I have a situation where a RPi is running a rotary actuator which occasionally jams due to incorrect part orientation feeding into it. When jammed it bends expensive parts of the machine. I need an inline compression sensor so I can shut off the actuator if the sensor reading is to high (jam) to prevent the destruction of the machine. I’m looking at values in the range of 0-200 kg (not quite sure yet, would have to have the sensor on and see what the values of a jam would output).
I’m thinking along the lines of this item, which is threaded on both ends allowing it to be put inline with the actuator. https://www.amazon.com/DYMH-103-Tension … 73IMBF4DLW The issue is I know little about interfacing this type of sensor with the Pi. Anyone have any experience or ideas regarding this or other sensors? Google doesn’t seem to provide much help.
Thanks. I thought of this, it won’t work due to the speed of the motor and the various loads put on it. I need something that can measure the actual force and stop everything if it looks like it is going up to fast.
You’ll need a load cell amplifier and an arduino. Sparkfuns hx711 board and their redboard version of an arduino uno (or real arduino uno) would be a good place to start.
Sure, after the load cell is mechanically installed inline, the instrumentation for toggling an output above/below a configurable value (often called a setpoint) is pretty easy. You can build something as @YellowDog described.
A quicker, easier, most robust way would be to use an off the shelf scale controller with some of these features built in, like this: [Rice Lake SCT-10. As you can see, there’s a lot inside: a couple I/Os, analog out, remote commands, wide Vcc range, 80 Hz sample rate, the display is primitive but usable.](SCT-10 Signal Conditioning Transmitter)