Perler Beads Sorter

Community General Discussions
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Hi guys (and girls) I need some help here.<o:p></o:p>I’m trying to make a beads sorter for my kids, but my funnel approach is not working. The beads are getting stuck so I’m open for suggestions on another approach for getting the beads dropping on top of each other into the sensor / sorter board.<o:p></o:p>I got a TCS230 RGB sensor from my brother and was wondering what I could use it for until my kids broke my line of thoughts with “daddy, -can you find some pink beads for me…”
That was it! As the lazy father I am, I decided to make an automatic sorter for them J<o:p></o:p>As you can see from the video, the sorting functions reasonably well. The sensor output is read by a PICAXE and if the bead is the right color it activates the sorting servo and the bead is dropped in the correct container. I also have a hacked servo as an agitator to release any jammed beads.
The beads are led up by two white LED’s and there is a photo transistor in the back sensing that there is a bead in the ‘tube’. <o:p></o:p>Has anybody another idea on how to get the beads lined up and drop in a steady stream down the tube? The beads are 5mm in diameter and cut in 5mm lengths.

The ‘Sorting plate’

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<o:p>Breadbording and testing</o:p><o:p>

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRt-_E1jE8k
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What if you poured the beads
What if you poured the beads into a tray that was slanted, and it shook the beads into long tubes that allowed them to line up and fall into place?

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Those are not Pink!

I hope this will bring you inspiration: hopper agitiator mechanism.

I’ve seen some on TV. A funnel like yours with an agitator sticking up from below through the shute. The agitator closes off the shute, moves up, thus agitating the beads, and sinks back into the shute again. Allowing zero or more beads to pass.

It’s basically a ball on stick. (Is it still twss weekend in your timezone? :wink:

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nice, i got some of those
nice, i got some of those sensors myself, haven’t been able to try them out though.

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**another approach **

i would have done this is in another approach , a dam with a servo for stopping each bead for color verification and a servo for positioning the hopper this will give you range to sort all colors not only limiting you to only two sorting bins , once you finish prototyping you can make a design for your kids to use always ! :smiley:

 

 

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Great suggestion
Hi<o:p></o:p>I liked your approach and I could probably build something similar. But I still think the system would jam if the beads don’t align properly. Based on your design I might go the other way and make a cylindrical device with a slot that fist one bead. Then lift it up for the sensor to check it. If no bead has fallen into the slot, no problem, just turn it back and try again. That might also function as an agitator.<o:p></o:p>Hum…<o:p></o:p>Thank you for your input.<o:p></o:p>

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Agitators

You know, I used to watch that “how’s it made” show on discovery… It seemed to me that every machine that needed to line things up i.e. beads going single file down a tube, invovled a vibration. Most also had some kinda horizontal trough that the items had to travel through as well.

Oh, I got another one:

How about 2 wheels, side-by-side (like a pitching machine but with the wheels vertical), with a space between that is just a bit more than the diameter of the bead. The wheels would actually be spinning upward (into the bin of beads). This way, if more than one bead tried to travel through at the same time, the wheels would spit the pair of beads back into the hopper. Only if a single beads comes by will it fall through.

Just some thoughts.

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**to solve that **
try building something like this , this will insure no "stuckness" you can build something like this out of plywood , where only one bead can fit sideways , but many fit on top of each other with a small oppening toward the end to allow only one to fall at a time . you can make something like a cartridge system or the like .

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The problem is that the
The problem is that the beads have a diameter of 5mm and a length of 5mm so some of the beads are bound to flip sideways. I need to measure the color of the side of the bead to get an consistent reading.<o:p></o:p>

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“How about 2 wheels, side-by-side…”
The very thought did accrue to me, but I felt it was a bit complex to build. My plan was to have the wheels there just to align the beads, then feed them through some sort of tube into the sensor.<o:p></o:p>Thank you for your input <o:p></o:p>

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Another idea

Here is my suggestion:

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You might have misunderstood

You might have misunderstood my problem. For the sorting mechanism function well but my problem is getting the beads aligning into something like your tube.

So the problem is who to get the unsorted beads from a container into your tube.<o:p></o:p>Thanks for taking an interest<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>
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I see

I see. Maybe you can use a miniature vibrating motor, some construction similar like that:

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Pager motors

I have som pager motors that might work.
Great idea, thanks.

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If you use a tube inner

If you use a tube inner diameter of 6 mm, it’s still ok. The cylinder-shaped beads can only fall in the right way inside. If you increase the tube inner diameter to 7 mm, it getting critical and the beads might falling in the wrong way inside.

Please let us know if it works :slight_smile:

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**if **
if you had two sensors your problem would have been solved eh ? :stuck_out_tongue:

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**question **
may i ask about the program used to draw these nice graphics ?! :slight_smile:

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Freeware
It’s a freeware vector drawing program, called Zoner draw 3

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What about this
The shoot can hold the beads any way.

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I’m also working on a bead

I’m also working on a bead sorter! Although I’m using “standard” colored plastic beads not those cylindrical melt together ones I think some of my concepts could be adapted to work!

I’ll post a quick drawing and a few pictures of the parts I already have constructed but let me explain my idea!

At first I did the same thing as you…  Tried to use a funnel (sounds logical right?) but they just clogged up!!! Even with the addition of an agitator and screwing around with different size openings… 

I had to think about it for a while… But I came up with the idea of a spinning disk at the bottom of a hopper full of beads! The disk would have holes all around the edge that were only large enough to fit one bead no mater the orientation! When the disk spins the beads naturally fall into the holes and a whisked away one at a time!!! As the disk spins a color sensor would detect the color of each bead one at a time, once the correct hopper was in place it would then turn a bit more, the bead finally falls through a hole which sends the bead down a tube into the appropriate hopper!!! Sounds simple enough! In fact, it is actually really simple! And very very effective! Though I’m not done with mine most of the major parts have been built and work perfectly together! 

 

Links to my sketch and pictures : (Sorry there to large for this post… But please take a look!) 

Sketch: Pretty self explanatory!

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j188/justinhulbert/jjkjkjj.jpg


Picture of my “wheel thing.” Again pretty simple just 1/4" ply attached to a hobby servo! Painted black so my color sensor (Parallax ColorPAL) only sees the beads… 

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j188/justinhulbert/CIMG0362.jpg

 

My hopper system! Spinning disk full of PVC pipes! Can’t get much simpler! Used some old/extra car paint I had laying around to make the MDF look like it was powder coated! 

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j188/justinhulbert/CIMG0348.jpg

 

This is a picture of the bottom of my hopper! (The part that spins) There are a bunch of screws, which if you look at closely form a binary count! There is a reader on the other half that picks up this count! Also you can see my acrylic mounting plate which attaches to the gear motor below! 

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j188/justinhulbert/CIMG0357.jpg

 

This is the “other half” or the actual bottom of my hopper! (The part that doesn’t spin) Here you can see the little rollers I used to keep an even gap between the “binary screws” and my reader! The reader is actually really simple! Just a pice of wood with some scraps of springy brass stuck into the side! Soldered some wires and brushed on some liquid electrical tape! Each set of “binary screws” had an end screw… This end screw picks up 5v from the reader (when they make contact) and sends 5v to all the other screws, which then gets sent back to the appropriate pins on the reader! Simple! Easy to detect with a micro controller! 

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j188/justinhulbert/CIMG0349.jpg

 

Hopefully this all makes some sort of since! I’ll be sure to post more pics and a movie if I ever finish this! Any questions or suggestions please let me know!