Hi,
Thanks for the replies on the other post.

I was wondering whether i could make somthing where when placed on an uneven surfuce would result in a set of LEDs out of a row lighting up, eg if the surface was sloped to the left then the LEDs on the left of the product would light up, so the user could adjust the surface accordingly, to make it even.

However when searching on the web i found similar products that either used electrolyte or accelerometers to sence the tilt. I was wondering whether there is anything simpler that i could use?(like a PIC, or a tube with a ball bearing in it so when the product is tilted the ball bearing will meet with the contacts on that side and cause the LED(s) on that corresponding side to light up.)

The end product does not have to be complex and the simpler the circuit the better. I would be grateful if anyone had any suggestions, schematics or websites that i could look at.

Thanks

 

Just my 2 cents: The main problem with using a tube with a ball bearing will be, that unless the tube is acurately curved into a "u" shape to match the inertia of the ball, the ball is going to roll completely to one end with slightest tilt applied. Therefore you can only indicate tilt in a direction, not the amount. Newtons first law of motion. Some sort of damping is required to achieve a linear measure of the amount of tilt, if that is what you need. If you just want to show tilt in one direction, you could use a mercury tilt switch, say fom a thermostat, a car hood light switch, or as you said, a ball in a tube that shorts a set of contacts at the end of the tube. Four such switches, mounted at 90 degree horizontal spacing, and mechanically calibrated to be open circuit when the device was level, would give an indication of what direction the device was out of level. This would be very coarse tho, and would require a certain amount of tilt before any display of tilt would register ( see Newtons first law again. ) This design would be OK for objects that are fairly stable, but steady motion would make the display look like a digital roulette wheel.

 

Neel,

I don’t know if this makes any sense to you, but the strips should be connected to the LEDs one for each. And the copper wire must be the “soft” type, my idea is the more it tilts the more strips the wire touches and more LEDs turns on. If you like it is possible to make this device two-dimensional. The wire can be connected to positive or negative depending on how you build the rest of the circuit.

Ante :roll:

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Very neat idea ante!

If I may, how about this for a 4 axis modification? Please exuse the poor drawing ops: Basically , concentric conductive rings, arranged in a funnel shape, that are cut into 4 quadrants.

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Zevon,

Yes, that’s about what I meant when I say two-dimensional. Only the split rings should overlap a little to give a reading in any direction. There is a lot more to do with this depending on how sensitive it is allowed to be or must be. An example is that the weight can be lowered in an oil filled container to absorb sudden moves. But then we have to know more about the application.

Ante :roll:

 

[quote]Yes, that’s about what I meant when I say two-dimensional. Only the split rings should overlap a little to give a reading in any direction. There is a lot more to do with this depending on how sensitive it is allowed to be or must be. An example is that the weight can be lowered in an oil filled container to absorb sudden moves. But then we have to know more about the application.

I believe alchol is used in levels, as oil has a tendency to thicken with low temp and hinder the movement.

__________________
gerty

 

Alcohol will evaporate if it’s not in a sealed system and kept cool but syntactical oil has a stable viscosity over a wide temperature range.

Ante :roll: