Any Electronics Gurus Out There?

[npalen]

This is looking at the end of receiver and it looks like the only way to disassemble is to remove these plugs first. The large end cap is aluminum but the plugs are ferrous metal of some kind.
I'm wondering if this is a fairly common way of "sealing" electrical components and whether they could be drilled out to gain access?

Edit: Guys, again, I really appreciate all the input!

 

[Industrial Toys]

Just wondering. Hard to think what someone elses brain is scheming. Does a simple system even need to know where the machine edge is in an application like this?. As with manual control, you either raise the cutting edge, lower it, or leave it in place. Why any positioning sensiing data or proportioning valves. The Up/Down circuit hardly goes fast enough to think about having to control it's speed. There does need to be a limit switch for up and down, end of travel to stop the hydraulic circuit at either extreme.

My question in considering running my harley off a laser, are that the mahine has only a foot or less of adjustment. The laster only has a foot or say of capture area. So if you are a couple of feet off grade, how does the system know whether you are high or low when the reciever isn't seeing the laser? Am I missing something?

BUT beyond that issue, if I was trying to do it. I would try and get at the indication LEDs. Connect those to the opto coupled input of a miniature relay board. Possible add some timing capacitors to avoid quick pulses. Then simply drive the joystick operated electrically operated front aux circuit that I reroute to the rear of the machine and the Harley up-down cicuit.

Doing it with another arrangement of hydraulics, I might opt to drive two larger relays from the miniature relay board that then drives the solenoids.

If I was into PLCs that may be the way to go, offering unlimited adjustment and parameters. There are too many of those around to have settled on a brand to get to know.

 

[npalen]

Just wondering. Hard to think what someone elses brain is scheming. Does a simple system even need to know where the machine edge is in an application like this?. As with manual control, you either raise the cutting edge, lower it, or leave it in place. Why any positioning sensiing data or proportioning valves. The Up/Down circuit hardly goes fast enough to think about having to control it's speed. There does need to be a limit switch for up and down, end of travel to stop the hydraulic circuit at either extreme.

My question in considering running my harley off a laser, are that the mahine has only a foot or less of adjustment. The laster only has a foot or say of capture area. So if you are a couple of feet off grade, how does the system know whether you are high or low when the reciever isn't seeing the laser? Am I missing something?

BUT beyond that issue, if I was trying to do it. I would try and get at the indication LEDs. Connect those to the opto coupled input of a miniature relay board. Possible add some timing capacitors to avoid quick pulses. Then simply drive the joystick operated electrically operated front aux circuit that I reroute to the rear of the machine and the Harley up-down cicuit.

Doing it with another arrangement of hydraulics, I might opt to drive two larger relays from the miniature relay board that then drives the solenoids.

If I was into PLCs that may be the way to go, offering unlimited adjustment and parameters. There are too many of those around to have settled on a brand to get to know.

The system knows where the cutting edge is at without any "position sensing". That is the function of the laser receiver and if out of range more than a few inches it is very obvious just by looking around at the terrain. The laser and electronic height adjustment system comes into play in only the last few inches of level. I agree on the limit switches.

Keep in mind that this system is not for smoothing contoured areas but rather dead flat or a precise preset slope(s). GPS control would be the exception.

I like your idea of using the auxiliary circuit but you would still need a directional solenoid valve to automate. Right? The joystick with push button would be nice to quickly allow other functions such as 3PH when needed. It would serve to quickly switch between manual and auto mode then using any needed remote valves for manual mode. A maintained switch might be better than a momentary push button, however.

Thanks for your interest and input!

 

[npalen]

It's pretty common to put a photodiode next to a LED to monitor if the LED is on. If you're doing it in the sunlight you need to either shroud the whole thing or have a filter on the photodiode so that it only responds to the wavelength of the LED.

I would also second the recommendation of using a microprocessor, and Raspberry Pi over Arduino. I started programming in the 1970's and programming an Arduino reminds me of those early days, you're constantly running up against the limitations of the hardware. Once you get the basic connection going you're going to want to add things like monitoring and logging and smartphone control and Raspberry Pi makes that easier.

This project cries out to be an open source project.

Can you link to a recommended rasberry pi kit or combinations for this project?

Here's some possibilities:
Amazon.com : rasberry pi

 

[hawkeye08]

Found an interesting utube for RPI and relays.. RASPBERRY PI All About controlling Relay Boards for Home Automation - YouTube I don't know how many amps your controls would need..

 

[kenmbz]

Found an interesting utube for RPI and relays.. RASPBERRY PI All About controlling Relay Boards for Home Automation - YouTube I don't know how many amps your controls would need..

Remember a solenoid is an inductor, so you;ll need a capacitor somewhere to stop it from fluctuating. I used to do machine control. I like IR, but out in the sunlight they don't work well. Could use Bluetooth or wifi on a PI or arduino to make the commands , would just need to understand the delay as it's pretty long for wireless. 2 Pi-one on level-one for control and some simple switch codes with a small delay built in to stop resonance.

 

[npalen]

Remember a solenoid is an inductor, so you;ll need a capacitor somewhere to stop it from fluctuating. I used to do machine control. I like IR, but out in the sunlight they don't work well. Could use Bluetooth or wifi on a PI or arduino to make the commands , would just need to understand the delay as it's pretty long for wireless. 2 Pi-one on level-one for control and some simple switch codes with a small delay built in to stop resonance.

Would you know what type of sensor is used or could be used to pick up the red laser beam directly? There's a closeup pic of them in one of the above posts. Looks like 600 RPM is about max for some/most of the rotary laser levels.

Thanks for joining the conversation!

 

[npalen]

This is a California company that shows the only Machine Control System Electronics Package that I've found to date short of a full blown machine package.

The links shown are the company, the product and the owners manual.

https://cdn.website.thryv.com/92ba9...aser-Tech Model 312 Machine Control Panel.pdf
https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com...b36/files/uploaded/312-367 Manual 03-2018.pdf
https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com...b36/files/uploaded/312-367 Manual 03-2018.pdf

Some good info on what goes into a "package".

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I've done a lot of business process automation. The thing I like to tell people is you have to be able to do it manually before you can automate it. So I would work on getting it manual before trying to automate it. Here's what I mean: try putting an electric control on the blade height adjustment with two buttons, one for up and one for down. Can you come up with a simple set of rules based on just the lights from the level that allows you to do the job? An example of simple rules might be, if the "high" light comes on, push the "down" button until the light goes off and if the "low" light comes on push the "up" button until the light goes off. A more complicated set of rules might be if the "high" light comes on, push the "down" button for one second and then check the "high" light.

Does that set of rules give you the result you want, with all terrain, soil conditions and speeds? Because if you can't come up with a set of rules that allows you to get good results with you acting as the computer, the actual computer is never going to be smarter than you. If it turns out that you need additional information -- speed, soil type -- you need either additional inputs (speed sensor) or a way for the user to input settings into the computer.

This approach also allows you to attack the problem in a divide-and-conquer way which allows you to work methodically. You'll never get something like this working if you try to do everything at once. I could see a process with the following steps:
1. Implement electric control of blade height with manual switches.
2. Devise rules for controlling blade height based on height sensor (and other sensors and inputs as necessary) using manual switches.
3. Devise way for reading height sensor from computer (and other sensors as necessary).
4. Devise way of activating blade control from computer.
5. Program computer to follow rules, read sensors and control blade.

 

[MossRoad]

Logic and order? Baw haw haw hawwww that's crazy talk! :laughing: