I am looking for a little advice or pointing in the right direct. After researching how to mke project happen I have stumbled into the world of arduino. It seems like something that would be perfect but is new territory for me. A little about the project is below. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
I am looking to build a machine similar to a tesla coil winding set up.
It will be used to wind fibreglass filament onto a mandrel
They mandrel size will be upto 1m long and approx 150mm diameter. I am thinking that this would sit upon 3 rollers and one driven wheel to allow rotation and easy removal once complete.
The filament needs to be fed along the cylinder in a continuous motion from one end to the other and back again in a linear fashion.
Programming wise I need it to be able to tweak the speed to get a continuous winding along the tube.
Hardware wise I am pretty comfortable envisioning what is needed and have no problem building it.
Software wise is is completely knew to me, even after hours of research the coding is still not really making sense. It probably doesn't help that this is rather adventurous for a first project
From what I have researched I think I will be needing to use a dc motor with speed controller to drive the wheel which in turn will spin the cyclinder.
Alongside this will need a liner actuator to run up and down a track and be controlled by a stepper motor.
If possible as a side note to the next step after this operation has been complete .I would like to be able to control the cylinder to turn 120° stop then another 120° stop and another then return to the original starting position.
Firstly, Welcome! You'll find a wealth of technical knowledge available to you here, with the right approach. Nothing wrong with your first post, though as usual, more info will be needed. Assuredly, it can be done, with the right hardware, with an Arduino. Which one, we'll reserve judgement on right now.
But first, is this for a commercial product, or a basement experiment? If the former, you might well develop a prototype with an Arduino, but you'd be well advised to investigate more industrially hardened solutions, like a PLC or other more robust products; it might be better to start your journey there, if that's the case.
Even if you think you want to 'stick with' an Arduino-based solution, if you're on a timeline, you might also be well advised to skip the learning step, and repost this in the
section of this forum, where you can interact with skilled people willing to assist, for a price.
However, if you're still interested in doing it yourself, stick around. I'll post more in a moment or two.
Thanks for the reply. Its not a full on commercial project but is for new business venture so would like to take it into thag in future if all goes will. I have never heard of those other things you mention but as I say am completely new to this. Would they be more suited?
I am not against paying for help but would like to learn the ins and outs myelf if posible rsther than just pay for someone to complete it.
The guidance there will ease your interactions on this forum. In this particular case, we don't need a schematic - yet - but read on.
Things that will ease your learning process:
take small steps. Sketch out your hardware in more detail. Will there be limit switches or position sensing? You've given us a general design outline, but more detail will be required(I/O counts, signal types, speeds, etc. all in play).
Each of the major elements should be coded in isolation. DC motor control, linear actuator control, and rotation control can all be worked out one at a time, then integrated.
LED indicators, buttons for control, and any limit switches should be itemized.
For a beginner, the critical thing to do is to focus on one at a time. You can work with any number of tutorials, etc. to get the basics down pat, and spending a day or two doing so would be well worth it.
HTH, gotta run