Hi I have a conveyor that uses a AC motor and is connected to a Speed controller (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32946130029.html) and is controlled by a potentiometer. I have an Arduino code that uses 2 IR sensors to compare a separate conveyor's (i'll call this one Conv 01) speed to this one (I'll call this Conv 2) and tries to match Conv 2 to Conv 1 speed.
My goal is to replace the potentiometer with the Arduino to control the speed. Would anyone know how I can connect the Arduino to the Speed controller like that?
You must be kidding! You have not told us anything about the speed controller potentiometer. What is it's value, what voltages are on the pot terminals, what actually happens to the voltages when you turn the pot. Is any part of the pot connected to the conveyor metal frame.
How are you planning to power the Arduino? Are there any safety considerations to having automatic control of the conveyor speed?
It's very likely that the potentiometer is floating at mains voltage as these controllers often don't have isolated supplies. That would make it rather hard to interface to safely.
No they are independent to each other. We would like Conv 2 to feed into Conv 1 but we would need Conv 2 to match the speed of Conv 1. Also note that Conv 1 changes speed depending on what is placed in it, that's why we can't just have it at one constant speed
You also don't say what type of ac motor. If it's an induction motor that speed control won't work anyway and in fact you would really need to use a 3 phase motor with a variable frequency drive. Or a DC motor with the appropriate power rating with a speed controller.
Well unless you have much better documentation that indicates if it is isolated from the mains I suggest that you don't even consider trying to connect it to an Arduino. Ditto if it ISN'T isolated! Find an alternative speed controller. And WHAT KIND OF MOTOR IS IT??
The easiest way to make them run well is to adjut conv1 to run just slightly faster than the feeding conv2. Why be "exactly" the same fast? Looks unmotivated.
I used to work maintenance in a brick factory, they had belts all over the place, and yes, if one belt fed another, the another belt ran just a little faster.
I made the transition of "dried" or "wet" bricks flawless from one to the other.
The belts were driven by 5KW VSD's to.
