I have been tasked with a project to wire up a bowling alley to have the ability to recycle the pins of all 32 of their machines from the front control counter. In order to do this, the machines need a 24Vac signal to trigger the recycle.
I'm hoping I can accomplish this with a simple web interface to have the option to recycle each machine separately, and a single button to recycle all 32 at the same time. I would need the arduino to only trigger the relay for each machine momentarily when the option is selected on the web interface, ie like pushing a momentary button.
After reading a little on arduino, I know this is feasible, but I need some guidance as I literally have no experience whatsover. I only came across arduino after some googling last night.
You could use four daisy chained 74HC595 shift registers with transistors on each output to control 32 relays individually or in groups or all at once. This would require 3 pins (clock, data and latch). There are higher current output shift registers that may drive the relays directly.
You could use any of the relay modules available on e-bay for this. Some need a high signal to turn on the relays, some need a low, but usually don't need much current as they have a buffered interface. Go find an 8 or 16 channel module and we can suggest what shift register will work with it.
Ethernet shield will provide the web connection. The software side for that is not my area.
Is there a central point where all the wires come to ?
if you have all the wires at one location, it would be simple to use a ganged relay for this.
if you have to bring wires out of each alley to a central point, then you need to decide if you want to bring back 24VAC to a central relay panel or if you want to have a local relay and send out a low voltage control signal.
best thing would be do draw up a layout of the facility. it seems that most alleys already have a central monitoring system with complete controls including counters and such.
if there is such a system, it may be easier to interface with that ?
The only centralized point of wiring for these machines is to turn the machines on/off. Otherwise all functions are controlled at each individual lane.
On the recycle side, each machine has a line that runs to the customer area, which is attached to a button the customer can use to recycle the machine. These are the wires I will be tapping into.
I think using 2 16 ch relay modules would work nicely for me. I want to be able to mount the module in the middle of the building (in the machine's area) and I'll run wires from there to each machine. I know that'll be a lot of work, however it will be FAR less work then running 32 lines from the machines all the way to the control counter. I already have a network switch mounted very close to the spot I'm going to mount the arduino, so I have a useful source to get it on the network.
I will work on getting everything I need ordered. I appreciate you guys pointing me in the right direction. I know the software side of things I'll need a lot of help on, but I wanted to get something together so I can build and test on my bench at home.
in thinking about this, it seems that an I2c serial bus could run from the center to one side and from the center to the other side.
each machine has a little box with I2C receiver that would control the relay. lots more boards, lots less wirng.
but, I think using simple control wiring would be easier from a 'get-er-done' perspective.
dave-in-nj:
in thinking about this, it seems that an I2c serial bus could run from the center to one side and from the center to the other side.
each machine has a little box with I2C receiver that would control the relay. lots more boards, lots less wirng.
I2C? For what distance? Did you think about that carefully?
OP: You referred to a "Web interface", presumably meaning Internet or at least LAN. You can buy relay boards with an Ethernet interface. Pricey, (that one seems to be very cheap compared to others!) but no construction necessary.
Two of those, each in the middle of eight rows, and standard cat5 to your control area.
32 lanes. say, one controller does 8 lanes. say 6 feet wide per lane
75 feet for, 12 lanes. the center 12 controlled by one arduino,
one arduino 35 feet to one side, the 3rd would be 35 feet to the other side.
OK, I2c is about 20 feet too short ?
if you had pairs if relays with individual control, with a pair of relays centered per pair of lanes, center location for the main board
the run would have to be about 100 feet from center?
so.... about 85 feet too much ?
just thinking that a simple buss with individual addresses would be simpler to wire. lots less wire.
the brute force method of one 32 channel board and a wire to each lane. 6ft to the first, 12 to the next....
wired from one end, 3,200 feet of 2 pair wire. even doorbell wire in 1,000 foot rolls will get kinda pricey.
wired from the center, 800 feet to each side, or 1,600 feet of wire.
in my view, the elegant way would be to have one 2 pair wire, 200 feet long with addresses at each station.
a local mini would be easy enough to program to receive a signal and send a signal. and since the process is slow, the need for high speed is not there.
I2C is not going to work by any stretch. but the idea is what I was after. IMHO, this is screaming out for a buss of some sort.