“This is a dust collector monitor. Both the dust bin level and the filter are monitored. My earlier dust collector project only monitored the bin level.
The video demonstrates the dust collector monitor detecting the filter needing cleaning. The threshold was set low to force this to happen for the video. Normally on my dust collector the filter would be considered loaded after the duct pressure passes 3” of water or 7.5hPa.
A lot of dust collectors, like mine, have a magnehelic that measures the static air pressure in the duct. Youre expected to periodically check it, and when it goes above some value, stop the dust collector and clean the filter. If youre using a wide belt sander, the filter gets loaded much faster than if youre using the jointer. The value the magnehelic displays varies depending on what gates are open. This makes determining when the filter is loaded somewhat arbitrary. I generally clean the filter at 3 because I cant be bothered to check what the readings are for other gate combinations.
Thats one of the issues the monitor solves. In addition to acting like a magnehelic, it also knows which gates are open. When you clean the filter you train the monitor by running the collector, telling the monitor this is what clean looks like.” Most people would never run the collector with all of the gates closed or all of the gates open. There are a fixed number of gate combinations I generally use, and its based on what is attached to the duct branch. For example one of my branches serves both the jointer and the shaper. When I open the shaper gate I always close the jointer gate.
So, youve just cleaned the filter and started the collector. As part of the setup you open and close gates. Each time you setup a common gate combination you press a button on the monitor and mark this as clean. After that setup is done you run the collector till the filter is loaded. The monitor displays the static dust pressure, just like a magnehelic, so you need to monitor this (or your magnehelic) until you think the filter is loaded. When its loaded you leave the collector running and go through the same process you did to setup clean only now you do this for dirty. Once youre done youve completed the monitor setup.
But what happens if I run the collector with a gate combination that I havent saved? In that case the monitor will use the first combination thats closest to the current unregistered combination in terms of number of gates open.
For both clean and dirty you can set new thresholds at any time for any combination (although there is a limit of 32 gate combinations.) Obviously this should only be done when the filter is clean or dirty.
The other function the monitor performs is alerting when the dust bin is full. In addition to a flasher located above the monitor flashing when an event occurs, it will also break into the music on your FM or Bluetooth capable hearing protector headphones, with the message Dust Collector Full or Filter Needs Cleaning. Ill describe whats required to make this happen later on.
This ends the overview of the monitor.
I would normally share the bare board(s) on PCBWay but because Ive only used the monitor for a little over a week, Im going to hold off for a few months in case there are any kinks that need to be worked out.”