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White LED Battery Powered Power Failure Light
When the AC
power goes out, this light comes on so you won't be left searching
in the dark for a flashlight.
The use of the plastic case
from a wall-mounted transformer results in very compact package.
Find updates at
www.projects.cappels.org
Overview
Where I live most of the time, the AC power drops out upon
occasion. This used to leave me groping around in the dark for a
flashlight. I could have bought a battery-backed up "emergency
light" for about US$35, but being basically metal boxes with
floodlights attached, they would make my living room look more
like a prison. And besides, I make things like this for fun, so
thinking about the problem eventually lead to the solution on this
web page.
The power failure light that I eventually designed and built is
housed in the plastic case from a wall-mounted power transformer.
I had accidentally destroyed the transformer by shorting its
output, and had kept the plastic case for years, just waiting for
a project like this one. Since its mounted in a hand-sized
enclosure, when the power fails, it is a simple matter to walk
over to the light, unplug it from the wall, and use it like a
flashlight to walk into other rooms to retrieve a flashlight. This
particular lamp dims after a few minutes, and is down to a dull
glow after about 15 minutes. The glow can last for hours after
that. I suspect that this is at least partly the result of using
rechargeable batteries from a surplus store.
As of this writing, I have had this power failure light in
my living room for a little more than a year. It has come on many
times when the AC line failed, and it has worked as intended. I am
very glad that I made it.
The two white LEDs are the
light source when the AC power goes out.
The green LED is on when the AC power is on to show that the
battery is being
trickle charged. The light would look a lot nicer if I
were to have painted
the case to cover up the markings from the original use of the
plastic case.
WARNING
THE AC VOLTAGES IN THIS PROJECT
CAN PERMANENTLY
INJURE OF KILL YOU. THIS IS AN ADVANCED PROJECT FOR
PEOPLE WITH EXPERIENCE WORKING
WITH AC LINE VOLTAGES ONLY.
This is not a do-it-yourself construction project. This
is a project that I built for my
own use, and I have chosen to publish this as an example for the
benefit of those
with similar interests and who have the technical skills to
design their own.
The
Circuit
Many of the components in
this circuit are dedicated to safety-
keeping transient voltages from destroying the lamp,
and keeping the lamp from catching fire. Click on the schematic
for large version.
The circuit can be viewed as four
blocks. The AC line input and trickle charge ring circuit,
the power failure switch, and the battery operated white LED
driver. We will look at the blocks one at a time.
AC
Input and Trickle Charging Circuit
The first thing you should notice about the AC Line Input
and Trickle Charging Circuit is the fuse. Not only one fuse, but
two, because R1 is a fusible resistor. I'm pretty
concerned about personal electrical and fire safety, especially
when it comes to AC line operated devices in my home. I'll come
back to the fuse later, but first, a little bit about how the
circuit
works.
If we take the circuit node that is represented in the schematic
by the lower AC line input to be our reference, I can talk about
the upper connection shown in the schematic -the one that F1 is
connected to, as having the full AC power line voltage on it with
respect to our reference, and it will be a lot easier to describe
the circuits operation.
Under normal, operation, a little while after power is first
applied to the circuit, the AC voltage from the power line
sees R1, the 20 Ohm resistor in series with C,1 R3, and the
combination of D1, D2, and D3. The 24 volt Metal Oxide Resistor
(MOV) does not conduct in normal operation.
The RMS current through the input circuit is approximately equal
to the input voltage divided by the series impedance. Impedance is
equal to the square root of resistance squared plus the reactance
of C1 squared. The reactance of C1 is
1/(6.28 x 50 x .000000068) = 47,000.
This is very large compared to the resistance, which is dominated
by the 20 Ohm resistor, so as a practical matter, we can say that
current is equal to the input voltage divided by the reactance
(47k) of C1.
The RMS current, in amps, is equal to 240 VRMS / 47k = 5
milliamps RMS. Since average current is equal to 0.9 times RMS
current, the total average current available to trickle charge the
battery and keep C2 charged up is 4.5 milliamps.
Since most of the voltage is dropped across C1, the current is
practically independent of the state of charge on the battery, B1.
