Creating A Counting Device?

[sjaguar13]

If there was a pendulum swinging back and forth and hitting a metal object, is there a way to create a circuit that would count the swings? In the best, optimal condition, the pendulum would not have any metal on it or anything, but it would touch a metal object. The metal object is directly in the center of the swing back and forth. I can't come up with anything, so if the pendulum was modified to be metal and have a postive charge, the metal object having a negative charge, when they touch, it would complete a ciruit. I just don't know what would be needed to keep count.

 

[GraveYard_Killer]

how about IR and phototransistor?

 

[sjaguar13]

I am really not good at this electronics stuff. Can you elaborate a little more?

 

[GraveYard_Killer]

IR and phototransistor. point the IR to the photransistor with pull up on collector and emitter to ground, then every time the IR will be cut, the phototransistor will have a logic 1 to the collector.

 

[mstechca]

Lets assume your pendulum goes naturally. Eventually, the swings will get smaller and smaller until you see it sitting in one position.

Your best bet is to follow the above suggestion, and place the IR one half ball-width away from the center point of the swings. You will get the most counts this way.

 

[sjaguar13]

The pendulum doesn't swing naturally. It's pushed everytime. The goal is to figure out how many times it was pushed.

 

[Russlk]

I use this circuit to count turns on an inductor winding. SW2 is a microswitch count input, but an optical switch would be better in your case. SW1 is a reset push button.
OOPS! I see there is an error, pins 9 & 13 are not supposed to be shorted.