INTRODUCTION

The traffic light was design to enhance the students a good knowledge on circuit
design. It was created, designed and manufactured by us. This was made through
contributions from all the group members. Each and every member contributed to his
best to ensure that the traffic light is being created.
The traffic light has four main parts namely, the timer, logic gates, pedestrian and
sensor circuits. All the four parts work perfectly and resulted to a very intelligent traffic
light. The timer does the timings, logic gates do the logical intelligence, pedestrian
circuit was designed to control the pedestrian button and finally, the sensor circuit was
designed to sense the density of the traffic. All the four parts will be discussed later in
the chapters.
 THE TRAFFIC LIGHT FRAME

The traffic light frame was designed out of an ordinary cardboard paper. It was
designed in such a way that all the bulbs fitted into the frame. The stands, holding each
traffic light was made out of plastic water pipe. All these were then placed on a plat
wooden stand with four legs.
The size of each traffic light is 28 x 14 cm, placed on a flat wooden stand of 93 x 80
cm. Holes were made on each traffic light to reduce the intensity of heat accumulated
within the traffic light. The bulbs used were 240 volts, 5 watts coloured bulbs. There
ware total of 24 bulbs with 12 greens, 8 reds and 4 yellows. All of them were controlled
by the circuit.
The sensor used was photo resistor, placed on the middle of the road. A source of
light supplies light to the photo resistor, placed in light proof box on the middle of the
road.
 TIMERS

The timers control all the timings of the traffic light. There are four timers, with each
timer controlling the activities of one side. One timer controls the north, the other one
controls the south, and the third controls the west and finally the east.
The main logic behind this timing is the charging and discharging of capacitors. The
time taken for each capacitor to get fully charged determines the length of the timer. If a
bigger capacitor is used, the time it will take to get fully charged will be high. If the
capacitor is small, the time will be small. The size of the capacitor is in terms of micro
farad. The capacitor we used was 2200µF. So it takes approximately 25 seconds to get
fully charged.
Timer circuit 1

The diagram demonstrates a simple timer that we used during the circuit construction.
The transistor is just an electronic switch to switch on and switch off the LED. The
transistor has three legs namely, the emitter, base and collector. The emitter emits
current; the collector receives the current from the emitter, while the base is the switch
controlling the current flowing from emitter to collector. The base needs small amount
of current to allow large flow of current from emitter to collector. So, we used a 100kΩ
resistor to supply current to the base.
 The base has one major characteristic; it requires a specific type of current to allow
the flow of current from emitter to collector. This characteristic varies according to the
type of transistor used. If a PNP type of transistor is used, the base requires a negative
charge to allow large amount of positive charge to flow from emitter to collector. If on
the other hand an NPN transistor is used, it requires a positive charge in the base to
allow large amount of negative charge to flow from emitter to collector.
The transistor we used in the timer was an NPN type transistor. So, it requires a
positive charge in the base to allow large amount of negative charge flow from emitter
to collector. If there is any obstruction in the base by negative charge, the flow of
current from the emitter to the collector will be interrupted. So, a capacitor was used to
create such interruption. The moment such interruption is made, the capacitor starts to
get charged. Immediately the capacitor gets fully charged, there will be no flow of
current within the capacitor, therefore, the timer switches on. It also switches off the
other timers, leaving only one timer working at a time.
The relay is responsible for the discharging of the capacitors. If the first timer is on, it
switches on a relay to discharge the other capacitors on the other timers. Likewise the
other timers; the relay does all the discharging.
Looking at the diagram, the base gets its current through the 100kΩ resistor. The
positive charge coming from the power supply through the 100kΩ resistor is being
interrupted by the negative charge through the capacitor. The negative charge flowing
through the capacitor is stronger than the positive charge flowing through the resistor.
The means more negative charge will flow to the base, there by switching off the
transistor. This means that, if key B is opened, there will be no interruption of negative
charge to the base. So, the timer switches on. If on the other hand key B is closed, the
capacitor then has been short circuited there by causing large amount of negative to
overcome the little positive charge through the 100kΩ resistor. We then used relay to
replace that Key B. The relay performs similar function. If the first timer is on, it
switches on two relays. The first relay short circuits timer three and the second relay
short circuits the forth timer leaving the second timer to get fully charged. Once the
second timer completes its charging, it performs the same action. That is how it goes for
all other timers.