A few critical words on the
election of components for this part of the circuit. The key
safety components are C1, R1, and F1. C1 is an X type capacitor.
X type capacitors meet certain safety specifications and are
designed to be safely used across the AC power line. Other types
of capacitors may fail from the constant AC power line voltage
across it, and when they fail, the results could be deadly.
Don't use other types of capacitors. The reason that C1 is a
.068 uf capacitor is that this is the largest value X
capacitor that I could get my hands on.
A review of safety capacitors can be found at the URL below (you
should be able to click on URL -just remember to come back
here!):
http://www.justradios.com/safetytips.html
F1 is there just in case C1 does short out. I feel that,
although the likelihood of C1 failing as a short are extremely
remote, that to me, its worth the small cost of the fuse to
provide a little additional peace of mind.
Relevant to C1, R2 and R3 are across C1 to bleed off the charge
on C1 so that I won't get shocked if I touch the power failure
light's AC line contacts. The time constant is only 1.4 Meg Ohms
x .068 uf = 0.1 second, so the voltage would bleed down to less
than 5 volts in about half a second. The reason I used two
resistors in series instead of just using a single 1.5 Meg Ohm
resistor, was to assure that there was sufficient margin in the
resistor's voltage rating. The resistors I used were
nonflammable 1/4 carbon film type.
R1 is there to limit the maximum current when the power failure
light is first plugged into the AC line. Since the RMS voltage
is 240 volts, the maximum peak voltage across the input is 240
volts x 1.414 = 340 volts peak. If the power plug makes contact
with the AC line at the instant the power line is at 340
volts. Since C1 is discharged when the power failure light
is first plugged into the AC line, and the MOV clamps voltage at
about 24 volts, the maximum current through R1 and the MOV (Z1)
is approximately
(340V - 24V) / 20 Ohms = 16 amps. Without R1 the current would
be very high, and a small fraction of that current could damage
one of the semiconductors in the circuit if, by chance of a
ground loop, some of that current were to get into other parts
of the circuit. It also keeps the sparks down when you plug the
power failure light into the wall.
R4 serves the important purpose of limiting the current into D1
and D2 or into D3, depending upon which half of the power line
cycle is present when the power failure light is plugged in. Since
the maximum voltage across V1 is around 24 volts peak, the
maximum current into D1 and D2 or into C3 is 24 volts/330
Ohms = 7 milliamps. This is just a little bit more than the peak
current current though C1 during normal operation, so V1 does not
conduct much during normal operation.
On the positive half cycles of the power line, current through R1,
C1, and R4 charge B1 through D1, while D2 charges C2 to the same
voltage as B1. B1 is the nickle-cadmium battery that power the
light in the case of power failure and the voltage across C2 is
used by the circuit to sense when the AC line voltage is present.
During the negative half cycle of the power line, the green LED
(Light Emitting Diode) conducts. This diode is necessary for
the for the circuit's operation, and it seemed to be a good idea
to use the current for something useful - like showing that power
is connected and that the charger is working. If you want, you
should be able to use a silicon diode such as an 1N916 instead of
an LED. I have not tried this substitution, so I can not vouch for
it; I only recommend it as an experiment.
In my power failure light, B1 is made up of two Nickel Cadmium AA
cells in series. I tried two Lithium Ion cells, but the internal
resistance was too high. Both the Lithium Ion and Nickel Cadmium
cells were both surplus, so I would not be surprised if a good
Lithium Ion cell would work well in this circuit.
Power Failure Switch
Q1 is the power failure switch. When it is on, it connects B1 to
the White LED Driver part of the circuit. C2 is kept charged to
the battery voltage- the same voltage as Q1's emitter, and since
the base of Q1 is connected to C2 through R5, Q1 is "off." When AC
voltage is removed from the circuit, C2 is discharged through R6.
The voltage at the base of Q1 is about 0.6 volts lower than that
on the emitter, and when C1 is discharged, the base current is
(2.5V - 0.6V)/(330 Ohms + 1k Ohm) = 1.4 milliamps. This should be
sufficient to provide over milliamps of collector current, given
that the transistor is specified to have a minimum gain of
100 in the range of 10 to 100 milliamps.
C3, The 100 uf capacitor on the collector of Q1 is there to
maintain a low output impedance to the White LED Driver at the
White LED Driver's power supply input.
