What reed system do YOU use?

[Phil m]

Hi guys,

Well I'm tired of winding on the good ol' manual drill so I'm building myself a clone of the Schatten winder. I got myself a Red Lion CUB3 and I'd like to know what's the most popular reed mechanism out there.

What do you guys use??

I know Schatten uses an optical one and I've heard about a bunch of people using a magnetic reed. Tell me about yours guys and if you like whatever system your using or not.

[Joe Gwinn]

Hi guys,

Well I'm tired of winding on the good ol' manual drill so I'm building myself a clone of the Schatten winder. I got myself a Red Lion CUB3 and I'd like to know what's the most popular reed mechanism out there.

What do you guys use??

I know Schatten uses an optical one and I've heard about a bunch of people using a magnetic reed. Tell me about yours guys and if you like whatever system your using or not.

Whichever approach you choose, ensure that the switch is closed for about one half revolution, or counting will become unreliable at high speeds. This is because the CUB3 requires a minimum pulse width (and interpulse gap) of 5 milliseconds.

There are a lot of postings back on the old AMPGE forum, so some research is in order.

[Phil m]

Thanks for the reply Joe. I had a look at the search function on the classic forum and got that thread that deals exclusively about the CUB3 and it's reed switch.

I have to say though that I'm still confused. I don't 'get' what I'm supposed to do with the reed and the magnet to make sure it's closed for one half revolution. I just thought it was a matter of connecting the two wires of the reed to the two wires of the counter and that whatever open/close mechanism came internaly to the switch itself.

[Joe Gwinn]

Thanks for the reply Joe. I had a look at the search function on the classic forum and got that thread that deals exclusively about the CUB3 and it's reed switch.

I have to say though that I'm still confused. I don't 'get' what I'm supposed to do with the reed and the magnet to make sure it's closed for one half revolution. I just thought it was a matter of connecting the two wires of the reed to the two wires of the counter and that whatever open/close mechanism came internaly to the switch itself.

It's a matter of picking a strong enough magnet and getting the reed switch close enough...but not too close. Lots of help, right?

Just get a few reeds and magnets, and an ohmmeter set to beep on continuity, and play with them.

When you set up the winder with reed and magnet, rotate the bobbin by hand and see that the reed switch is closed for about one half revolution. Exactly how this is accomplished isn't important, the CUB3 cannot tell.

[Phil m]

Got it. Thanks very much for the extra info.

[Mystic]

I use a proximity switch. It costs more but it counts down to zero r.p.m. here's a picture of it. I mounted it using an eye bolt.

[Phil m]

I use a proximity switch. It costs more but it counts down to zero r.p.m. here's a picture of it. I mounted it using an eye bolt.

It looks good. I had a look at my supplier and it is indeed a bit more expensive. I guess the bit of metal on the plastic wheel is the trigger mechanism for the switch?

What do you mean by "it counts down to 0 rpm's"?

[Mystic]

It looks good. I had a look at my supplier and it is indeed a bit more expensive. I guess the bit of metal on the plastic wheel is the trigger mechanism for the switch?

What do you mean by "it counts down to 0 rpm's"?

The metel is just a piece of aluminium foil taped to the face plate. I've read that other switches sometimes don't count at very slow speeeds and I wanted something durable. I think that thing was $60 if I remember correctly (ouch!) I work in a factory (day job) and prox wwitches are used on almost all of the machines there, and they never break.

[ken]

You can get prox switches in electronic surplus stores relatively cheap. I'm thinking about getting one myself for my winder too, since I had some trouble with an optical counter.

Ken