shaft sychronizer circuit

[RAy smith]

i need a circuit to synchronize two shafts, one shaft is the lead the other to follow. error out put to be a voltage 0 - 10vdc. would appreciate any help with this. ray

 

[crutschow]

What is driving the shafts?

 

[RAy smith]

shaft synchronizer info

the shafts are diesel driven at between 100 and 1500 depending on the size (1000 to 5000 hp) ea. magnetic pickups are typical with a magnet ring in the shafts. sync error should be within 2 or three rpm or better. thanks for yoru reply, it's much appreciated.

ps i thought a pic micro controller would be ideal but i don't have the knowledge to program them.....ray smith.

 

[crutschow]

You could use two binary counters, each counting the frequency of the shaft pulses from the engines. Subtracting the two counts, will give the difference in speed between the two engines. You can use a D/A converter if you want the value as a voltage.

Certainly a micro would be an easy way to do that, but it can also be done with discrete parts. You could also use the micro to control the speed of the engines if desired with the micro providing compensation to stabilize the control loop

 

[RAy smith]

shaft synchronizer

that sounds good thanks for the input,i will pursue the discrete method. much thanks....ray

 

[crutschow]

Additional thought: If the pulses from the engine are low frequency (like one per revolution at 100 RPM) then it might be better to measure period rather then frequency to get better resolution. This can be done by using the pulses to start and stop a counter that is counting a fixed clock frequency. The total count is then proportional to the pulse period and inversely proportional to engine speed.

 

[RAy smith]

shaft synchronizer

thanks again.........ray