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.
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:
X-No-Archive: yes
able to count crates
where the beam is broken
PC/Laptop. No idea where
light source on one side of the
of the conveyer belt?
Try
Is this what you were looking for. Maybe they have the counter too?
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
I'm not designing it, I was after a pointer to something already made to plug into or download the count to a PC.
It's not my project, I'm helping a friend.
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.
"Ready made" is usually application-specific and may be more trouble to adapt than it's worth.
Aha. What's the friend being paid? ;>)
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
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