We need to expand the number of lasers (and blast gate doors) supported by the controller built for this purpose. It’s on Arduino controller based PLC-like hardware.
I’m looking for the source sketch to make the mods to expand this. I’ve looked at the wiki and DMS github and can’t find anything. Do you know where I can find the sketch, or who did the original sketch?
That was me. I’ll look around for it today, it was either in a member/committee drive or there was a way to download it from the controller directly (common for real plcs, but I’m not as confident about the arduino-esque thing).
In any case it was less than an hour of work so I don’t mind recreating it if need be.
Ah! Good. It’s an Arduino, so effectively write only.
It’s in M:\Michael Bayern\LaserVentControl.c and it has about as much documentation as you’d expect.
The code just reads the input module, ORs in the blower output, and writes it to the output. So I think you can add lasers to the unused IO without modifying the code.
This is the library it uses to communicate with the IO modules.
https://facts-engineering.github.io/api_reference.html#init
It now has a Github repo
If you send me your Github username I’ll make you the owner.
I’m guessing this was hardware you had laying around. Do you have any mre output relays?
I don’t have any of the relays left, and it looks like automation direct discontinued that exact relay a few years ago.
This looks like a similar relay. It’s a DC output, but there should be 24vDC available in the box. It’s even $7 cheaper than the originals.
https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/shopping/catalog/relays_-z-_timers/optocoupler_relays/52507
We can et the same part number off ebay for $20-$30 too. There’s a small power supply in the box, that I think is 5V but may be 24V. The blast gates want 5V.
It’s probably 5v then. Iirc it’s whatever Tim had laying around for an early version of an interlock the evening I threw that box together. For some reason I thought the blast gates all had their own 5v adapters, and what’s in the box is just a dry contact that acts as a remote control.
I was trying to recall why the heck it had a 24v AC transformer in it… The original system used the leftover motorized dampers from the kiln wall. It wasn’t until later that we upgraded to the blast gates. The dampers were much too slow.
Waveshare makes a whole series of pretty nice RS485 controlled (+other) DIN rail relay boxes for pretty cheap. We almost went with the typical relays, but found this recently, and for non super-critical work these have been really nice.