Vacuum loss auto shut down

[donek]

That is definitely a more affordable option. I will see if I can make it happen.

I started looking through your youtube channel again last night. I really like your press temperature controller. Very slick. We've started batting ideas for something similar. I really like the enclosure that lays flat. Much better than jamming it all in the grey box that is too small. We need to sort something out better than our current temp controllers if we are going to start curing prepregs in house. Our current move is to use an autoclave at another company down street.

I am also super jealous of your edge bender. We are chasing the custom ski dream as well and have dreams of making something like your bender.

The bender is available for sale, at least the mechanical portion. We are currently developing a cam package for it. You are welcome to contact me for details. The programming for that controller is pretty extensive. We have considered offering it as a completed until. We can discuss that as well. Having a full time programmer on staff certainly helps in putting this sort of thing together.

[knight_toolworks]

see you could have the pressure switch activate a solenoid that drops something on your keyboard right over the enter key. see rube goldberg all the way.

[RossMosh]

This is what I'd do. There are some blanks you need to fill in that I can't help you with but I'm sure someone else could as it's pretty simple stuff.

Go buy get a MAP sensor. You can get one off a lot of cars if not, Motorolla make a bunch of them for less than $20. They are very simple. You feed them 5VDC constant and then it outputs a 0-5V signal which corresponds to a pressure. You can either use the formula from the provided PDF or simply use a multi-meter to get a real life reading. Now is the part I can't help with, but I can outline what you need. The first is to get a project board and using off the shelf components setup a pretty basic setup so that when your voltage goes higher than X, it trips a 5V signal which goes to your board, which automatically stops your program. The second is to buy some sort of Arduino board. Same principal. Feed the 0-5V signal in. Program so that if the voltage goes higher than X, a 5V signal goes to your board.

[BrandanS]

MooreBro,

You can buy pressure switches with windowed limits which even have a nice hysteresis feature and response rate adjustment. Set your limits, and wire to an input or E-stop.

Omron sells a version, although perhaps you can get a cheaper one if you look around. The dynamic hysteresis, you can prevent false positives from vacuum fluctuation if necessary.

https://www.ia.omron.com/products/family/506/

http://www.smcusa.com/top-navigation...els.aspx/39459



Have a look at cost vs. requirement.

Good Luck.

**Edit: Just found a price for the SMC version @ $84 USD online from the supplier themselves. These switches may be interesting, even if you're not using them for their switching action at times, but in fact for the actual Readout for your vacuum efficiency .

[Joe Porter]

How about ball check valves such as these http://www.m-powertools.com/products...all-valves.htm or http://www.vacmotion.com/Vacuum%20Components.htm or this http://www.vuototecnica.us/solutions8.php they seem to be pretty specific for holding and not loosing vacuum if the material shifts...joe

[MooreBroCo]

How about ball check valves such as these http://www.m-powertools.com/products...all-valves.htm or http://www.vacmotion.com/Vacuum%20Components.htm or this http://www.vuototecnica.us/solutions8.php they seem to be pretty specific for holding and not loosing vacuum if the material shifts...joe

Those ball valves look pretty cool. I'm not sure if they would work in our current setup as we have around 200 parts in a 4'x3' sheet but they might be really good in the right situation. Thanks for the find.