any electricians among you?

[snowythehobo]

basically im designing a hopper for GCSE and im having problems with the electronnics side of things and i need to get it sorted because i need to do the designing soon (/the other week) and i need to design it with housing for those electronics or not at all...

basically does anyone know what id need?
simply as possible?

cheers

 

[Munkeh]

I think you would be better with a title of "any Engineers among you?" but nevermind. Just me being pedantic. What do you want your hopper to do? Just spin? Spin when there is a gap in the feed tube? If you tell me what you want it to do then I could help. Most basic circuit is Battery -> Switch -> Motor which could suffice if it is mainly just a built project.

 

[snowythehobo]

well i was going to have an infra-red ldr/sender type thing which set a motor off when the beam was not broken?

my friend had an idea of just buying a reload kit and putting that in? id rather jsut set somwething up myself... something simple? but i have little/no knowledge of electronics and my teacher is quite incompetent

cheers

 

[Munkeh]

Ok, Well think of the Infra-red diode / receiver just as a switch. I obviously don't want to draw the circuit for you. Then you need to look at the motor you are going to buy and work out from the power output of it what voltage is required across it. Or vice versa. You can use P = V^2 / R or any of its family of equations to work this out. Hope this helps. Any more help required just ask.

 

[John C]

I am assuming you are making a conventional agitating hopper.

You need a sensor, either an IR transmitter and reciever in the feedncek or better still a microphone listening to the sound of the gun.
This will need a voltage regulator to power it.

A relay is the simplest way of switching the motor on and off.

 

[snowythehobo]

i have an IR transmitter/reciever but i dont know what other components i need (apart from the obvious ie. switch/motor) but i dont have a clue how to assemble it all? do i need a circuit board?

im a retard when it comes to electronics?

 

[John C]

Stripboard is probably sufficient. You just need a sharp knife and a soldering iron.

The IR transmitter needs to be powered from the battery by way of a voltage regulator. (zener diode)

The IR reciever can probably be wired directly to the coil of the relay.
You will need to test the output of your IR sensor and but the correct voltage relay.
(remember to put a reverse biased diode in paralell with the coil to stop negative feedback)

The motor, and batteries are wired in a circuit, with the switch from the relay to turn it on and off.

You could put in a switch to turn the thing on and off.

Thats it.

To recap:
Strip Board
Soldering Iron
Sharp knife


Battery
Motor
Ir sensor
Ir reciever
Relay
Zener diode
Diode
2pole Switch


May I ask what GCSE you are doing? CDT?

 

[snowythehobo]

yea CDT

wow its gonan take me a while to get my head around this!

cheers for the help mate

 

[TOOLE]

erm, a simpler way might just to put a microswitch in the feed tube, to detect when there is a ball there. Then use a PIC (these are very easy to use, ask your tech teacher about them) the cause the motor to spin when the switch is not pressed by a ball bieng present.

easy as that and more kudos for the project if you build it all yourself!

 

[John C]

There are many books and websites available which explain basic electronics in simple terms.


Since it isnt an electronics GCSE i could do u a quick schematic, there are things i need to know first though.

Hoe does your IR sensor react to IR light. (does it produce current? or does its resistance change?)

What current and voltage does your IR emmiter need?

If all this is sounding a bit complicated then u should go with TOOLEs PIC idea.