The laser gods were looking after me today!

What is oxymoronic is that I did do this proof of concept for when flow does stop but never did interface it with my lasers.

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I have had my wp coming from the chiller. It detects more than just flow.

However that input failed on the Ruida, so I moved it to the ‘door protect’ input. Seems to work OK there, halts the machine anyway.

I also have a flow meter. Which looks similar to @HalfNormal device. I 3d printed a mount and put it in the laser.

Had an Arduino initially reading/displaying the liters/min flow rate. I’m currently moving it over to the Pi 4 along with the other controls.


Cloudray has this switch that just wires up to the controller directly… Looks a tab more simple to implement than the method used by @HalfNormal

:smiley_cat:

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Hard to say if it’s a vane or pressure type. Does not look like it takes any power. Bottom line is to be diligent and hope you get lucky if there is a problem.

I don’t know how it works internally. I’ve seen a couple articles on this switch as a replacement. Cloudray is selling them with the ‘schematic’, so I’d guess it’s a vane type … ?

:smiley_cat:

I installed one of those “whirlygig” fish tank flow meters in my return line back to the chiller.

The one I got has a temp sensor in it and has a display:


Display is in the upper left:


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If you install a UV diode in that it will glow in the dark. :grin:

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No kidding, the one I have really glows. I was doing a garage scorpion inspection with a black light and man!!

Beevo

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Looks great… I have a flow meter hooked to an 328p to monitor flow rate only… the lasers safeties are controlled by the CW-5200 chiller…

:smile_cat:

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Definitely higher tech than my setup. I have the alarm output on the
chiller connected to the Smoothie controller.

Beevo

The only advantage to mine, is I know the current flow rate… for what it’s worth… I also know the anode voltage… :face_with_spiral_eyes:

Like yours, mine is dependent on the chiller raising the alarm via the Ruida for any kind of coolant issues…

:smile_cat:

Having a CNC milling machine crash badly when I was out of the room, I
am seldom out of eyesight from the laser, I do not fully trust it.

Beevo

Pretty much the same feeling I have now about autonomous vehicles… :face_with_spiral_eyes:

:smile_cat:

Good idea. You would not believe how many laser fires stories I’ve read which had “and I only stepped away from the laser for a moment to do X”.

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Autonomous vehicles without a driver can be stopped from what I read by
placing a traffic cone or something of similar size on the hood.
roflmao

We have gobs of those here and I live a few miles from the Waymo staging
lot. Not unusual to see a car traipsing up teh street with nobody in
it. I am still not used to that…

Beevo

I do not trust the laser to be away from it for mor than a minute. I
can get my wife to baby sit it if I have to hit teh ehad or something,
but it is never left running unattended.

Closest I came to a fire was when I grabbed a piece of acryllic and it
turned out to be Makrolon. (
MakrolonÂŽ | Polycarbonates | Covestro AG) Like lasing
gasoline.

Beevo

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I’ve experienced way more evidence that human drivers are worst than automomous drivers having nearly been hit while walking, while driving a GEM NEV and while driving a car or truck and the number of red light and stop sign runners is getting crazy. A full level 5 autonomous pilot would be far better in my book.

But I won’t drive my laser without a the driver being present.

“But I won’t drive my laser without a the driver being present.”

ROFLMAO

Beevo

Might want to ask Elaine… at least, posthumously…

That wasn’t even a hardware failure…

It’s a machine and it doesn’t have the redundancy of aircraft… we will see more deaths… it’s a growing technology…

I’m sure once the bugs are worked out of the system, it’s probably as safe as aircraft… look at all the aircraft we’ve lost due to automation… it takes time to figure this stuff out in the real world…

:smile_cat:

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Jack, you do know that they removed the AI from braking and avoidance control before she was struck and killed. So the AI was only providing lane changing and directions but did not have the control to stop the car or even slow it when she was recognized. The driver occupying the driver seat, who was supposed to handle this exact situation, was distracted and only looked up when the AI threw alarms and she reacted way too late so Elaine Herzberg was hit at speed.

So not a good example. There are other examples of where AIs failed and there always will be but humans suck more at driving these days because they no longer care and are more preoccupied with what someone is posting on Twitter. Thousands are killed daily by distracted drivers which AI would prevent most if not all of them. Again, we are not there yet but getting very close to level 5 autonomous capabilities.

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If you watched that video, the pedestrian came out of nowhere… even a regular driver wouldn’t have been able to do anything… We were promised a special type of vehicle and the creators/owners turned part of it’s brain off… no disclosure to anyone…

This isn’t the point and you seem to agree… it’s new technology and it has bugs. Might want to compare the number of these on the road compared to a normal car… meaning the statistical information is probably very biased.

I didn’t like fly by wire planes, which are the same things… Now that millions of passengers use them on a daily basis, most of the bugs are worked out… but they still have software failures, such as with the 737 Max…

I now fly with more confidence, since they all are that way… I have no doubt these vehicles will have a better safety record than humans… I also have no doubt that like aircraft, I will have no option other than walking in the future.


Until they have a large number of them out there without problems, just like aircraft, I’ll pass, if I have the option…

I am thankful for people like you. Your participation and confidence is how they figure out and correct the bugs … :wink:

:smile_cat:

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