Cyclone Dust Alarm circuit *w/sketch*

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Alan in Little Washington

Alan Schaffter
Corporate Member
I started a new thread so this wouldn't get lost in the original thread. As promised, below are two CAD (crayon alternative drawings :roll::roll::roll:) of my cyclone high dust electric eye circuit and a mod to improve cyclone dust drum operation.

As you can see, the "dusk to dawn" electric eye is incredibly simple to wire, and you can use whatever alarm method you choose. The sensor unit itself is a sealed unit. I used a low wattage bulb to save energy$$ since I leave it on, but any light will work for the supplemental illumination! Again, mounting the sensor and light in the duct as opposed to in the drum keeps them in the cyclonic air flow and prevents static dust from obscuring the light path until the dust fills the duct.

As far as the mod to the dust drum, even without the electric eye high dust circuit, this modification should lessen the mess that results when you try to empty a totally full dust drum. In operation, as dust fills the drum and eventually reaches the bottom of the extended inlet, additional dust will fill the duct only, rather than the remaining space at the top of the dust drum. If you don't have an alarm, you'll have to watch the hose above the drum. When you notice dust filling the hose you will still have plenty of excess space in the drum to drain the dust out of the hose. You can decide how much space you want to leave in the drum by adjusting the length of the duct extension. If I had a solid dust drum I would make this mod regardless of whether I had a high dust alarm.

FYI, today I cleaned my filters and used the DC. I had one false shut down when I used the DC as a vacuum to pickup a VERY LARGE pile of dust that I had cleaned out of one of the filters. I did an immediate restart and it worked flawless from that point on. The shutdown could also have been caused by a power interruption- the joys of hometown electric.:lol::lol::lol:


HighDust-10.JPG
 

Alan in Little Washington

Alan Schaffter
Corporate Member
Yes, the sensor is on all the time the way it is wired now- just like the various LVC transformers in my saw, jointer, and DC.

There is no output on the red lead however until the sensor sees darkness.
 

chris99z71

New User
Chris
Might I be so bold as to recommend an LED for your light source? The benefits being less heat (a bad thing in a possible pile of saw dust), lower power consumption and longer life span.

Another idea...
What about verying the spacing between the light source and photodiode? Perhaps you could put them close enough together that only dust could get between them (full), but large chips can't fit?

It's a brilliantly simple concept, though! :icon_thum
 
T

toolferone

It is to simple not to try. Thanks Alan for posting the info. I wonder if a led is bright enough, maybe a fluorescent, they stay pretty cool. I hope to try this out soon.
 
J

jeff...

That is such a bright idea, a spark of genius. Well let's not hope for the spark part anyways.
 

Alan in Little Washington

Alan Schaffter
Corporate Member
Might I be so bold as to recommend an LED for your light source? The benefits being less heat (a bad thing in a possible pile of saw dust), lower power consumption and longer life span.

Another idea...
What about verying the spacing between the light source and photodiode? Perhaps you could put them close enough together that only dust could get between them (full), but large chips can't fit?
It's a brilliantly simple concept, though! :icon_thum

It is to simple not to try. Thanks Alan for posting the info. I wonder if a led is bright enough, maybe a fluorescent, they stay pretty cool. I hope to try this out soon.

My brother who is a EE in Silcone Valley suggested an LED. I think it would need to be a bright one, but I may look into that. The benefits of a low wattage incandescant are that they are cheap and easy to get. So far only one false shutdown, so no problem with chip size. For a narrow gap I would need to insert the sensor and light source into the cyclone/outlet. Right now it is simple and cheap with parts available everywhere. AND IT WORKS!!!!!!! Yippee :eusa_danc:eusa_danc:eusa_danc:eusa_danc:eusa_danc:eusa_danc
 
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