How to control 100 solenoids?!

Hardware_SortingRobotics

@joergs5 I don't really know much about neural networks so using tensorflow might be a bit of a stretch at this point I was planning on just taking a picture, doing spectral analysis on that whole picture, I can pass that matrix through an effective bandpass filter, then calculate the gradients at the points that didn't pass, then figure out the bad leaves' location. Use the speed of the conveyor with some trajectory analysis and then shoot them out of the sky.

Hardware_SortingRobotics

@bearer thanks! I am going to pick up a few of these to prototype and then maybe i'll see if I can get some cheap boards from china for the 100 solenoids:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/872-204-0004-01

I think I'm going to stick to daisy chaining the DRV8860's because I think I can get my head around that one. Still gotta figure out how to execute the SPI commands. Would you know any good guides using python?

dc42

@injoi9000 said in How to control 100 solenoids?!:

@bearer thanks! I am going to pick up a few of these to prototype and then maybe i'll see if I can get some cheap boards from china for the 100 solenoids:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/872-204-0004-01

Have you seen the price of those? It would be cheaper to design your own PCB and have the PCB made in China. There are several companies that offer low cost prototype PCB manufacture, e.g. Itead and Seed Studio.

JoergS5

@injoi9000 your workflow to analyze tea is good, and you can put the step neural network between between the step "calculate gradients" and the "figure out location". The neural network is a learning algorithm to differ good from bad: you take same thousand samples where you know the result, then let the neural network find the decision rules. Then you can let your computer decide good from bad. You can differ: tea from not_tea, good_tea from not_good_tea, small_tea(young) from big_tea_leaves.

Hardware_SortingRobotics

@dc42 So I got one of those overpriced DRV8860 EVM boards so I could learn how to control it over SPI and I think I have come to a bit of an impasse. I can easily control the solenoids over the GUI but then when I take the driver itself and try to control it with a SPI interface from my laptop I can't seem get it to follow my commands...this is the gui interface for the DRV8860 and the interface for the SPI Driver Controller:

I then hooked everything up with my SPIDriver and tried to send the correct hexcodes to trigger the appropriate outputs but for some reason my MISO and MOSI outputs are being interpreted completely wrong... Any idea on how to command this thing?

my setup:

Danal

@injoi9000 said in How to control 100 solenoids?!:

DRV8860 EVM

This board does NOT appear to be set up to allow any external SPI control. The USB connector leads to a USB to Serial chip that, in turn, feeds a Texas Instruments MCU that, in turn drives an interface to the DRV8860 chips themselves. NONE of that is SPI.

You'd have to drive this USB, or, tap into the RX and TX lines between the FTxxxx chip and the MCU and drive it at 3.3V TTL serial.

Hardware_SortingRobotics

s000o i have decided to make a board and it is going to take a few weeks to arrive from china...

In the mean time I want to try and use my duet to control about 15 solenoids. @dc42 Is it possible to use the motor plugs to turn actuate a solenoid???

dc42

@injoi9000 said in How to control 100 solenoids?!:

In the mean time I want to try and use my duet to control about 15 solenoids. @dc42 Is it possible to use the motor plugs to turn actuate a solenoid???

In principle yes, by connecting the solenoid to one phase output (the pin at one end of the motor connector and the pin next to it). You would have to use G1 commands to adjust the position, to get to full current in that phase (solenoid on) or no current (off). But RRF would keep warning you that the other phase is disconnected.

Hardware_SortingRobotics

@dc42 would it be possible to connect one wire to the heater power and another to a PWM ground? Or would that destroy the heater power? Are there any other options?

dc42

You can connect solenoids to fan outputs if the solenoid voltage and current are compatible (I.e. VIN voltage and 1.5A or less). Duet revisions 1.02 and later include flyback diodes on the fan outputs.

If you connect solenoids to heater outputs, you need to add external flyback diodes. Without them, you are likely to damage the heater MOSFETs.

arvest

@injoi9000 I know this thread is very old, but I'm trying to do something almost exactly similar (control 88 solenoids). I'm very curious, did you manage to make it all work?