Muscle Stimulator Circuit

For: Electronic Devices and Circuits (ECE 101) Professor In-Charge: Mahesh Anand S. Year: 2010-2011 Team Members:1) Sankarsan Gautam (10BEC1084) 2) Avinash Jangid ( 10BEC1021) 3) Rakshit Dubey(10BEC1070) 4) Akula Tirumala Venkatesh Babu (10BEC1010)

Muscle Stimulator
Abstract
This circuit is a small, portable set, designed for those aiming at look improvement. The Bio-Stimulator provides muscles' stimulation and invigoration but, mainly, it's an aid in removing cellulites. This is a basic circuit which is not robust or portable enough for daily use, owing to the size of certain components, but displays the working equally well.

Circuit Details

The circuit consists of the following components:-

R1- 2200 R2- 3600 Variable Resistor- 5000 C1- 220 F C2- 0.01 F IC- NE555 timer Transistor- BC327( 2 nos.)(PNP) S1- switch Light Emitting Diode X1- Transformer(12 to 220 V) 9 V battery

Circuit Construction

The legs of the IC are connected to the indicated points as shown in the figure above. The part of the circuit to the left of the transistor T1 is actually a multivibrator circuit in astable mode where it creates rectangular pulses. The transistors are connected as shown keeping in mind the appropriate configuration of the base, emitter and collector. The transformer is connected in reverse i.e. the secondary is connected to the input across the resistor R4 and LED and the output is taken across the primary, since it acts as a step-up transformer here. Electrodes may be connected to the transformer output in order to convey the pulses generated to the muscle tissue. A switch is provided to control the ON/OFF state of the muscle stimulator.

Circuit Operation

The main operation in this circuit is performed by the IC 555. It is a timer which may be configured to remain in a certain mode called the astable mode. 555 Oscillator to operate as an astable multivibrator, it is necessary to continuously re-trigger the 555 IC after each and every timing cycle. This is basically achieved by connecting the trigger input (pin 2) and the threshold input (pin 6) together, thereby allowing the device to act as an astable oscillator. Then the 555 Oscillator has no stable states as it continuously switches from one state to the other. For the timing circuit we have separate resistors, R1 and R2 with their junction connected to the discharge input (pin 7). During the charging cycle, the capacitor C1 charges through R1 and R2 both to 2/3Vcc, but during the discharging cycle, it discharges through R2 to 1/3Vcc as R2 is directly connected to the discharge pin 7.

Thus the equations governing the RC timer circuit of the circuit are:Voltage across the capacitor at any instant during charging period is given as, VC = VCC (1-e-t/RC) The time taken by the capacitor to charge from 0 to +1/3 VCC is 1/3VCC = VCC(1-e t1/RC) t1= RC loge3/2 = 0.405 RC The time taken by the capacitor to charge from 0 to +2/3 VCC 2/3VCC = VCC(1-e t2/RC) t2 = RC loge 3 = 1.0986 RC So the time taken by the capacitor to charge from +1/3 VCC to +2/3 VCC tc = (t2 t1) = (10986 0.405) RC = 0.693 RC

Thus, using the resistances connected, we find that the charging cycle that is when the pulse is generated, has a time of:t1= .693(R1+R2) X C1 And the discharging cycle has a time period of:t2=.693(R2) X C1 The total time period is thus:T=t1+t2= .693(2R1+R2) X C1 Thus the frequency of pulses generated by the multivibrator is:f = 1/T = 1.44/ (2R1+ R2) X C1.

Once the output is obtained from leg 3 of the IC, it is sent through a buffer transistor T1 which acts as a voltage buffer. Next it is in series with a variable resistor VR1 which can be adjusted to control the amplitude of the output. From VR1 the signal is sent to a transistor T2 which amplifies the pulses and sends them to the LED through the resistor R4. The transformer is connected reverse across the LED and the resistor R4. Here it acts as a step up device and steps up the input voltage to about 20 times in the output.

Circuit Parameters

The following are the circuit parameters and include the voltage across key components and the transistor specifications and operational values.

of the transistor

290

Voltage at 3 pin output Voltage of Cell used Voltage of AC output from transformer

rd

Equivalent to input voltage

Approximately 10 times

Obstacles Encountered

Certain obstacles were encountered during the project that was hindering its working. The first hurdle came with the data that had been provided on the instruction sheet. The values of resistors and capacitor that were recommended were not suitable as they led to very small charging and discharging time, of the order of milliseconds and thus could not be distinguished as individual pulses. Thus astable operation though achieved could not be identified. Next problem was regarding the legs of the transistor. Having assumed the configurations and identification procedures available on the internet, we proceeded with wrong assumptions of base, emitter and collector, and thus output could not be conveyed from the multivibrator circuit to the second half of the circuit.

Thus these two were the main problems faced while building the circuit and these should be kept in mind during future endeavors.

Precautions Regarding the Use of the Circuit

The use of the circuit has certain limits that are to be enforced for health reasons. Firstly, the battery must not be exceeded above 9 volts or the output voltage might become very high and cause electrocution or burns. Secondly, it is not recommended that pregnant women or people with skin conditions use this deice as it may lead to complications in the former and aggravation of symptoms in the latter. People with heart conditions or with pacemakers installed must avoid the device. Finally, this device is a crude prototype which provides desired results but there is a lot of room for improvements. For the device to be viable, it has to be portable, thus the size of the transformer creates an issue. For better output, IC 7555 may be used which is a CMOS version of the 555 timer.

Improvements in the circuit

Although the timer 555 has been used in a wide variety of often unique applications it is very hard on its power supply lines, requiring quite a bit of current, and injecting many noise transients. This noise will often be coupled into adjacent ICs falsely triggering them. The 7555 is a CMOS version of the 555. Its quiescent current requirements are considerably lower than that of the 555 IC.

The duty cycle, the ratio of the time tc during which the output is high to the total time period T is given as
% duty cycle, D = tc / T * 100 = (RA + RB) / (RA + 2RB) * 100 From the above equation it is seen that a square wave (50 % duty cycle) output cannot be obtained unless RA is made zero. However, there is a danger in shorting resistance RA to zero. With RA = 0 ohm, terminal 7 is directly connected to + VCC. During the discharging of capacitor through RB and transistor, an extra current will be supplied to the transistor from VCC through a short between pin 7 and +VCC. It may damage the transistor and hence the timer. However, a symmetrical square wave can be obtained if a diode is connected across resistor RB. The capacitor C charges through RA and diode D to approximately + 2/3VCC and discharges through resistor RB and terminal 7 (transistor) until the capacitor voltage drops to 1/3 VCC. Then the cycle is repeated. To obtain a square wave output, RA must be a combination of a fixed resistor R and a pot, so that the pot can be adjusted to give the exact square wave.

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