Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-30 Thread Stuart Stevenson
Gentlemen,
  I just checked one channel. The best I could tell I have 1 wave/.001 of
travel.
thanks
Stuart
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-30 Thread Jon Elson
Stuart Stevenson wrote:
 Gentlemen,
   I just checked one channel. The best I could tell I have 1 wave/.001 of
 travel
So, reading all quadrature transitions, that gives you .00025 resolution.

Jon

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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-30 Thread Cathrine Hribar



hi gene

would u share the size stepper motor u use, the type of controller u use and 
the current draw of the motors?

I remember looking at ur web page once and seeing a picture of ur z axis 
setup.

is that info still available???

thanks

Bill

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[Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Stuart Stevenson
Gentlemen,
  I have a manual CMM with scales. The display box is very old and almost
functional. I would like to replace it with EMC2. Simple enough except for
the scale feedback. The scale feedback is four sine waves at 0, 90, 180 and
270. These are, I think, approx 1 volt magnitude. What can I use to get this
into EMC2 in a usable fashion.
  The original display has an 'amplifier, check, divide' board.
  I don't know the resolution of the sine wave.
  I have an sn7404n chip and a couple germanium diodes hooked to a bread
board. I don't see anything out of the chip. I was expecting a pulse that
would allow me to determine the resolution. At this time I have exceeded my
electronics capabilities.
  Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves to
pulse or quadrature?
thanks
Stuart
-- 
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread John Prentice
Stuart

Apologies if this is stating the obvious, but the existing board almost 
certainly uses the amplitude of the Sin/Cos to interpolate the basic counts 
and so get a useful accuracy out of the scale. Heidenhain often have a 
ruling of 20 micrometres so with quadrature, discarding the analogue 
information, you only get 5 micron resolution.

John Prentice

- Original Message - 
From: Stuart Stevenson stus...@gmail.com
To: EMC2-Users-List Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 5:58 PM
Subject: [Emc-users] scale/encoder



 Gentlemen,
  I have a manual CMM with scales. The display box is very old and almost
 functional. I would like to replace it with EMC2. Simple enough except for
 the scale feedback. The scale feedback is four sine waves at 0, 90, 180 
 and
 270. These are, I think, approx 1 volt magnitude. What can I use to get 
 this
 into EMC2 in a usable fashion.
  The original display has an 'amplifier, check, divide' board.
  I don't know the resolution of the sine wave.
  I have an sn7404n chip and a couple germanium diodes hooked to a bread
 board. I don't see anything out of the chip. I was expecting a pulse that
 would allow me to determine the resolution. At this time I have exceeded 
 my
 electronics capabilities.
  Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves to
 pulse or quadrature?
 thanks
 Stuart
 -- 
 dos centavos
 --
 Nokia and ATT present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America 
 contest
 Create new apps  games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in  U.S. and Canada
 $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in 
 marketing
 Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store
 http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev
 ___
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 Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net
 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
 




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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Chris Radek
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 11:58:10AM -0500, Stuart Stevenson wrote:
 Gentlemen,
   I have a manual CMM with scales. The display box is very old and almost
 functional. I would like to replace it with EMC2. Simple enough except for
 the scale feedback. The scale feedback is four sine waves at 0, 90, 180 and
 270. These are, I think, approx 1 volt magnitude. What can I use to get this
 into EMC2 in a usable fashion.
   The original display has an 'amplifier, check, divide' board.
   I don't know the resolution of the sine wave.
   I have an sn7404n chip and a couple germanium diodes hooked to a bread
 board. I don't see anything out of the chip. I was expecting a pulse that
 would allow me to determine the resolution. At this time I have exceeded my
 electronics capabilities.
   Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves to
 pulse or quadrature?
 thanks
 Stuart

I have a glass scale that gives a weird analog sine wavey signal.  I
was able to find some conditioned quadrature inside the amplifier box,
and I ran that into a mesa card.  I think there were only two sines 90
degrees apart though, so the conditioning was probably simple zero
crossing detection perhaps with a bit of hysteresis.   With your four
signals maybe you just have the differential equivalent of mine?

I suggest a little more deciphering of the amplifier board and/or
poking with the scope.

I'll try to help in two weeks if you don't get it by then.

Chris

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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Andy Pugh
On 29 October 2010 17:58, Stuart Stevenson stus...@gmail.com wrote:

  Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves to
 pulse or quadrature?

