Picture three or four small engines occupying the same loop of track and keeping a safe distance as they go round and round. I am sure that many of us have tried this with radio controlled engines but it can be a constant battle to keep them apart especially if you have many grades to contend with. Now picture the same group of engines automatical
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ly keeping their distance from one another, some slowing down as they approach a faster moving train, some speeding up as they are approached from the rear. Combining the pulsed infrared sensor system that was discussed in part III of my series on garden railway sensors ( ) and a simple microprocessor makes this a reality. You may recall that pulsed infrared sensors react to a beam of infrared light that is pulsed at 38 kHz. The applications in the article mentioned above were all trackside but there is no reason that the sensor and infrared emitter can`t be installed on a moving engine. An interesting and entertaining application of the circuit described above is to place the reflective IR system on the front of a small, fast moving engine that is running on a track behind another, slower moving engine. With this arrangement is it easy for the trailing engine to determine when it approaches the first train and slow its motor to avoid a collision and to maintain a somewhat constant distance. A similar technology, called adaptive cruise control, is currently being offered by several auto manufacturers including Ford an GM ( ). It is a modification to cruise control that is designed to keep an automobile a constant distance behind another car. A recent article by Ralph Walker (Eggliner Collision-Avoidance System ) dealt with this idea using a commercial IR sensor. Although the system worked there were a number of problems...
This project fits more for custom made battery casing that can have more space to hide things inside. This switch with few alterations can be used for any other project as well but is designed based on e-bike needs! This project use a clever functionality of....
The circuit described here uses ultrasonic oscillations and operates based on the propagation velocity of these oscillations in the air. Thus, we can easily determine the distance of two points if the time within which the wave travels this distance is....
Sometimes the precious metals are hidden too deep and are not detected except with complicated devices. In many cases, however, small pieces of precious metal buried near the surface can be detected by relatively simple means. Everyone is very attractive to....
Many times for various reasons we forget or can not water the plants that we have in our homes. And many humidity sensors units just notify us with a beeping sound or with a flashing light, that the pot needs watering. But what if we are away from home? This....
The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
The sub-harmonic bass generator is a sound producing unit for guitars. The sound it produces looks very much like that of the bass guitar. The octave generator is sometimes quite unusual since it does not produce any of the usual ways of coloring the sound,....
In the past the sounding (sea bottom measurement) was done with the "bullet", that is, with a heavy lead object that the seamen plucked into the sea hung from a calibrated rope. As soon as the "bullet" reached the bottom, the depth appeared directly from the....
This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
A series of LEDs serve to alert the gardener when plants need water. Using two conventional digital integrated LEDs and a series of LEDs, we make a very useful device for gardening. The device detects the amount of water in the pot and alerts the grower.....
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