Hi Bob,
Yes it is understandable and I agree with you, I’m searching for an electronic engineer co-founder to help finish off this half baked thing I’ve got going.
Cheers
Max
Hi Max
Yes you really need some hands on help. You have to make sure that the system is “fail safe”. That is if anything fails for any reason the whole thing will stop safely and not go careering off doing damage. The worst thing that should happen is your target goes off to one end until hitting a LIMIT SWITCH then stop (rapidly). The purpose of the braking diodes in my limit switch circuit is to stop the motor dead when the switch operates. If left to coast to a stop, depending on the mechanics of the set up, it could cause damage to the switch or actually go past the switch and close again thus re-energising the motor and will keep going until crashing into something.
Cheers Bob
Hi Rob,
Yes you’re right, I need some hands on help, but who?
the extension that triggers the switch has been extended so that it stops the motor before it coasts beyond the switch, the machine won’t be in use without supervision and not intended for long term use,so if the trolley hits the end an operator will turn it off completely.
Hi Max.
I am really sorry I can’t help there. Over the years I have lost track of where everyone is and what they are doing and I am not in a position to be “hands on” myself.
If that is the long lever that seems to be attached to a switch (in the photo) if the motor is any size and is being driven when it operates the switch (which is probable under a fault condition) it will very likely rip it clean off the wall. There is a surprising amount of energy in a free spinning motor. They usually bend things.
Not good enough. If this set up is going to be used in a commercial environment and particularly if there are people involved the system will probably need some sort of approvals. It won’t get to first base with this sort of outlook. It will have to fail in a safe manner without human intervention. On a larger scale think about some of the accidents that have happened in fun parks during the last few years. engineers go to a lot of trouble to try to make things as safe as possible but there are always some things overlooked. It does not matter what the scale the project is safety of persons and even the machinery is paramount these days.
In your case involving just one motor a limit switch system is so simple you could not or should not ignore it. I doubt you would get any sort of approvals without such a “fail safe” system.
Cheers Bob
Hi Bob,
I understand your concerns,
The lever has been extended, it has bumped the ends a couple times, nothing too dangerous as a proof of concept demo, it will be redesigned with regulatory compliance in mind after demo shows sales viability.
