dougp:
Just spitballing.A VL6180X LIDAR sensor on the floorplate takes a range reading to the bottom of the follower. The range will vary as rounds are expended/inserted.
A load cell measures the follower spring tension through a load cell. Reading indicates rounds remaining.
I really like that idea, especially because it would theoretically count the number of rounds in a more direct way, which would eliminate a lot of the complications and drawbacks to my initial plan. However there are a few problems I see with it.
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wouldn't that require a whole separate circuit in the magazine itself? Meaning a whole separate power supply inside of a mag? If so I'd have to take apart a magazine whenever a battery died. I'd probably have to modify the mag itself to be able to access the circuit and be able to turn it on or off. Also how can you relay this information back to the arduino wirelessly? Would bluetooth work?
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without modification, I cant imagine the inside of a magazine would have much clearance when the spring is fully compressed.
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any circuitry placed inside of a mag will have to withstand a tremendous amount of abuse. The mags get dropped, to load them properly you smack the crud out of the bottom of them, you bang the backside to align the rounds properly. Can a circuit withstand all those forces acting on it, WHILE being constrained to the confines of INSIDE a compressed magazine spring?
I appreciate your help. I'm not very experienced with wireless circuitry at all either. Essentially anything outside of RFID specifically I'm not very learned in.