Sensor to detect note

Technical Sensors
1

Hi

Any suggestions on how to detect note when it gets in the intake?

Thanks in advance

2

https://www.amazon.com/XiaoR-Geek-Avoidance-Adjustable-Photoelectric/dp/B078TZRGXF/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=9WPTYEDYMTTZZEPB7N8Y are easy to use.

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3

We and at least one other team in our area are using a Beam Break. Apparently others might have had a similar idea though becuase these are sold out now

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4

Beam break sensors are your friend (and ours in most years)

5

We are using these same sensors on our intake this year with great success. Easy to wire and implement in code. Seems like they are also available through Amazon in stock. I would highly suggest printing cases for them though.

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6

we have found success using a rev color sensor in proximity mode to detect notes. if on hand, itll work however a beam break or similar is probably better.

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Previous thread Favorite Beam Break Sensors - #5 by Chris_Elston

[edit:] we use QS18VN6LV Banner Engineering Corporation | Sensors, Transducers | DigiKey

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Those can work surprisingly well sometimes. Not related to an intake but we actually used it as a pseudo encoder/ pose estimator for an arm one season since we didnt have another alternative in shop. It actually worked although it looked a little weird with the arm sprocket having a partial color wheel on it.

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9

We switched to these from the adafruit IR sensors as you do not need a receiver. You can change the distance if you have some good solderers on your Team

10

I have to say, we do have TWO of these on the robot this year, and they work GREAT. We are using a reflector with them however. You can either use the reflective tape that was used to do GREEN LIGHT vision targeting or a polarized reflector. Either work just fine. You can place to the note right up against the face of the sensor, and it will not false trip either. It’s NPN, so you just connect the “white” wire of the sensor to a single PWM “S” post on your Rio DI port. The Brown and Blue wire on your sensor go to your 12 VDC+ fuse block.

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My team is using REV’s TOF sensors

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We are using a playing-with-fusion can TOF sensor and It has worked well but It was a pain to program and get right. Our only complaint was that you need to get a Canstar for it to work.
Can TOF

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Still available at Amazon:

14

We used a beambreak sensor to detect when the note enters the intake, and that’s what we used to stop the belt motors.

15

We are using these sensors from HiLetGo this year.

https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-E18-D80NK-Infrared-Photoelectric-Avoidance/dp/B07VKR1GBJ/

I’m a little concerned how they might perform in different lighting conditions (for example, outside) given that they are not a through beam sensor or TOF sensor, but they’ve been working well this year.

I would highly recommend them at this point in the season because they are extremely easy to wire (they can just be plugged into a Roborio DIO port, black is signal, blue is ground, brown is 5V) and adjustable without code by a screw on the back, and have a light than indicates whether the object is sensed or not. It took our programmers like an hour to figure out, having never used digital inputs before.

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16

You can’t see it in the product photo, but this unit has a sensitivity adjust potentiometer on the back of it – super helpful in getting it to work just as you want like that!

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Wow I wish I had known about these earlier in the season. Great suggestion.

I especially like this one: Pololu Distance Sensor with Pulse Width Output, 50cm Max. It’s cheap, variable distance, it’s relatively simple to read the distance (DutyCycle (WPILib API 2024.3.1)), and since it’s TOF rather than a simple infrared it should be a little more robust. But you should be able to configure the one linked to do the same by changing some jumpers (they are the same board).

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Did you have problems with cheaper sensors and did you go through any other sensors before going with the industrial one? Is the cost the limiting factor for you for putting more on the robot (because I feel like if we wanted 4 sensors on the robot, and they cost $90 a piece, it would give us pause)?

19

This is what we’re using as well. We initially tried proximity sensors, but the readings we were getting back were jumping all over the place and we go so many false positives, especially with all the cheeto dust and other particulate orbiting our intake rollers (you also seeing that? it’s wild). So we switched to these exact beam breaks and they work great.

We have two sets, one right after the initial intake rollers to we know when we get a note, and the intake auto-retracts. The other right before the shooter so we can be sure that the note is not touching it so we can rev it up to shoot, and then confirmation that we did in fact shoot it.

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Yes. We have used cheaper sensors in the past. These just work. And while $90 is not cheap, they last year after year.

We used 3 last year and that’s the most I recall, but yes, maybe buying 4 in a single year is more than a team can budget.

However, I look at it this way: (as a regionals team) it costs ~$500 for each qualification match. So one match ruined by a janky sensor costs a lot more.

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