Hello, I would like to build a module that allows me to switch a relay using a camera. The switch would be triggered when the air flow rate is in the zone I want. The air flow rate is measured with a flow meter consisting of a small 5mm diameter ball bearing traveling up into a clear cylinder (floating ball design).
I need to trigger a switch when the ball bearing is in the right flow rate zone and for an x amount of time.
I need help sourcing the parts needed and with the code.
This is for a project to trigger the making of ozone injected into a pipe using a venturi injector.
I tried a paddle switch in the pipe running water to trigger the relay but I was unsuccessful. The switch was either too sensitive and on all time or would just trigger once or would not trigger at all.
Thanks for your help.
Ps. I probably also will need a source of near infrared light (led diodes) so that this works also ar night.
OK, I went and tested with my gen1 night vision googles that are IR and I do see the ball bearing. If that is really a problem with the camera with the IR filter removed, I can use a source of white light (LED).
here are some pics of the flow meter with the ozone going through and without.
Hope this clarifies things.
Several pieces of equipment in my former electronic assembly service used those type devices and they were not tapered and all had ball stops top and bottom. Used with needle valves to adjust air/nitrogen flows to a calibrated volume.
OK, you have a "store bought" meter, I was thinking it was just a piece of clear tubing with a ball in it, my bad.
The gauge bore is tapered, if it wasn't the ball would sit on the bottom until there was enough flow to overcome gravity, then it would shoot all the way to the top or bounce up and down.
I can't believe it took so long for this comment to show up. Using a camera sounds "cool" but you could spend months getting it to work. OTOH, a break-beam sensor will probably work on the first attempt.
You could stack a bunch of these together to form an array and read the outputs via some shift registers. Reflective sensor
The pin spacing is perfboard friendly.
I thought about that. I didn't look at all the sensors that come in that kind of package. Some may have different sensing distances. Worth a look anyway.
Looks like I will be better using a Hall effect flow meter. I could then create rules for triggering at a certain flow and for a certain amount of time. Anyone has examples of codes for that? Thanks.
