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Topic: capacitance sensor, arduino and a light bulb (Read 1 time) previous topic - next topic


Hi all,

I want to make a 220V light bulb glow brighter through the capacitance sensor which is placed 7-8 ft away from the arduino(i am using QT113). It should also switch off slowly after 2-3 minutes.

Has anybody made something similar before?
Can somebody guide me on...
1) how to go about the process?
2) what relays should i get?
3) how to use QT113?
4) what kind of timer?

and the most important question...how to put all this together to work?

thank you


Feb 06, 2008, 02:34 pm Last Edit: Feb 06, 2008, 02:36 pm by mem Reason: 1
There is an instructable on using the QT113 here: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Touch-Sensor/

That example does not use the arduino but you can connect the QT113 output to a digital input on the arduino and it should work fine. You can use the arduino digital switch example sketch to test that its working, just connect up the QT113 output instead of the switch and resistor.

Once you can light up the arduino led using the sensor, you can look at adding a call to delay() for however many milliseconds you want and then turn the led off.

The last step is to replace the led with something like a relay to turn the bulb on and off.  There are arduino tutorials that explain how to do that but my suggestion is to get everything else working as you want before connecting anything up to 220 volts

Good luck


someone just asked about dimming AC lights in another thread. Heres the relevant link for the info on how to do it with Arduino:



thnks friends I shall try as you said and make it work...but I am still confused about what relay to order?


some suggestions were discussed in this thread: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1199472694/3#3

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