Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.
Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.
I am building a bale stroke counter for a farmer. It has a wire running from the cab to the magnetic switches on the baler. I am using PortB with pull-ups on a 16F872. Would it be a good idea to put in a optical isolator between the switch and the Pic???
If you're running long wires about, it's probably always a good idea. However, presumably the baler uses a diesel engine , and it isn't as noisy an enviroment as using a petrol engine.
I would tend to try it and see what happens, using screened leads will help reduce any potential problems as well. Although using opto-isolators won't do any harm, and if you were designing a PCB for the circuit, you may as well include it on the board - then it's always available if needed.
Magnetic switches? Are these sensors powered like those inductive proximity switches? In which case, they usually output a signal from 0Volt to 12V-24V. Unless they are the open-collector type without any other load, you may have to use optoisolators to bring the signal down to 0V-5V levels.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.