I suspect that the Pico Resolver converter might work, which I think
is based on something like this
http://docs-europe.origin.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/0e38/0900766b80e382db.pdf

I think Mesa have a resolver converter too (or one on the cards).

You can probably do 3 axes with a single Arduino, too, have a look at:
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?ResolverToQuadratureConverter


-- 
atp

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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Stuart Stevenson
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 12:08 PM, Chris Radek ch...@timeguy.com wrote:


 I have a glass scale that gives a weird analog sine wavey signal.  I
 was able to find some conditioned quadrature inside the amplifier box,
 and I ran that into a mesa card.  I think there were only two sines 90
 degrees apart though, so the conditioning was probably simple zero
 crossing detection perhaps with a bit of hysteresis.   With your four
 signals maybe you just have the differential equivalent of mine?

 I suggest a little more deciphering of the amplifier board and/or
 poking with the scope.

 I'll try to help in two weeks if you don't get it by then.

 Chris

   I am attempting to get rid of the amplifier box as it is old. I have
already replaced the caps in the power supply and this made it better. When
the EMC group was here a couple years ago we got it adjusted and running. I
have been chasing the adjustments to keep it from faulting. I adjust it and
two day or two weeks later it is unusable because of a fault condition.
  I am working on this at this time because I know help will be here
shortly. I just need to get fully prepared. :)
thanks
Stuart



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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Stuart Stevenson
John,
  For some the obvious is obvious. For me the obvious is not necessarily
obvious. :)
  At this time I was only trying to find the resolution of one of the sine
waves to see what I had to work with.
  thanks
Stuart

On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 12:05 PM, John Prentice 
j...@castlewd.freeserve.co.uk wrote:

 Stuart

 Apologies if this is stating the obvious, but the existing board almost
 certainly uses the amplitude of the Sin/Cos to interpolate the basic counts
 and so get a useful accuracy out of the scale. Heidenhain often have a
 ruling of 20 micrometres so with quadrature, discarding the analogue
 information, you only get 5 micron resolution.

 John Prentice

 - Original Message -
 From: Stuart Stevenson stus...@gmail.com
 To: EMC2-Users-List Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net
 Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 5:58 PM
 Subject: [Emc-users] scale/encoder


 
  Gentlemen,
   I have a manual CMM with scales. The display box is very old and almost
  functional. I would like to replace it with EMC2. Simple enough except
 for
  the scale feedback. The scale feedback is four sine waves at 0, 90, 180
  and
  270. These are, I think, approx 1 volt magnitude. What can I use to get
  this
  into EMC2 in a usable fashion.
   The original display has an 'amplifier, check, divide' board.
   I don't know the resolution of the sine wave.
   I have an sn7404n chip and a couple germanium diodes hooked to a bread
  board. I don't see anything out of the chip. I was expecting a pulse that
  would allow me to determine the resolution. At this time I have exceeded
  my
  electronics capabilities.
   Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves
 to
  pulse or quadrature?
  thanks
  Stuart
  --
  dos centavos
 
 --
  Nokia and ATT present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America
  contest
  Create new apps  games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in  U.S. and
 Canada
  $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in
  marketing
  Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store
  http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev
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  https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
 





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 Create new apps  games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in  U.S. and Canada
 $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in
 marketing
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Stuart Stevenson
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 12:13 PM, Andy Pugh a...@andypugh.fsnet.co.ukwrote:

 On 29 October 2010 17:58, Stuart Stevenson stus...@gmail.com wrote:

   Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves
 to
  pulse or quadrature?

 I suspect that the Pico Resolver converter might work, which I think
 is based on something like this

 http://docs-europe.origin.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/0e38/0900766b80e382db.pdf

 I have some of the Pico resolver converter boards.
Jon E. - do you think they will work?



 I think Mesa have a resolver converter too (or one on the cards).

   I have a 5i23 - will it do this?

You can probably do 3 axes with a single Arduino, too, have a look at:
 http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?ResolverToQuadratureConverter


 thanks
Stuart


-- 
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Chris Radek
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 06:13:48PM +0100, Andy Pugh wrote:
 On 29 October 2010 17:58, Stuart Stevenson stus...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  ?Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves to
  pulse or quadrature?
 
 I suspect that the Pico Resolver converter might work

I'm pretty sure these scales are optical.  If it's the one I remember
fiddling with, it's got light bulbs.  I suspect the signals are just
unconditioned light level detection.

