Width Modulation)
PWM​ method. It is also called PWM
LED dimmer circuit diagram. By
changing the pulse width of square wave,
it is possible to control the brightness of
LED. We have already discussed about
the PWM signal generation before.
Here ​NE555​ timer IC is used to produce
PWM signals. The​ ​Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM) plays an important
role in controlling the circuits. If you
want to control the speed of the motor
PWM plays a key role. The width of
pulse will give the command to the
machine to work either slow or fast. If we
can control the pulse width we can easily
control the machine. In this project we
will use this PWM to dim the intensity of
light of the LED.
 I. I​NTRODUCTION

PWM LED dimmer can be of

help. The PWM LED dimmer is a very
useful gadget for homes and offices. The
circuit uses single Monolithic -555 in
dual in line plastic package and a few
external components. Here we use a
potentiometer of required value and an
IC555 to change the duty cycle of LED
and to adjust it’s brightness
proportionately. The circuit is based on
the 555 timer, connected as a PWM
generator. Again i will use as output the
discharging capacitor from pin 7, which
will control the base of the power
transistor. Similar to the ​LED Off Delay
with dimming effect circuit​, i will break
the circuit into 2 pieces, the controller
and the LEDs. The circuit can operate at
a wide operation voltage, from 4 to 15
volts, and the only thing that changes is
the LED array. Here is the controller
circuit, able to operate from 4 to 15 volts
as is.
​The DC source is given to the
NE555 timer. NE555 timer is used to
generate the PWM signal. The width of
the PWM signal always depends on the
duty cycle, so we can vary the duty cycle
through NE555

If we can vary duty cycle we can

generate the pulse with various width.so
we use timer to generate the PWM to
dimmer the LED or increase brightness
of the LED.

A. 555 Timer
B.

1) ​Pin 1​: ​Grounded Terminal:

All the voltages are measured with

respect to the Ground terminal.
2) ​Pin 2: Trigger Terminal:

The trigger pin is used to feed the trigger

input hen the 555 IC is set up as a mono
stable multivibrator. This pin is an
inverting input of a comparator and is
responsible for the transition of flip-flop
from set to reset. The output of the timer
depends on the amplitude of the external
trigger pulse applied to this pin. A
negative pulse with a dc level greater
than Vcc/3 is applied to this terminal. In
the negative edge, as the trigger passes
through Vcc/3, the output of the lower
comparator becomes high and the
complimentary of Q becomes zero. Thus
the 555 IC output gets a high voltage, and
thus a quasi stable state.

3) Pin 3: Output Terminal:

Output of the timer is available at this

pin. There are two ways in which a load
can be connected to the output terminal.
One way is to connect between output
pin (pin 3) and ground pin (pin 1) or
between pin 3 and supply pin (pin 8). The
load connected between output and
ground supply pin is called the ​normally
on load and that connected between
output and ground pin is called the
normally off​ ​load.

4) Pin 4: Reset Terminal

Whenever the timer IC is to be reset or

disabled, a negative pulse is applied to
pin 4, and thus is named as reset
terminal. The output is reset irrespective
of the input condition. When this pin is
not to be used for reset purpose, it should
be connected to + V​CC to avoid any
possibility of false triggering.

5) Pin 5: Control Voltage Terminal:

The threshold and trigger levels are

controlled using this pin. The pulse width
of the output waveform is determined

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Night Lamp Controller (IJSRD/Vol. 2/Issue
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by connecting a POT or bringing in an

external voltage to this pin. The external
voltage applied to this pin can also be
used to modulate the output waveform.
Thus, the amount of voltage applied in
this terminal will decide when the
comparator is to be switched, and thus
changes the pulse width of the output.
When this pin is not used, it should be
bypassed to ground through a 0.01 micro
Farad to avoid any noise problem.

6) Pin 6: Threshold Terminal:

This is the non-inverting input terminal

of comparator 1, which compares the
voltage applied to the terminal with a
reference voltage of 2/3 V​CC​. The
amplitude of voltage applied to this
terminal is responsible for the set state of
flip-flop. When the voltage applied in
this terminal is greater than 2/3Vcc, the
upper comparator switches to +Vsat and
the output gets reset.

7) Pin 7 : Discharge Terminal:

This pin is connected internally to the

collector of transistor and mostly a
capacitor is connected between this
terminal and ground. It is called
discharge terminal because when
transistor saturates, capacitor discharges
through the transistor. When the
transistor is cut-off, the capacitor charges
at a rate determined by the external
resistor and capacitor.

8) Pin 8: Supply Terminal:

A supply voltage of + 5 V to + 18 V is
applied to this terminal with respect to
ground (pin 1).

II. ​PULSE WIDTH

MODULATION

Pulse width
modulation​ (PWM) is a method of
changing the duration of a pulse with
respect to the analog input. The duty
cycle of a square wave is modulated to
encode a specific analog signal level.
This pulse width modulation tutorial
gives you the basic principle of
generation of a PWM signal. The PWM
signal is digital because at any given
instant of time, the full DC supply is
either ON or OFF completely.PWM
method is commonly used for
speed​ ​controlling of fans​, motors, lights
in ​varying intensities, p​ ulse width
modulation controller etc. These signals
may also be used for approximate
time-varying of analogue signals. Below
you can see the pulse width modulation
generator circuit diagram (pulse width
modulator) using op amp. PWM is
employed in a wide variety of
applications, ranging from measurement
and communications to power control
and conversion. Pulse width
modulation ​dc motor control​ is one of the
popular circuits in Robotics.

Components required

∙ Dual power supply (+Vcc and

-Vcc)
∙ 741 op amp IC
∙ Signal generator

Working of Pulse width modulator

In this circuit ​op amp acts as a

comparator​.It compares both the input
voltages, i.e. the sawtooth waveform and
the message signal (sine wave).The
duration for which the instantaneous
value of sine wave is above that of
sawtooth, op amp switches to +Vcc since
the sine wave input is connected to the
non inverting input of the op amp.
Also when the value of sine wave is less
than the instantaneous value of sawtooth,
op amp switches to -Vcc.
Thus we get a pulse waveform that
swings between +Vcc and –Vcc. That is
the pulse width changes according to the
message signal (Width of the pulse is
modulated)

Important terms associated with

PWM:
Period (T)
How long each complete pulse cycle
takes.
Frequency (F)
How often the pulses are generated. This
value is typically specified in Hz (cycles
per second).

Duty Cycle (D)

Refers to the amount of time in the
period that the pulse is active or high.
Duty Cycle is typically specified as a
percentage of the full period.
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Night Lamp Controller (IJSRD/Vol. 2/Issue
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III. P​ROPOSED
M​ETHODOLOGY

As seen from the figure the charging and

the discharging of capacitor defines the
output frequency of the 555 timer.The
charging is specified by Ra and Rb with
time constant (Ra +Rb)*C and and
discharge by Rb given by (Rb)*C

Fig. 3: Circuit diagram of

555 Timer

A. Components

2 CAPACITORS (100nF)
2 diodes (1N4148)
9V BATTERY – 1
LED – 1
 IC 555 – 1
RESISTORS – 2 (1K AND 390
ohms)
POTENTIOMETER(50K)

B. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

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 IV. C​ONCLUSION

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