Hello KISS,
I have duplicated the circuit that Ron sent me in his schematic. Thanks Ron, beautiful job! It came out very nice connection wise, if I do say so myself. The lamp turns on and off as intended and is adjustable for light sensitivity through variable resistor. Unfortunatly, the IC and transistor get hot, mostly IC. Interestingly enough the lamp does not even have to be in its socket, rendering this leg "open."
When I power up and shade the LDR the IC starts heating. When I add light to the LDR everything goes cool, showing me the circuit is turning on and off. It does not matter if the bulb (3X1watt LED) is being driven or not. I have gone through very carefully and verified it is exactly like the schematic???? I will explain what I have so you can verify that it agrees with the schematic. I tied together 3, 5, 9, 11 and 13 and also connected leg 2 (trigger/switch) into this group. I tied together legs 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and conected this group to transistor base.
1K ohm resistor is connected to +v and connects to leg 1 of trim pot, one side of LDR and leg one of IC also connect at this point. The other leg of LDR goes to power ground as well as collector and leg 7 of IC (power ground). The emitter connects to one side of the lamp holder and the other side goes to +V.
It is using 5 of the six trigger groups to drive transistor base and is using leg 1 and 2 of IC for its original intended purpose which is to trigger the transistor and close ground leg to lamp holder and of course supply for the other five.
Please look over this schematic and see if you agree with it. I makes sense as far as turning on "hard" the transistor, but something is just not right. Could I possibly have a bad component? I do realize that the Schmitt is a CMOS and that it is static sensitive. I have been very carefull to make sure I am grounded to earth before I have any contact with it. At the point, I am at a complete loss.
Anxiously awaiting your reply and much needed advice. I must request, "Keep It Simple Stupid." I understand much better if you resort to layman terminology.
Best,
Jim