I'm not sure I know the right terminology to describe it, but they use
a second piece of glass with the same pitch (?) lines in front of the
master one.  The second glass is at a slight angle so as you watch the
light shining through it as you move the head, there is something like
a moire pattern (?) that makes large areas of light and dark move
perpendicular to the head's motion.  It is these lines that are
detected optically.  For this reason I doubt there is interpolation.
I bet the lines are the resolution of the device.  I think they were
too fine to see by naked eye. 

I bet very basic signal conditioning (thresholding) will be adequate
to read this at full resolution.

Chris

--
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Peter C. Wallace
On Fri, 29 Oct 2010, Stuart Stevenson wrote:

 Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:37:44 -0500
 From: Stuart Stevenson stus...@gmail.com
 Reply-To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)
 emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net
 To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net
 Subject: Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder
 
 On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 12:13 PM, Andy Pugh a...@andypugh.fsnet.co.ukwrote:

 On 29 October 2010 17:58, Stuart Stevenson stus...@gmail.com wrote:

  Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves
 to
 pulse or quadrature?

 I suspect that the Pico Resolver converter might work, which I think
 is based on something like this

 http://docs-europe.origin.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/0e38/0900766b80e382db.pdf

 I have some of the Pico resolver converter boards.
 Jon E. - do you think they will work?



 I think Mesa have a resolver converter too (or one on the cards).

   I have a 5i23 - will it do this?

The 5I23 can work with the resolver interface card (7I49) but this would need 
firmware modifications for DC exitation like your scale uses (sine and cosine 
signals with no carrier)

But as Chris says if interpolation is not needed, a simple comparator would do 
to convert the signals to TTL quadrature. Can you slowly move .010 or so and 
count the peaks? if the resolution or your display is more than 4X the number 
of peaks from one signal then interpolation is needed.


 You can probably do 3 axes with a single Arduino, too, have a look at:
 http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?ResolverToQuadratureConverter


 thanks
 Stuart


 -- 
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 --
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 Create new apps  games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in  U.S. and Canada
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Peter Wallace
Mesa Electronics

(\__/)
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your
()_() signature to help him gain world domination.


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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Stuart Stevenson
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 1:22 PM, Chris Radek ch...@timeguy.com wrote:

 On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 06:13:48PM +0100, Andy Pugh wrote:
  On 29 October 2010 17:58, Stuart Stevenson stus...@gmail.com wrote:
 
   ?Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves
 to
   pulse or quadrature?
 
  I suspect that the Pico Resolver converter might work

 I'm pretty sure these scales are optical.  If it's the one I remember
 fiddling with, it's got light bulbs.  I suspect the signals are just
 unconditioned light level detection.

 I'm not sure I know the right terminology to describe it, but they use
 a second piece of glass with the same pitch (?) lines in front of the
 master one.  The second glass is at a slight angle so as you watch the
 light shining through it as you move the head, there is something like
 a moire pattern (?) that makes large areas of light and dark move
 perpendicular to the head's motion.  It is these lines that are
 detected optically.  For this reason I doubt there is interpolation.
 I bet the lines are the resolution of the device.  I think they were
 too fine to see by naked eye.

 I bet very basic signal conditioning (thresholding) will be adequate
 to read this at full resolution.

   Yes the scales are optical as you describe. I changed the bulbs and set
the gap and angle for the greatest signal strength. I have no idea of the
basic resolution. That is what I am trying to find out at this time.


 Chris


 --
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 Create new apps  games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in  U.S. and Canada
 $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in
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 Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Andy Pugh
On 29 October 2010 19:32, Peter C. Wallace p...@mesanet.com wrote:

 The 5I23 can work with the resolver interface card (7I49) but this would need
 firmware modifications for DC exitation like your scale uses (sine and cosine
 signals with no carrier)

At that point you could strip down my Arduino code to remove the PWM
generation, take off the no-longer required filter/amplifier and
simply keep the analogue sampling and arctan calculation.
Then it would simply measure 6 voltages (sin and cos for three
channels), calculate angle and output the results as quadrature
pulses. You could re-jig for 16-bit A to D too (I have it at 10 bits
for speed).

Even if Chris is right that there is no interpolation, at $20 an
Arduino is a very simple way to measure 6 analogue voltages, threshold
them, and pass it to digital.

-- 
atp

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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Chris Radek
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 02:54:19PM -0500, Stuart Stevenson wrote:

 Yes the scales are optical as you describe. I changed the bulbs and set
 the gap and angle for the greatest signal strength. I have no idea of the
 basic resolution. That is what I am trying to find out at this time.

