Battery Tester Project
Battery Tester Project Using LM3914 IC
This
objective of this project is to design and build a battery tester that
is able to test various types of dry cell and rechargeable battery with a
voltage of less than 2V. Configured as a bar graph battery level
indicator, the LM3914 IC from National Semiconductor senses the voltage
levels of the battery under test and drives the 10 LEDs to ON or OFF
based on the voltage that is detected. The current driving the LEDs is
regulated by using the external resistor R1 and hence limiting resistors
are not required.
The schematic shows the
simple connections where the reference voltage at pin 8 of U1 can be
adjusted by adjusting the variable resistor VR1. The voltage at pin 8
will set the maximum scale of the LED. In testing dry cell battery of
1.5V,set the voltage at pin 8 to 2.0V. Each of the LED will thus
represent 200mV when lighted up.
Test
the circuit by using a breadboard before soldering the parts onto the
PCB. This is to ensure that all the components that are used are in
working condition. This is one of the simplest and interesting project
that you can embark on if you have not try any project using this
integrated circuit and the use of light emitting diodes.
If
testing of rechargeable battery such as NiCd or NiMH is required, set
the reference voltage to a lower value such as 1.5V as the typical
voltage of a rechargeable battery is approximately 1.2V.
When
testing the battery, take note of the polarity of the probe to the
terminals of the battery. T1 is to be placed on the positive terminal
and T2 the negative terminal of the battery.
A
digital or analog multimeter that is set to measure the voltage of the
battery is necessary. The voltage that is measured is used as a standard
against the voltage that is displayed on the LEDs.