Hey everyone, I’m working on double sided sublimation press and I’m looking for a sensor that will be able to read a registration mark on a piece of paper, then control steppers motors to align a second piece of paper with registration marks on top of the first, where both registration marks will be aligned as one image thus giving a proper top and bottom registration. I’ve come across Pixy cam 2 and I’ve seen a few things about ir sensors, but I’m not too sure how to go about coding this or if those sensors will actually work for my application here. Any help for me to figure this out will be greatly appreciate, thanks in advance 
tinkerguy777:
Hey everyone, I’m working on double sided sublimation press and I’m looking for a sensor that will be able to read a registration mark on a piece of paper, then control steppers motors to align a second piece of paper with registration marks on top of the first, where both registration marks will be aligned as one image thus giving a proper top and bottom registration. I’ve come across Pixy cam 2 and I’ve seen a few things about ir sensors, but I’m not too sure how to go about coding this or if those sensors will actually work for my application here. Any help for me to figure this out will be greatly appreciate, thanks in advance
Welcome to the Arduino forum. I am sure your project is doable, if you have experience in electronics and computer software development.
However, using stepper motors in such a project is like a dog chasing it's tail. Use servo motors that you can have fine control over their position. A stepper motor ONLY moves in discrete steps that will often never be exactly what you want for alignment.
Do you have the physical design done for the project?
Paul
Servo motors yes that makes more sense now. I have some images of a 3D model with a color legend I've attached to this message, it's a rough draft just to give a general idea of the project. Because by time I've spent numerous hours and days putting all the parts together and making them all work efficiently, the project ends up looking like a magical creature compared to the sketches or 3D models lol. Please feel free to share any ideas/advice or make any changes as you see fit, two tinkers are better then one lol
I see suction cups. Are you going to have to control vacuum, also?
Paul
Yup there’s going to have to be a on/off control for the vacuum at certain times & positions in the loop
tinkerguy777:
Yup there’s going to have to be a on/off control for the vacuum at certain times & positions in the loop
You will need a solenoid valve that has a port to let air into the suction cup after it closes off the vacuum line. Or you will need to coordinate two solenoid valves to do the same operation.
Paul
Solenoid valves, servo motors, seems pretty straight forward. A bit of trail & error I should be able to get those up and working. It’s the electronics I’m a bit concerned about, what sensors would I use to read two registration marks and then have them perfectly align with each other via servo motors ?