Have you tried to count the fringes going by as you give it a little
shove while an indicator is against it?  Seems pretty possible.
Maybe a .001 move (tenths indicator)?

I bet you'll come up with 2500/inch or 6350/inch or some other nice
round number.

--
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Stuart Stevenson
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 3:49 PM, Chris Radek ch...@timeguy.com wrote:

 On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 02:54:19PM -0500, Stuart Stevenson wrote:

  Yes the scales are optical as you describe. I changed the bulbs and set
  the gap and angle for the greatest signal strength. I have no idea of the
  basic resolution. That is what I am trying to find out at this time.

 Have you tried to count the fringes going by as you give it a little
 shove while an indicator is against it?  Seems pretty possible.
 Maybe a .001 move (tenths indicator)?

I will check this before I go the Arduino route. I may be back there later
today to check this.
thanks
Stuart



 I bet you'll come up with 2500/inch or 6350/inch or some other nice
 round number.


 --
 Nokia and ATT present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America
 contest
 Create new apps  games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in  U.S. and Canada
 $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in
 marketing
 Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Stuart Stevenson
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 3:07 PM, Andy Pugh a...@andypugh.fsnet.co.ukwrote:

 On 29 October 2010 19:32, Peter C. Wallace p...@mesanet.com wrote:

  The 5I23 can work with the resolver interface card (7I49) but this would
 need
  firmware modifications for DC exitation like your scale uses (sine and
 cosine
  signals with no carrier)

 At that point you could strip down my Arduino code to remove the PWM
 generation, take off the no-longer required filter/amplifier and
 simply keep the analogue sampling and arctan calculation.
 Then it would simply measure 6 voltages (sin and cos for three
 channels), calculate angle and output the results as quadrature
 pulses. You could re-jig for 16-bit A to D too (I have it at 10 bits
 for speed).

 Even if Chris is right that there is no interpolation, at $20 an
 Arduino is a very simple way to measure 6 analogue voltages, threshold
 them, and pass it to digital.

 --
 atp


This sounds good - I will try it
thanks
Stuart

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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Kent A. Reed
Andy Pugh wrote:
 Even if Chris is right that there is no interpolation, at $20 an
 Arduino is a very simple way to measure 6 analogue voltages, threshold
 them, and pass it to digital.

For those of us who grew up in the middle of the last century, this is 
the most amazing fact about today's microcontrollers.

They are nearly always the most cost-effective solution to the problem 
at hand, even when the application seems too trivial to waste one on it. 
No matter your favorite microcontroller family, everyone should have a 
drawerful of different capability chips on hand.

Now that I'm over the hill, I think about the number of times in my life 
I implemented yet another purpose-built, multi-package, hybrid, 
analog-digital solution where a single microcontroller would do. I also 
think about how many more things I could have achieved had I not had to 
spend so much time getting each hybrid solution right. Sigh.

My vacuum tube-era engineer-dad once said to me, you whippersnappers 
will never know how good you have it.  I wonder what the technology 
will be like when you find yourselves saying it to those who follow you.

Regards,
Kent

--
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Kirk Wallace
On Fri, 2010-10-29 at 13:22 -0500, Chris Radek wrote:
... snip
 I'm not sure I know the right terminology to describe it, but they use
 a second piece of glass with the same pitch (?) lines in front of the
 master one.  The second glass is at a slight angle so as you watch the
 light shining through it as you move the head, there is something like
 a moire pattern (?) that makes large areas of light and dark move
 perpendicular to the head's motion.  It is these lines that are
 detected optically.  For this reason I doubt there is interpolation.
 I bet the lines are the resolution of the device.  I think they were
 too fine to see by naked eye. 
 
 I bet very basic signal conditioning (thresholding) will be adequate
 to read this at full resolution.
 
 Chris
... snip

Another possibility might be a vernier sensor. Over the span of four
in-line sensors, there is a mask with a pitch of the scale pitch -1.
This would present a dark region that would travel across the four
sensor area. Each sensor would have a peak every scale line to line
span/4 of movement. Another thought is that the designers might have
tried to allow for variable bulb brightness, so two sets of two sensors
are set up to have their peak and valley at the same location so the
difference could be used as the signal threshold. How many bulbs are
there?
-- 
Kirk Wallace
http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/
http://www.wallacecompany.com/E45/index.html
California, USA


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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Gene Heskett
On Friday, October 29, 2010 08:26:57 pm Kent A. Reed did opine:

 Andy Pugh wrote:
  Even if Chris is right that there is no interpolation, at $20 an
  Arduino is a very simple way to measure 6 analogue voltages, threshold
  them, and pass it to digital.
 
