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Optical Distance Measurement - 10mm to 250mm

DeeJay
Intellectual 840 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: OPT101

Hi,

We have an application that requires optical distance measurement in the range of 10mm to 250mm.

Any suggestion where I should start looking for design ideas and ref designs if available?

Thanks in advance.

regards,

Deejay

  • 0
    TI__Genius 14825 points
    We don't have a part that does exactly that, but there are some options depending on the application environment.

    Can you tell me more about what kind of objects you'll be trying to see, and what kind of lighting will be present, and how shiny/matte the surface is, and how quickly it changes?

    What kind of accuracy are you looking for?
  • 0 in reply to Jason Bridgmon
    Intellectual 840 points
    Hi Jason,

    Thank you for your quick response.
    Basically, this is for our customer and they want to measure coin levels in the coin dispenser hopper. The accuracy would be somewhat around the thickness of a coin. Hope this helps.

    Rgds,
    Deejay
  • 0 in reply to DeeJay
    TI__Genius 14825 points
    I hate to sound negative but I don't believe we have anything in our portfolio that can give you submillimeter accuracy in a single device. My best suggestion for th is is to use something like the OPT101 in combination with a light emitter and measure the intensity of the reflection, but so many factors are out of control- cleanliness of the coin (changes how much light is absorbed/reflected), which side is up (changes scatter pattern), center alignment (dimes can slide around the face of a quarter), material (copper, nickel, etc). I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm saying it would be pretty difficult for me to create a system to do this, but I'm not a coin sorter designer, so maybe these problems are solved already. I can see this working in conjunction with a camera, or maybe multiple colors of light sources cycling to help identify the color of the material, or maybe a two phase flow where one checks the reflectiveness at a fixed distance and then the other checks the height.

    If they just want to know if a coin is there, this is an easier problem. I realize I'm making assumptions about the application that could be wrong, so if this seems like an avenue to pursue, let me know and we'll see what we can do.