Experiment No.

Date: ___/___/____
Aim: Study of different types of lights and wiring diagram of automobile.
Objectives:
Student should be able to,
• Understand the purpose of different types of lights in vehicle
• Understand the wiring circuit of vehicle
• Construction of different types of head lights
Theory:
Lighting System:
The automobile lighting system consists of head lamps, side, and tail, stop and reverse lamps.
Apart from these there are instrument panel lights, direction indicator flash lights and the lights
inside the body to light up the passenger compartment.

Head light: Purpose of head light is to illuminate the road surface ahead the vehicle at sufficient
distance and with the sufficient intensity.

Side lights: Side lights are the low intensity parking lights.
Tail lights: Tail lights are meant for illuminating the back of the car so that the diver of the vehicles
coming behind will be able to see it. These are covered by red lenses so that they can be distinguished
clearly by reflection of light form the automobile approaching from the rear, even when these lights
are not on. Side and tail lights are also help to see the vehicle and estimate its width. According to
the colour of that light it is also easy to identify the front and rear part of the vehicle.

License plate light: For the license plate also there is a separate light.
Stop lights: Stop lights are at the rear and flash when the brakes are applied.
Reverse lights: The reverse lights are provided at the rear and flash when the vehicle is moving in
the reverse direction.

Trafficators or flash lights: Trafficatoros or flash lights are used to indicate the direction in which
the vehicle is about the turn.

Types of electrical circuits:

1) Insulated return type
 2) Earth return type
1) Insulated return type: in this type of electrical circuit, one terminal of battery is connected to
the bulb and from the bulb one more wire is connected to another terminal of battery to form the
return path. So that in this type insulated wires are used for both the feeding and the return lines.

Disadvantages:
1) longer wire length
2) it consists complicated wiring
3) Fault tracing is difficult because of more number of wires.
4) Cost is also high for this system.
2) Earth return type: In the earth return type of electrical circuit the metal body of the vehicles
forms the return path of the electrical circuit. In such a system only one wire is necessary from the
battery which is connected to the body or chassis of a vehicle for the return line.

Advantages:
1) Less number of wires is required which simplifies the electrical circuit. 2)
Due to less number of wires we can add more electrical circuits if required 3)
It is easier to trace the fault.

4) Lower cost because of less number of wires.

For a vehicle that uses large amount of wood or plastic paneling, earth return system is not
suitable. Also in the case of vehicles carrying inflammables materials it is not safe to use
earth return type of electrical circuit. Universally in all the passenger cars earth return type
of electrical circuit is used.

Wiring circuits:
Symbols for the various switches and relays, other electrical symbols and logical symbols
are given in the figures.

Simplified wiring diagram of an automobile is as shown in figure. The current for the entire
system is taken from the battery, which are generally 12 or 24 volts. The current goes to the light
switch via ammeter and the fuse. Light switch is mounted on the instrument panel. The light switch
has three positions, 1) off position, ii) head lights, tail lights, license plate lights, and instruments
lights ON, iii) parking lights, tail lights, license plate lights, instruments lights ON. A dimmer switch
mounted on the floor board has two positions viz. the main lights are ON and the dipper lights are
ON positions. The stop lights are directly connected in the circuit, through the stop light switch
which is actuated when the brakes are applied. The interior light is also direct.

The electrical circuit described above is earth return type electrical circuit.

Wires:
Wire should possess the following properties.
1) It should have least electrical resistance.
2) It should have effective insulation through out its life.
3) It should flexible to accommodate in the available space.
The electrical wire usually consists of a number of strands of copper or aluminum. A single
conductor is never used because of comparatively less flexibility, and it will easily undergo fatigue
with continuous bending. In the case of multi strand wire if some strands are damaged, the remaining
strands would still share the electrical load.

Electrical wires are commonly specified by the number and size of the strands. Therefore the
meaning of 7/36 indicates that wire has seven strands and the size of that strand is 36 gauges. For
easy identification of various wires in circuits different types of colors are used.

Head lights:
Head lights are used for illuminating the road surface ahead to the vehicle at sufficient
distance and with the sufficient intensity. Main components of the head lights are lamp or filament,
reflector, and lens. The light emitted by the filament is reflected by means of the reflector, into a
beam of parallel rays. These rays are further treated by the specially designed lens, so that the rays
falling on the road is of oval shape with a horizontal spot.

If only one filament is provided for the head light then when a vehicle coming from the opposite
direction, a driver will experience a glare and may cause an accident. So with mail light in the head
light, a separate filament for dipper is also provided. Normally main filament is placed at focus and
the dipper filament is placed slightly in front of the main filament. A metal shield is placed to the
lower side of the dipper filament. In this way only the upper half of beams comes out of the reflector.
Thus it prevents the other rays from getting reflected from the lower half of the reflector. Thus by
this arrangement light beam for the dipper filament is deflected both down and sideways.
Types of head lights:
1) pre-focused type
2) sealed type
1) Pre- focused type: In this type of lights pre-focused bulb is fitted in a sleeve attached to the
rear of the reflector to ensure preset positioning of the filaments with respect to the focal point of
the reflector. The bulb is filled with some inert gas such as argon or nitrogen at some pressure which
raises the vaporization temperature of the filament material. The light beam coming from the bulb
is reflected by reflector and finally that beam of light is treated by the lens to get illumination of
road surface. A separate bulb is used to get dipper beam.

2) Sealed type: This type of light is the recent trend of head lights. In this type the aluminized
glass reflector and the glass lens are formed to form a single unit inside which is filled with some
inert gas. In this type of lights two filaments are provided, one for main light and the other for the
dipper light. Filaments are made by tungsten material and inert gas used for this type is halogen.
When current is passed through the filament, the tungsten evaporated from the filament react with
the halogen to form tungsten halide which is decomposed back into halogen and tungsten due to
high temperature at the filaments, thus causing the tungsten to get redeposited on the filaments. In
this way the life of bulb is also increased.

Quiz:
1. What are the components of the lighting system in a car?
2. Draw the symbols for the following:
a) Bulbs
b) Contact points
c) Switches
3. Draw the automobile lighting circuit.
4. What are the colours used for wiring cables?
Lighting circuit
 Sealed beam head light unit

Other electrical symbols