I
was snowed in for a couple of days last weekend, so I started
working on the computer control system
for the 1940's Geo. Stevens pickup coil winder 'CNC
robot' conversion I've been working on lately...
This is
the prototype control board for the infrared LED turn
counter sensor system I worked up.
As the mainshaft rotates, the black shutter at middle left
also rotates at the same speed as the mainshaft,
and blocks or unblocks a beam of infrared light shining
inside the sensor. This beam of light tells the
Arduino Uno I'm using for a computer when to move the
traverse's stepper motor, which winds the wire
onto the pickup's bobbin. The green light is for the
switches at top left - the traverse zero 'home' system.
If the traverse is moved all the way to the left, the
light turns red and the Arduino shuts off the drive to the
stepper motor so the drive won't crash.
See
what I mean? The traverse rack gear is as far to the
left as it can go, so the switches are closed
and the red light is lit. There is also a line
connected to the Arduino so it knows it can't move any
further.
Here is
my Arduino Uno actually doing something useful... finally!
I bought this touchscreen monitor so I could run the
Arduino all by itself without always having to have it
connected to my laptop. I didn't want a fullsized monitor,
keyboard and mouse setup so I thought I would
try this system instead. The photo is kind of washed
out because of the angle of the camera, but it's
displaying the Angeltone logo as a test.
For some reason the screen isn't very camera friendly, but
it really looks much better 'in person'.
I'm programming
the Arduino computer in this photo to wind a pickup coil
from beginning to end, so all
I'll have to do is change the pickups when they're full.
If I want to change pickup types (like changing from
winding Strat 5S7's to PAF pickup bobbins), the winding
programs this will use will be prewritten so all I'll
have to do is upload the new program to the Arduino and
load in a bobbin... cool!
This setup is now interfaced to the Stevens' infrared
LED sensor control board shown in the top photo, and
if there was a pickup mounted to the winder when I
took this it would have 66 turns of wire already wound
on it.
I still have to program the traverse stepper motor
when to move left and right in sync with the main
motor and
write a control panel program for this touchscreen
monitor, and I'm basically done...
that is... after I make a table to mount the winder
to, wire the power supply, mount the main motor,
build the control box... :)