 For those of us who grew up in the middle of the last century, this is
 the most amazing fact about today's microcontrollers.
 
 They are nearly always the most cost-effective solution to the problem
 at hand, even when the application seems too trivial to waste one on it.
 No matter your favorite microcontroller family, everyone should have a
 drawerful of different capability chips on hand.
 
 Now that I'm over the hill, I think about the number of times in my life
 I implemented yet another purpose-built, multi-package, hybrid,
 analog-digital solution where a single microcontroller would do. I also
 think about how many more things I could have achieved had I not had to
 spend so much time getting each hybrid solution right. Sigh.
 
 My vacuum tube-era engineer-dad once said to me, you whippersnappers
 will never know how good you have it.  I wonder what the technology
 will be like when you find yourselves saying it to those who follow you.
 
 Regards,
 Kent
 
I would liked to have met your dad, Kent.  He sounds like an old warhorse 
I'd like to trade battle stories with.

For some things, it wasn't till we shut down the analog transmitter 18 
months ago that the last vacuum tube was allowed to cool down for good.  I 
saved a dud, non-rebuildable final tube from our old GE transmitter just so 
I could show it off to the younger set who will today, cheerfully use 8192 
transistors in parallel to do what this tube did when it was fresh.  A 
water cooled anode that required deionized water in the coolant system 
because the tubes anode had 7200 volts on it.  This tube was rated to make 
85 kilowatts (sync tip peak) of power in the low vhf band, but our 
transmitter let it relax with its feet up on the coffee table because we 
only needed 26.7 sync tip peak to make our power.

Most 'engineers' don't know how to baby those big tubes  use one up every 
6 months at $7000 a rebuild.  In the time since I became the CE at WDTV in 
1984, I only used 3 of them.  That was a significant reduction in the 
stations C.O.D.B.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order.
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
This PORCUPINE knows his ZIPCODE ... And he has VISA!!

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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Gary P. Fiber

-- 
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GROL PG-19-6691 with shipboard radar endorsement
Washington State resident


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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Jon Elson
Chris Radek wrote:
   With your four
 signals maybe you just have the differential equivalent of mine?
   
Yes, and one of the advantages of that is it gives a clear indication if 
the light bulb fails.
All 4 signals go the same way and you lose the differential nature of 
the signals.
(I will bet it DOES have an actual bulb, or was made just after the 
first LEDs came out,
they used this in Allen-Bradley and other CNC controls as a fail-safe 
scheme.)

Jon

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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Jon Elson
Andy Pugh wrote:
 On 29 October 2010 17:58, Stuart Stevenson stus...@gmail.com wrote:

   
  Is there a chip or reasonable board I can use to change the sine waves to
 pulse or quadrature?
 

 I suspect that the Pico Resolver converter might work, which I think
 is based on something like this
 http://docs-europe.origin.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/0e38/0900766b80e382db.pdf
   
No, unfortunately, these boards drive a rotary transformer-type device 
with an AC signal,
and detect the resulting AC output, both amplitude and phase.  It won't 
work with the
photocell output of a glass scale.

Jon

--
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Re: [Emc-users] scale/encoder

2010-10-29 Thread Jon Elson
Gene Heskett wrote:
   A 
 water cooled anode that required deionized water in the coolant system 
 because the tubes anode had 7200 volts on it.  This tube was rated to make 
 85 kilowatts (sync tip peak) of power in the low vhf band, but our 
 transmitter let it relax with its feet up on the coffee table because we 
 only needed 26.7 sync tip peak to make our power.
   
Up at Michigan State University's National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab 
they
have two cyclotrons.  Each has 3 transmitting tubes, as they have 6 
Dees, 3 grounded
and 3 live, with 120 degree phase relationship.  Kind of like 3 phase 
mains power only
at 14 MHz or something.  The main DC supply is 18 KV at 42 amps.  That 
is 756 KW
of DC power!  I know the smaller cyclotron has smaller transmitting 
tubes in it,
but that averages out to 126 KW per tube!  They really aren't very big, 
either.
(Just to be clear, the 42 A is not the rating, it is the ACTUAL load as 
read off the
meters.)  Almost all of this power is turned into RF heating of the 
inside of the cyclotrons.

Jon


--
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