RC Type differentiating circuit
Electronic

In this project, you are going to learn an RC type differentiating circuit. A differentiating circuit lets you get pulses or fade-out waves.

Begin by looking at the conclusion. Figure 1 shows the differential wave that appears at point A in the schematic diagram.

The graph is plotted with voltage along the vertical axis in relation to time along the horizontal axis. At the moment when the power switch is set to ON, the wave rises to the peak level without loss of time and gradually fades out.

When you finish wiring, turn power ON. LED 1 lights up, then turns dimmer and dimmer, before it goes out one or two seconds later.

The basic components of the RC type differentiating circuit are C1 and R1. The value of C x R is known as the time constant. With a larger value of C x R, the wave fades out more slowly.

C1 and/or R1 can be changed to change the waveform. In this project, however, R1 is fixed to give a suitable current flowing into LED 1. If you wish to change the waveform, therefore, change the value of C1.