Hi there, I can do an Arduino version, but it might be better to buy a unit off the shelf. My friend wants a Hall Effect device to count the 30 turns that his bale wrapper needs to make then the device should send a signal which will stop the machine.
Can anyone point me to such a device. My eyes are getting crossed googling. Thank You
Would this not be easy to do with one hall effect device and one logic chip in any case? Brian
At this point, you have not assessed the requirements closely enough. You should use a programmable device, as you begin to realize the prototype is not "cutting it".
Since I don't know what a Bale Wrapper is, I'm just pulling these estimates out of my ass.
Why three sensors ?
Perhaps I want to use two sensors, to detect clockwise or anti-clockwise movement. It would not look good, if the counter advanced, even if the bale wrapper was being moved in the "unwind" direction. Some sensors already consider this, and have "direction-type-outputs" which aid the computer in determining whether the count should go up or go down.
I might also need to pick up a "synchronization" signal. Say this mechanical device sometimes needs to have "jams" corrected. Perhaps the machine has some "initial" state, that indicates a jam has been fixed and the user seeks to count from zero again, without having to push a reset button. Maybe there is an arm or lever which needs to be moved a certain way, that a separate Hall Sensor could pick this up. Maybe a safety trips, and when the arm is moved back into position, the count from 0 can begin.
Make sure sufficient thought has gone into the project, before closing off requirements.
I don't know how many projects, where I've screwed this up :-)
*******I tried to do a tape counter for a TI Silent 700, went to a great deal of trouble to make an optical sensor disc to fit to the tape drive, and... every time I rewound it, the damn counter would show the wrong value. Which is not entirely unexpected. Like you, I hadn't really thought through all the use cases, all the things that could go wrong and so on.
This is all part of the fun, in any project. Thinking you understand a problem well enough, doing a fast first cut, getting field feedback that my solution is rubbish, and redoing it.
Now, do I want to be doing that with an Arduino and a protoboard, or making hardwired logic boards, getting a PCB shop to make them, populate them, solder them up, then discover my idea is bad and needs rework ?
This is precisely why we have programmable logic devices. To "avoid embarrassment", and make it look to the customer that we're "infinitely clever". When we're merely good at covering our tracks :-)
Doing electro-mechanical work is just asking for trouble, in terms of "preserving your reputation". Expect to be bruised by the experience.
One other note, just a random thought. In your career, you're going to see "health and safety" issues on sites you work on.
*Don't forget* to point them out to people, even if you're not the person to be fixing it. It's all too easy, to go to a site, be lulled into a false sense of security, when some aspect of the project already completed, is a complete disaster and about to kill someone. After you've had a major meltdown, you'll be thinking a bit more about this the next time. In my case, it was an unpolarized connector on a device, which allowed inappropriate electrical connections if a person was in a rush. That connector was installed by someone else, and I simply "assumed" it would be good enough. I trusted others. My mistake. Months of work were destroyed in a split second, because of it.Paul
Balers tend not to collect much straw when driven in reverse ...
The Allis Chalmers roto-baler that the farming folk behind where I lived as a kid had a reverse action, though it may have been the David Brown 25D that allowed the pto to go backwards, Can't really remember. It's how blockages were cleared.
When the diameter of the mini round bale exceeded about 18 inches it just tripped an arm that dropped down 90 dgerees and the baling twine just got pulled into the rotating bale. Then the arm was mechanically moved back up to the horizontal position having spiral wrapped the bale, the mechanism then chopped the twine and left the arm parked ready for the next bale, while the one just wrapped was ejected from the back.
This of course meant stopping every time a bale was being tied because the moving flooring that fed hay or straw stopped until the bale had been ejected. A pain without a live-drive PTO which the DB 25D lacked.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.