Counting wooden boards

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello everybody,

let me quickly introduce the Problem I need to solve:

I have a machine with wooden boards as the output. If running nicely there will be approx. 9 pcs per minute.

Those boards are moved on chains. The Task is to create a counter for those boards with a display of the number an the possiblity to reset the counter to Zero.

I plan on using an Arduino uno for this project just because I have a couple of them lying around.

My question is: What sensor to use to Count the wooden boars running by?

As we are in an indoor setting it is not necessary to operate on batteries.

I am thankful for any suggestions.

2

Light barrier or simply a high quality endswitrch with arm+roller. Anyway, it depends on your setup :slight_smile:

3

Much like "beam break", a light reflect sensor should do.

A magnetic sensor (combined linear Hall sensor and magnet) could count moving metal chains.

An ultrasonic sensor could also do as a close board detector.

4

Wooden boards often come with lots of saw dust - how is that in your setup?

A switch with roller (so the board can push it and move along it smoothly) is probably the most reliable in that situation.

5

I would suggest a commercial limit switch with a roller with a long arm. Get a Nema 12 type then dust etc will not be a problem. When the board passes under the switch should make and when it clears it will break. However is there space between the boards. There are sensors that work on air as well. Maybe the best would be a machine vision system but a lot more information is needed to do a viable design but you as the engineer has that job.
Good Luck & Have Fun!
Gil

6

Thanks for all the advice. In the actual setup sawdust is not an issue. As it is automatically blown of before the point of countig is reached i will give the optical sensor as well as the limit switches a try. Lets see how it runs out.