Pickup winder materials

[cenizasblancas]

Hi!! i was looking in the web and i found that i can wind pickups with a calculator, reed relay and a magnet. where can i found the reed relay and the magnet for building this?

Here is the video

How to Make a Simple Counter of a Calculator - YouTube

Regars

Juan Motta

[David King]

Juan,
Radio shack (aka RS) sells small magnets and reed switches. The reed switches are used for door sensors in home security systems so any place that installs alarms will sell them.

That calculator trick you will find very frustrating and slow to wind with. There are hundreds of discussions here about better functioning winders with real counters and sensors that use light or hall sensors which will be a much more reliable.

I would suggest that you simply time your winding process and calculate the turns per minute at the speed of your motor and set a kitchen timer for the minutes you should be winding. You will get more accurate results that way than with this stupid calculator design. Yes you can kill someone by serving them too much tea but it is a slow and inefficient way to die.

[cenizasblancas]

Ja, thanks for the advise i will trie it!!!

[captcoolaid]

A bike counter works great as well and they are like 15 bucks.

[SpareRibs]

Reed Switch

Hello,

I have the reed switch -calculator on my setup. Anyone who says it is trash, either heard it from someone else, or didn't spend enough time working with it. You will need a scientific calculator, and the type of reed switch that is enclosed in glass.(Not the cheap doorbell kind)! If the rest of the people on here can wind pickups so can you!!! Do not be discouraged by (You must have or you must have that)!Lollar started on a used sewing machine, it has progressed from there to CNC machines. If you read this forum for a while you will see a lot of (pocket protector, wooden slide rule) conversations.
Just keep reading the forum, It will come together slowly for you.

[cenizasblancas]

Again, thanks, i`v found in my city a guy that makes bobbins and he sell to my a machine for counting so i think maybe i`ll starts making pickups soon!!!

[jason lollar]

i dont use programmable machines- I still use all mechanically controlled machines and still use several like in my book. Someone did give me a tanac several years ago but I have only used it for doing some testing and comparing that sort of machine to other methods.
For all the effort to build a counter from a calculator I would just look on ebay for a swiss made electromechanical counter and use a micro switch. A micro switch will go through well over a million cycles before you need to buy another one at around $2. Might take a while to find a swiss made counter but they are really well made and usually go for $15 to $25

[David King]

I started with a micro switch with an eccentric cam on my sewing machine and it never kept accurate count, as soon as I got over 500 rpm it would start to bounce and then the numbers on the counter would jump up by tens.
The Fairchild qrd1114 optical sensor is available for free as a sample or you can buy one for $2 if you are honest. That's less that you'd spend on a good reed switch or micro switch and it's going to be more reliable with no moving parts.

[Bruce Johnson]

I'm with Jason. I have a basic rotary mechanical counter on my winder. It's simple, cheap, can run up to about 3000 rpm, uses no electricity, and always counts accurately. There's just about no way for it to get a false reading. A new one from McMasters is about $60, and you can find them on ebay for under $20. The mechanical installation is easy, either with direct drive or timing belt and pulleys. What's not to like?

I don't understand this fascination with building an electronic counter, unless you are building a CNC machine and actually need the pulse count. I don't see any real advantages, and there are lots of ways an electronic counter can fail or give you false readings.

An accurate, reliable turn count is probably the most important function of a winding machine.

[jonson]

Jason, Bruce +1 Oh I forgot + Leo and Seth as well.

[David Schwab]

Someone did give me a tanac several years ago but I have only used it for doing some testing and comparing that sort of machine to other methods.

Jeeze, I wish people would give me stuff like that!

[J M Fahey]

I wind transformers, which are more critical than pickups because 1 (one) extra turn, in two windings which get connected in parallel, is the same as a shorted turn.
I tried the reed relay, magnet and calculator approach and failed miserably, unless I went veeeeeeeeeeery slow, because their debouncing circuits expect a human finger pushing those buttons .... pretty slow.
As soon as I raised speed, it started missing pulses ... big way.
Then I bought an old German electromechanical counter, 60's vintage, with a 24 V coil.
Works like a charm and never misses a single turn, no matter what the speed.
Only problem, it only counts up, no matter what way the spindle is turning, so if I am slow brained and overwind a few turns, I must reset it to zero (pushing a little button) , and count "up" the extra turns which I´m actually winding "down".
No big deal, even for this old worn brain.

PS: Cenizasblancas/JuanMotta: if you ever come to Buenos Aires (swimming 50 Km will be good for your health ), I can take you to the pawnshop where they still have a couple left, for peanuts.

PS2: in an emergency, I coupled a cassette recorder turns counter to my winder spindle.
It saved my weekend.
Notes:
1) It´s not accurate down to "1" turn as I said before, so no parallel transformer windings with it, but it has an around 1% error which is very acceptable for regular work.
Besides, if it errs, it´s always towards the same side, so *ratios* are accurate.
2) the only problem is that for reasons unknown, it does not count "1 to 1" (crazy) but 100 actual turns showed 64 on its little display, so the conversion factor was 0.64 . (really 0.645)
No big deal either, I just pasted a small card with the most popular windings I used besides it and that was all.
3) something that was not important for me, but might be for you , is that they count to 999 and start again, you must keep track of that.
So, in a nutshell, it´s not *the* solution by a long way, but on a Saturday afternoon or a long weekend with no option to go shopping .... it sure beats counting "in my mind".
And remember that we, in any problem, " lo atamo' con alambre"

[cenizasblancas]

Ha ha thanks for helping my with held!!!

[J M Fahey]

Juan, ponelo también en Castellano porque ni yo entiendo tu Inglés
Abrazo.

[cenizasblancas]

Gracias, mil disculpas por el mal ingles, a veces contesto medio apurado porque no tengo muchos tiempo y me gusta seguir el hilo de la conversación.

Abrazo

Juan

Thanks, sorry about my english, sometimes i write very quikly because i no have time and i want to continue with the conversation.

Regards

Juan