I've been working on (mostly) minor tweaks to the alarm clock:- The can I had used to test mounting techniques served its purpose as a prototype, so I redid the mounting in a fresh can, with adjusted positioning of the LCD and (new) lit button, with use three screws per end cap instead of two. I scanned the LeSueur label and printed a copy to test the positioning of the LCD, button, and power/relay port cutouts.
- I over-tightened the plastic ring which opens the output valve of my 10-gallon air tank, leaving me with a sealed can at 105psi! I bought a 5-gallon tank as a replacement, figuring it would be fine for a full run, and was impressed by its lightness. I "fixed" the 10-gallon tank's valve by cutting off the plastic ring, so I can turn the open/close with a small wrench, so now have 15 gallons to pressurize.
- Testing the 5-gallon tank at 100psi, the plastic "open" safety valve popped a leak, so today I replaced all pre-solenoid valve hardware with brass-- no more leak!
- Since the emptying valve didn't get enough pressure from the inflated "pea" to open, I replaced it with a manual valve-- not as elegant, but the alarm is about inflation, not deflation.
- The alarm was still triggering when the alarm was "off" and the target time was reached, plus there were a few small bugs to work out.
- The maximum inflation time was set arbitrarily at 30s, so I added another click+hold "hidden" mode branched from the alarm mode selection so the max inflate time can be adjusted. It's also stored to (Arduino) EEPROM with other "system" parameters.
"Binary sketch size: 13566 bytes (of a 14336 byte maximum)"
I'm tweaking the program a but more, but it's late and I'm so happy with how far it has come! I plan to be woken up rudely in the morning...:D
More complex control systems using valves requiring automatic control based on an external input require an actuator. An actuator will stroke the valve depending on its input and set-up, allowing the valve to be positioned accurately, and allowing control over a variety of requirements.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I follow the gist of your comment, IE-- the output here is to a relay which pops a sprinkler valve, an on-off operation. Industrial control valves are very expensive so I opted for hardware store components, but I have a leak so perhaps need to look at other options.
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