Infra Red or LASER beam counter wanted

[Trevor Best]

I would like to get something that would be able to count crates
moving along a conveyer belt, something like where the beam is broken
by a crate, it counts and downloads info to a PC/Laptop. No idea where
to start.

--
A)bort, R)etry, I)nfluence with large hammer.

 

[the Wiz]

Trevor Best <bouncer@localhost> wrote:

I would like to get something that would be able to count crates
moving along a conveyer belt, something like where the beam is broken
by a crate, it counts and downloads info to a PC/Laptop. No idea where
to start.

What's the ambient light level?

How fast do the crates move?

How big are they?

Are they all the same height & length?

How much space between the crates?

How much space is available for mounting the light source on one side of the
conveyer belt and the sensor on the other side of the conveyer belt?

How close can the PC be located to the sensor?

Do you need more than one?

Will any of these things change in the future?


More about me: http://www.jecarter.com/
VB3/VB6/C/PowerBasic source code: http://www.jecarter.com/programs.html
Freeware for the Palm with NS Basic source code: http://nsb.jecarter.com
Drivers for Pablo graphics tablet and JamCam cameras: http://home.earthlink.net/~mwbt/
johnecarter at@at mindspring dot.dot com. Fix the obvious to reply by email.

 

[Roger Gt]

X-No-Archive: yes


"the Wiz" <look@message.body> wrote in message
news:94fl201n2de57agsmketci7jnqie458pvb@4ax.com...

Trevor Best <bouncer@localhost> wrote:

I would like to get something that would be
able to count crates
moving along a conveyer belt, something like
where the beam is broken
by a crate, it counts and downloads info to a
PC/Laptop. No idea where
to start.

What's the ambient light level?
How fast do the crates move?
How big are they?
Are they all the same height & length?
How much space between the crates?
How much space is available for mounting the
light source on one side of the
conveyer belt and the sensor on the other side
of the conveyer belt?
How close can the PC be located to the sensor?
Do you need more than one?
Will any of these things change in the future?

Try
http://www.pantron.com/us/factory.html

Is this what you were looking for. Maybe they
have the counter too?

 

[CWatters]

http://www.bigston-it.com/products.htm


"Trevor Best" <bouncer@localhost> wrote in message
news:kr3l201qhg9r6pab5t1ji5i6undir1iac9@4ax.com...

I would like to get something that would be able to count crates
moving along a conveyer belt, something like where the beam is broken
by a crate, it counts and downloads info to a PC/Laptop. No idea where
to start.

--
A)bort, R)etry, I)nfluence with large hammer.

 

[Mark Fergerson]

Trevor Best wrote:

I would like to get something that would be able to count crates
moving along a conveyer belt, something like where the beam is broken
by a crate, it counts and downloads info to a PC/Laptop. No idea where
to start.

People get paid big bucks to design this sort of thing.
What are you being paid, and what cut of it are you offering?

Mark L. Fergerson

 

[Trevor Best]

On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 07:21:40 -0700 in sci.electronics.misc, Mark
Fergerson <nunya@biz.ness> wrote:

People get paid big bucks to design this sort of thing.

I'm not designing it, I was after a pointer to something already made
to plug into or download the count to a PC.

What are you being paid,

It's not my project, I'm helping a friend.

and what cut of it are you offering?

I didn't realise I had to pay to ask a question here, I'm willing to
offer 20% of naff-all but will haggle on the percentage if you want.


Thanks to everyone to responded.

--
A)bort, R)etry, I)nfluence with large hammer.

 

[Mark Fergerson]

Trevor Best wrote:

On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 07:21:40 -0700 in sci.electronics.misc, Mark
Fergerson <nunya@biz.ness> wrote:


People get paid big bucks to design this sort of thing.


I'm not designing it, I was after a pointer to something already made
to plug into or download the count to a PC.

"Ready made" is usually application-specific and may be
more trouble to adapt than it's worth.

What are you being paid,


It's not my project, I'm helping a friend.

Aha. What's the friend being paid? ;&gt

and what cut of it are you offering?


I didn't realise I had to pay to ask a question here, I'm willing to
offer 20% of naff-all but will haggle on the percentage if you want.

Questions are free but answers may only be worth what you
pay for them.

OK, now that the terms are settled, I'll echo the Wiz's
response about parameters; vague questions usually get vague
answers. The more specific you get, the less effort the
design involves. But since you already knew that (or you
wouldn't have asked for help), I'll be fairly generic and
suggest the old webcam/software trick because you can handle
all sorts of parameter variations that way.

IMNSHO the really big question you ought to ask your
friend is "What does the PC want to see as input?". IOW, how
simple can you make the detector and still satisfy his
requirements? If all the crates (and spacing, etc.) are
identical and ambient lighting isn't reliable, beam-breaking
may be the simplest solution that fits his bill. Also, is
the PC expected to do (and capable of) any processing, or
can it only log counts every so often in between other
tasks? A dumb serial or parallel port (or USB) interface can
be slapped together easily from say mouse and disk drive
parts for the former situation, but if preprocessing's
involved, adding a barebones DOS-based XT PC that does all
the heavy lifting and supplies reports to the main unit on
request might actually be simpler and cheaper than a custom
interface. That's what I was reminded of from my days at a
systems design house here in PHX that used QNIX-based
'puters to run process control for industrial users.

Mark L. Fergerson