Been a bit cold to be in the shed all day so have retreated to a newly setup electronics nook in my old study.

I posted the Grimy details about setting it up in the WW forum: New-Old setup

E_setup.jpg

My son gave me a bunch of Arduino stuff and I have purchased a heap more
The items marked with red arrows are two CO/Flammable gas sensors I have made up.
details here CO gas sensor monitor

i have also assembled a particle counter to measure dust.
details here Developments in Dust Sensor tech - Page 2

But the real reason I'm posting is because I have nearly finished the software and mock up for automating the collection of data from my HP rig. Those that remember those posts might remember that I collect the data by simultaneously photographing the digital force meter (luggages scales) displays and the laser tacho display. Then I had to trawl back through heaps of photos to extract and plot the graph.

Hopeful this will be replaced by this.

Mockup.jpg

Its an arduino clone microcomputer (A) ($4) , an add on board with a real time clock and SD card storage ($8). Connected to it are a Tacho sensor (T, <$2) and a $2 accelerometer (A).
In the real deal, sensor "A" will be replaced by two force sensors (on order - $11 each). The most expensive thing might end up being the plastic box to hold the Arduino

In the mock up the Tacho measures the RPM of the fan and the Accelerometer just provides simulated Analog data for the program to work.

The output currently looks like this but I will do a bit more work on it and will get it to spit out an HP/RPM graph if I can.

Screen Shot 2017-07-11 at 6.21.25 PM.png

Lots of interesting (to me) issues regarding sampling rates and programming - haven't done any since I retired.
I've forgotten how much fun this is. My son is into this as well so as well as having lots of spare ribs and bobs, its something we can share.

I have lots of ideas for other projects.