I actually need to measure some strapping on a regular basis. All in feet and sometimes up to 200 feet.
Has anyone built or know who could build a laser that I could run strapping under and it would measure how many feet I pulled through? Hopefully I could connect it to a display that showed the number of feet and could be "reset".
It sounds so simple, but I know its anything but.
Any help would be much appreciated.
I read in another article about someone using an ADNS-9800 Laser Mouse Sensor to Arduino, with Display. But, I am just not technical enough to put that all together or even know how to make it work.
This certainly would be a project I would pay for.
Various people have taken optical mice to pieces and connected them to the Arduino
However only one sort of sensor IC is usable for this purpose, so you'd need to take various mice apart to see what sensor IC they have in them. I've looked in 3 of my mice and only 1 had a compatible sensor.
Connecting the sensor to the arduino is not hard, its only 3 wires for the data connection, plus the power and ground wire.
But if you are saying that doing any form of electronics is beyond your capabilities, you will need to find someone to do this for you.
E.g try to find a local ham radio club, they will almost certainly know have someone who could solder 5 wires
DrAzzy:
Wouldn't it be way easier to use the encoder wheels from a roller-ball mouse?
I guess my biggest worry is that a wheel could slip and not measure 100% properly. I know the encoder wheel would, but whatever wheel that is rolling on the material could slip.
rogerClark:
Various people have taken optical mice to pieces and connected them to the Arduino
However only one sort of sensor IC is usable for this purpose, so you'd need to take various mice apart to see what sensor IC they have in them. I've looked in 3 of my mice and only 1 had a compatible sensor.
Connecting the sensor to the arduino is not hard, its only 3 wires for the data connection, plus the power and ground wire.
But if you are saying that doing any form of electronics is beyond your capabilities, you will need to find someone to do this for you.
E.g try to find a local ham radio club, they will almost certainly know have someone who could solder 5 wires
I may need a couple of these for my needs. So, I was hoping I could find someone who could create the device (laser, card, software, display) to accurately read the footage, display it, then able to reset.
To truly go simple I was just thinking about taking apart a gaming mouse, connecting it to a computer, and using free counting software found online, but I guess I was hoping for a more refined and clean looking package.
Just about any optical emitter detector sensor and a wheel would work, as shown it could be a break-beam type, or a reflector type could mount on one side of an encoding wheel and detect light and dark marks on that side of the wheel. Laser mice are made to sense relative motion not absolute distance, so thet're not ideal for measuring things.
SignTorch:
Just about any optical emitter detector sensor and a wheel would work, as shown it could be a break-beam type, or a reflector type could mount on one side of an encoding wheel and detect light and dark marks on that side of the wheel. Laser mice are made to sense relative motion not absolute distance, so thet're not ideal for measuring things.
Do you know who could build this? I wouldn't know how to do the programming or connecting to a digital readout.
The other issue is finding wheels at a decent price. It seems encoder wheels of a 12" circumference range from $50 and up.
Or am I looking in the wrong direction?
@SignTorch
That wrap around idea is absolutely inspired. It means the whole thing could be hand held and not need any worktop to use it. Just put one turn of the ribbon around the roller, then pull until the entire length has been passed over.
How about one of these. It's already got a nice roller to wrap the ribbon around. It's got the bearings. It's got the holes to allow a slot optical detector to be mounted over it.
All you'd have to do is build a little box. put a hole in the end of one of the walls. put one end of the axle through and tighten up a nut to hold it on. In the meantime, there would be an optical slot sensor mounted on the outside to sit either side of those holes.
I'd use a wired reflective sensor like this OPB703WZ
it can read just about any light/dark marks on any sort of spool or disc that rotates with the material
my picture looks like the stock spool but the coil diameter would not be constant, so it has to be a separate measuring spool of known diameter, then using a magic marker on light wood would be sufficient for marks, it doesn't have to be anything very fancy
wiring that sort of sensor is trivial, as is counting the pulses to calculate distance
then just needs a readout and reset button of some sort
oxx155:
Do you know who could build this? I wouldn't know how to do the programming or connecting to a digital readout.
Thanks
I sure don't, between design consultation, parts and build time I'd expect it would cost several hundred dollars for a working prototype, if you built the spool with a place to mount the sensor it would be cheaper to hire out just the electronics, and if you could get and wire the parts yourself, you'd just need a parts list, wiring diagram and a short program, which could all be delivered online, then you could build as many as you need...
Why not just get a "distance measuring wheel" (like the ones contractors use to measure ) and use that. It might take a little bit of ingenuity to make it work but there is no electronics involved and usually they are resetable by pushing a button. Purely mechanical.
Yeah I know it won't have a processor but in the sense of simplicity it can't be beat. There are tons of them out there.