Battery
Operated
White LED Driver
The White LED Driver is an
adaptation of the simple flyback/blocking oscillator white LED
power supply shown elsewhere on this web site.
White
LED Drive Circuit
http://www.cappels.org/dproj/ledpage/leddrv.htm
Please see that page for the general theory of operation, the
specifics of component selection, and making the inductor.
The major difference between the circuit described in the White
LED Drive Circuit web page and this one, is that this circuit
has a secondary on the transformer. The flyback pulse on the
secondary is in series with the flyback pulse on the collector
of Q2, and this available voltage higher. A good idea in this
case, since there are two white LEDs in series.
Another difference to take note of, is that the base resistor
for Q2 is only 330 Ohms. This increased the output drive to the
LEDs of what I would have had with a 1k base resistor.
I briefly considered using the small 3 mm ferrite cores that
were featured on the White LED Drive Circuit web page, but
quickly realized that I would obtain better performance with one
of the larger high permeability cores that I had on hand.
Testing
Your goal should be to test
this circuit without any lethal voltages connected.
The testing was done in stages. First, I built and tested the
Battery Powered White LED Driver, first using a bench top power
supply, then using actual batteries. After the White LED Driver
was running nicely, I built and tested the AC Line Input and Power
Failure Switch circuits. In testing these circuits, I used a low
voltage DC bench top power supply, set to about 12 volts, with a
resistor between the bench top supply and the anodes of D1 and D2
to simulate the current from the AC Power Line.
By using a low voltage power supply instead of the AC power line,
I could freely troubleshoot the circuit without fear of getting a
nasty shock.
After testing on the DC bench top power supply, I rechecked my
wiring of the AC Input and Trickle Charging Circuit, mounted
everything in the box from the wall-mounted power supply,
carefully closed up the box and plugged it in. I did not
troubleshoot any part of the circuitry with the circuit connected
to the AC power line. Maybe I was lucky to not have made a wiring
error.
If I had needed to check anything with AC power connected, I would
have used a safety setup similar to the one shown on the "An
Experimental Triac Dimmer with Simulated Diac web page on this web
site.
An
Experimental
Triac Dimmer with Simulated
Diac
http://www.cappels.org/dproj/dimmer/Triac%20Lamp%20Dimmer%20With%20Simulated%20Diac.html
Remember, this circuit uses lethal voltages. Try not to have the
power line connected to the circuit while testing it. If you must
have power line voltage connected to the circuit, use a Ground
Fault Interrupter
AND an
isolation transformer setup as shown on the An Experimental Triac
Dimmer with Simulated Diac page. And keep one hand in your back
pocket so as to avoid a path through your heart to ground.
Redundant precautions are prudent when working with something that
can permanently kill you.
Construction
I built the circuit on a small piece of prepunched phenolic
circuit board. I recommend using a board with no copper cladding
(pads or traces) because it is necessary to maintain adequate
creapage distances on the parts of the circuit that have high
voltages on them. The torroid core and batteries were fastened
to the circuit board, if I recall correctly, with nylon cable
ties. Make sure none of the circuit can be touched from the
outside. One part of keeping the circuitry insulated by a
barrier, was to carefully file the holes for the three LEDs (two
white LEDs and one green LED) so that the LEDs fit into them
snugly. This also helped keep the LEDs in place.
If you are going to build something like this, give the whole
project a lot of thought first. Think about safety, both in
building the building and testing of the project, and also in
the daily use of it. The safe design, assembly, testing, and use
of anything you might build that is similar to the project I
have described on this page is
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, NOT MINE.
Do your homework and make sure that your design is safe. I have
provided you with the best information that I can. The rest is
iup to you.
Its your life.
THE
AC
VOLTAGES IN THIS PROJECT CAN PERMANENTLY
INJURE OF KILL YOU. THIS IS AN
ADVANCED PROJECT FOR
PEOPLE WITH EXPERIENCE WORKING
WITH AC LINE VOLTAGES ONLY.
Eye
Safety
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Contents ©2007 Richard Cappels All Rights Reserved. Find updates
at
www.projects.cappels.org
First posted in October, 2007
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