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  • Author Author: sasquatch84
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I've got a problem to solve!

sasquatch84

I believe it was John Adams that once said, "every problem is an opportunity in disguise."  This, as it turns out, is great advice for those wanting to come up with a new Arduino project.  When I first started to look for project ideas, I was just trying to make use of what I have and create something that looked cool.  But now that I am looking for problems to solve, well, the possibilities are endless!  Take my job for starters.  I am a logger.  If there is one industry that has completely lacked technological advancement for the last 50 years* and deals with some of the greatest problems any of us will ever face on a daily basis, it's the logging industry.  Cable logging to be more precise. 

The first problem I would like to solve is one of safety:

A grapple yarder (if you're already lost watch https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiKlZWB-pHWAhVH1WMKHahkDIkQtwIIL… ) is held in place by cables called "guylines".  These guylines are most often anchored on stumps that are called "tailholds".  A grapple yarder puts these stumps under major stress and sometimes the stumps are pulled right out of the ground.  This is never supposed to happen, because it can cause major damage to machinery as well as death.  But it happens.

So my solution would be to have a unit that is placed on the tailhold that alerts the grapple yarder operator if the stump is starting to move. 

My idea:

So I think I might be stepping a little too far out of my range of expertise, but I would like to try to use an accelerometer on the stump connected to an Arduino.  then the Arduino puts out an rf signal to another Arduino in the grapple yarder.  This second Arduino will then display on an LCD display or a row of LEDs how much the stump is moving.  I have never used the rf module although I have one.  Also, never even tried my accelerometer.

Any suggestions?

 

*In the last 5 years there has FINALLY been a slow trend of new technology in the bush, but by and large, we are still stuck in the 1960's.  Seriously.

Parents

  • Hi Clinton,

    If the stump is pulled out slowly the acceleration may be too low to sense. Also once the stump is moving it would have no acceleration. Finally if a root snaps the acceleration would certainly be detectable but it would be too late. How about securing your module on a stump and have a reel of string around a 10 turn pot. Tie the string off to another tree or just anchor it to the ground with a stake. If the tree starts to move it will pull string off the reel which will rotate the potentiometer. The Arduino can read the change in resistance and convert it to centimeters. Have this data transmitted back to the grapple yarder so that the movement can be assessed.

    John

Comment

  • Hi Clinton,

    If the stump is pulled out slowly the acceleration may be too low to sense. Also once the stump is moving it would have no acceleration. Finally if a root snaps the acceleration would certainly be detectable but it would be too late. How about securing your module on a stump and have a reel of string around a 10 turn pot. Tie the string off to another tree or just anchor it to the ground with a stake. If the tree starts to move it will pull string off the reel which will rotate the potentiometer. The Arduino can read the change in resistance and convert it to centimeters. Have this data transmitted back to the grapple yarder so that the movement can be assessed.

    John

Children
  • in reply to jw0752

    I'll second Johns suggestion except I would say rather than a pot, maybe use a rotary encoder that way it doesn't limit the amount of movement that can be detected to just 10 turns of the pot and you can come up with a mechanism that can detect an arbitrarily length of string/cable movement.

     

    Best Regards,


    Rachael