The sensing resistor is perhaps the single critical component in the levitator. If the
value is a bit too high, the coil is always on. If too low the coil stays off.
How do you get just the right value?
Measurements and Adjustments
Read this
for help on arriving at the best value for the sensing resistor.
This graph shows the relation between opto signal (red)
and the opto reference (blue). Note that your own voltages
will vary from mine.
Does the difference amp's output (pin 6) go mildly positive, but not nearly to +15 volts?
What can happen is that with an object there, the two voltages are practically equal. Here
are a few example voltages to see what happens...
if they're exactly equal then the comparator puts out zero volts, and the coil stays
off.
if the reference is 0.01v LOWER than the signal, then the comparator subtracts the signal
from the reference and multiplies by 8, and puts out a negative voltage. This turns off
the coil.
if the reference is 0.01v higher than the signal, then the comparator subtracts the signal
from the reference and multiplies by 8, and puts out 0.08 volts. Not enough to turn on
the coil much at all. The goal is to have the reference voltage be halfway between the
two signal voltages: in your case it should be 12.0 volts.
Does your levitator work one day, and fail utterly the next? What can happen
is one of the sensors shifted. This would move the operating point out of the working range.
Do you have the emitter and both detectors firmly secured in place? Either need to shift the
sensors slightly to achieve this, or secure them so they can't budge and adjust the 56K resistor
to get the right voltage.
The LED emitter should be adjusted so an equal amount of light falls on both detectors.
With an infrared LED you can only guess at this positioning, but if you used a red LED then
you can see what to do.
Measure the voltage on pin 6 of these two op-amps, and fill out this table:
Signal
Detector
(volts)
Reference
Detector
(volts)
Open
________
________
Blocked
________
________
The "open" measurements are taken with nothing under the lifting coil. The "blocked" values
are measured with something blocking the light beam, in a position just under the coil.
If they're already secured, then here's how to adjust the resistor. The goal is to
raise the voltage on the sensor by 0.5v. So the resistor needs to be slightly smaller. How
much?
- The voltage across the resistor is 15v - 11.5v which is 3.5v.
- We want to make that 0.5v less, or change this to 3.0v.
- Using ratios the new resistance is calculated by R = 56k * (3.0v / 3.5v) = 48K So see if
you can come up with a 48K resistor instead of a 56K resistor for the reference detector circuit.
That's what will raise the voltage by 0.5v. Please note this will only work if both opto detectors
cannot shift around to screw things up again.
Is this too complicated? Insert a 20K potentiometer in series with the 56K resistor.
Twist until it works. You may need to swap it from the signal circuit to the reference circuit,
depending on your particular setup. But then again you can't tell if it will ever work without
taking the measurements.
If you can get the right value here, then you are well on the way to success! The remaining
parts are less critical.