Hi,
I have a Lynxmotion arm with a vacuum pump grabbing cards to sort them. My “issue” is that most of the time it grabs nothing. It’s fine, but it’s slow. Because it will do the enter process with nothing.
My first option is to have a 2nd camera to detect that. It’s doable, but it means I need to move the “hand” in front of the camera for detection, which takes some time.
What I would really love to have is a vacuum sensor. When the pump is sucking air, if no card is grab, the pressure will be very similar to the room pressure. However, as soon as the card is grab, the pressure will drop a lot! And I want to detect this. So I don’t have to move the arm for detection.
So I have a couple of questions.
Is there a way to “read” from the board (ssc-32U) for sensor values, or the board is “write only”?
Does robotshop has any vacuum sensor option?
My plan B is to get SparkFun Qwiic MicroPressure Sensor - SEN-16476 - SparkFun Electronics working but I will also need something to interface with it and it’s a different story :-/ Probably with https://ca.robotshop.com/products/usb-to-i2c-converter and a Raspberry Zero that I already have.
Thanks.
Hi jmspaggi,
The SSC-32U can report Digital or Analog values.
(look for Input on the user guide here)
In order to be compatible you would have to find a compatible pressure sensor.
This Phidgets Differential Air Pressure Sensor might be good since the output is between 500mv and 4.5V.
Another option would be to replace the syringe and use a vacuum pump instead.
The biggest problem is releasing the air once the vacuum is build.
Ho dialfonzo,
I’m not using the syringe. I’m using a peristaltic pump. But my goal is to know when the pump is catching something. So I lower the arm while monitoring the pressure, and when the pressure gets a big drop, then I know I got something, and I can move the arm back up.
In what should I connect the Phidgets sensor? Can I just use this and connect it straight to my laptop?
The Phidget sensor will output an Analog voltage from its reading.
In theory you can hook it up to the SSC-32U directly and query the value.
You can also buy the USB adapter and handle the communication in your Laptop, I found this option to be a little harder to implement personally.
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Oh, ok! I got it! I found on page 9 the Analog IO Pins. And the instructions on page 33/34. The I will definitely give this a try instead of the USB adaptor!
Thanks again for your support!
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Let us know how it works, you can even post in the Robots section or Lynxmotion.
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