THE LOGIC GATES

The logic gate performs all the logical activities of the circuit. It was designed to
perform our desired function. It contains some simple logics which were amplified to
perform some sophisticated functions. It is made up of four transistors, with two NPNs
and two PNPs. All the four transistors were connected to one another to form a simple
logic gate. Each logic gate is being triggered by one timer. The timer usually takes
twenty-five seconds to get fully charged. Once it reaches twenty seconds, the logic gate
gets triggered, there by switching on the yellow light. Once it reaches twenty-five
seconds, the timer then switches off the logic gate, and also the yellow bulb.
 The diagram illustrates one of the four logic gates that were used during the circuit
design. All the two bases of the PNP transistors are being powered by the corresponding
timer. When the timer reaches twenty seconds, it switches on the upper PNP transistor,
that transistor then switches on the next NPN transistor. Once the NPN transistor is
switched on, it then switches on a relay that will switch on the yellow bulb. The yellow
bulb will stay for like five seconds. Immediately the capacitor gets fully charged, it then
switches on the bottom PNP transistor through its base. That PNP transistor will conduct
a positive charge that will switch on the NPN transistor. Once the NPN transistor is
switched on, it will then conduct a negative charge that will switch off the NPN
transistor which controls the yellow bulb. That is how it goes for all the four logic gates
as shown below.
The logic gate we used is not one of the basic known logic gates. So, we designed it to
suite our needs. The table of the logic gate is shown below.

X Y OUTPUT

0 0 0

0 1 0

1 0 1

1 1 0

According to the above table, X represents the first PNP transistor from the logic gate
diagram; Y represents the bottom PNP transistor. When the timer reaches twenty
seconds, it switches on PNP X, once it reaches twenty five seconds, it switches on PNP
Y. Once PNP Y is switched on, the output (yellow bulb) switches off. This means that
only when PNP X is working that the yellow bulb switches on. Once the PNP Y starts to
work, the yellow bulb will be switched off.
 THE PEDESTRIAN CIRCUIT

The pedestrian circuit controls the pedestrian button. It controls all the bulbs when the
pedestrian button is pressed. It changes all the green lights to red once the button is
pressed. It gives rise to the pedestrians to cross the road safely without causing any
accident.
The logic behind this pedestrian circuit is just a simple timer that switches off all the
bulbs, allowing only the red bulbs working, over a period of time. It’s just a timer that
switches on relays, that relay then switches on the red bulbs and also switches off all
other green lights as shown below.
 According to the diagram, the relay serves as the main switch to either connect the
power source to all the 220v bulbs or to only red bulbs. So, when the pedestrian button
is pressed, it switches on all the red bulbs and switches off all other green bulbs. This is
possible because of the capacitor that was connected across the emitter and the base .The
pedestrian button discharges the capacitor when pressed there by allowing large amount
of positive charge to the base. It does so by causing some obstructions in the base of the
transistor. This obstruction causes the timer to switch off, and then switches off the
relay.
 SENSOR

The sensor is responsible for sensing the density of the traffic. If the density is high,
the length of the green light will be long. If the density of the traffic is low, the length of
the green light will be short.
The sensor was designed out of a logic gate known as AND GATE. It is made up of
two inputs, input X and input Y. Each input is being represented by a photo resistor. The
photo resistor is continuously receiving light from a laser light. Once the two photo
resistors are blocked, preventing the source of light from the laser to reach the photo
resistor, the traffic light will sense that the density of the traffic is high, there by
increasing the length of the green light.
It should be noted that only when the two sensors are blocked for about six seconds
that the traffic will sense that the density is high. It could be possible that the front
sensor is blocked, and cars that are turning left could block the second sensor. In that
case, the traffic density is not high, so the green light will not be extended. Only when a
car parks near the sensor for at least six seconds that the traffic light will sense the
density as high. The circuit diagram is shown on the next page
 When the two photo resistors are blocked, it gives rise to the capacitor to start
charging. Once it is completely charge, the relay will be switched on. This is when the
traffic light will sense that the density of the traffic is high. The final relay is responsible
for discharging the capacitor from the timer, there by extending the length of time for
the capacitor to get fully charged.