Here’s a design circuit for designed as an aid in parking the car near the garage wall when backing up. LED D7 illuminates when bumper-wall distance is about 20 cm., D7+D6 illuminate at about 10 cm. and D7+D6+D5 at about 6 cm. In this manner you are alerted when approaching too close to the wall. This is the figure of the circuit;
How is this circuit work? IC1 forms an oscillator driving the infra-red LED by means of 0.8mSec. pulses at 120Hz frequency and about 300mA peak current. D1 & D2 are placed facing the car on the same line, a couple of centimeters apart, on a short breadboard strip fastened to the wall. D2 picks-up the infra-red beam generated by D1 and reflected by the surface placed in front of it. The signal is amplified by IC2A and peak detected by D4 & C4. Diode D3, with R5 & R6, compensates for the forward diode drop of D4. A DC voltage proportional to the distance of the reflecting object and D1 & D2 feeds the inverting inputs of three voltage comparators. These comparators switch on and off the LEDs, referring to voltages at their non-inverting inputs set by the voltage divider resistor chain R7-R10.
Part of the components:
R1_____________10K 1/4W Resistor
R2,R5,R6,R9_____1K 1/4W Resistors
R3_____________33R 1/4W Resistor
R4,R11__________1M 1/4W Resistors
R7______________4K7 1/4W Resistor
R8______________1K5 1/4W Resistor
R10,R12-R14_____1K 1/4W Resistors
C1,C4___________1µF 63V Electrolytic or Polyester Capacitors
C2_____________47pF 63V Ceramic Capacitor
C3,C5_________100µF 25V Electrolytic Capacitors
D1_____________Infra-red LED
D2_____________Infra-red Photo Diode (see Notes)
D3,D4________1N4148 75V 150mA Diodes
D5-7___________LEDs (Any color and size)
IC1_____________555 Timer IC
IC2___________LM324 Low Power Quad Op-amp
IC3____________7812 12V 1A Positive voltage regulator IC
