At 01:57 AM 11/11/97 -0400, Alberto Smulders wrote:
>Hi Rick !!!
>
>Another very interested person here, looking for a cheap method to measure
>contents in grain and oil storage bins - should be a kind of ultrasonic
>rangefinder, maximum range around 10...12 meters, ruggedized for use in an
>industrial environment, some serial communication means for rather long
>distance (up to 1 km or so) if possible with unique address for
>interrogation, and.... (hmmm... am I asking too much ????)

Hmmmm... I suppose that, as a kit, it would be a simple matter to ruggedize the
 SSU by simply putting the circuit in a sturdy project box of some sort and
 epoxy potting it.  The transducers could be mounted on the end of a cable to
 allow easier positioning, with the "control" circuitry mounted nearby.

As far as the serial drive capability goes, I was planning on using TTL levels
 to make microcontroller interfacing easier.  However, Maxim and other companies
 make a number of chips for level conversion (the MAX232 springs to mind), so
 just about any sort of line drivers could be added without much trouble (RS232,
 RS485, etc.).

Since this is to be a kit, maybe allowing a "poll address" to be set by
 programming an EEPROM location would solve your addressability issue.

What sort of granularity would you need in the measurement?  In other words, how
 big of a "step size" is needed between readings?

 - Rick "So many details to mail down" Dickinson

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| Rick "The Notes Guy" Dickinson | Views expressed by the author|
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