Pickup Winder

[slausonm]

Hello All

I posted a draft video of the pickup and pickup winder I built for the e-mando project we are doing. I'm still figuring things out, but I thought some of you may like to see what is going on so far. The frame of the winder is made out of 1/8" Baltic birch plywood (Memphis lumber Memphis NY). The electronics came from a variety of sources including Sparkfun, Adafruit, Allelectronics and E-bay. The pickup pieces came from Stew_Mac and Ebay. Programming was borrowed from a variety of sources and modified to my needs. It takes about 15 minutes to wind 8000 turns.

I am a novice Arduino programmer. I'm sure there are more elegant ways to do the program but it seems to work. If you are interested in drawings, wiring and programming let me know. Version 8 or 9 is in the works...I lost count.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEfUF...ature=youtu.be

[thistle3585]

My next purchase is an Arduino starter kit. I've been using controllers from Applied Motion on some machines that I have built for work but I think an Arduino would give me more options. I just bought Jason Lollars new. revised version of his book on winding pickups. It had been out of print for years but is a great resource. I'd love to have drawings and such.

Andrew

[slausonm]

After spending a bit of cash experimenting with the Arduino, and knowing a bit about wiring simple motor controllers from scratch, I think the easiest and most robust low power motor control solution for the winder was using the motor shield from Adafruit.com
As someone who finds it a chore to program from scratch, I've found the information on-line very helpful. I usually find a piece of code that does part of what I want, try to read it and understand it then add it to the mix. My current code is fully commented.

The current model of the winder has a cut out to place the LCD display in the front. I'd also like to add a reset button on the front and redo the programming and wiring to utilize a foot switch speed control to vary the speed. Some day I will revisit the idea of a 2nd axis to make it totally hands free. My first attempt didn't work too well.

I saw Jason's site, but his book was out of print. Did you purchase it directly from him?

I will be happy to send you all of my information on the winder.
Matt

[thistle3585]

He released a new book about a year ago because he was getting fed up with people selling photo copies of it at $500 a pop on ebay and claiming they were original. To buy it go HERE. His website is real hard to navigate. It looks like the price came down from $75 to $60.

For a foot pedal, try a sewing machine pedal. I tried pulling a motor out of a sewing machine to use but they're hard to get out. What type of motor did you use?

[MikeEdgerton]

Wow, thanks for that link. I've spent the day on a quest to compile information about winding pickups.

I love this guys winder. A man after my own heart.

[Soundfarmer Pete]

I love the idea of the sewing machine and the old ++++ calculator.......shame you can`t seem to find those calculators anymore.

[slausonm]

Andrew, The motor I used was part # DCM398 from www.Allellectronics.com I just ordered three more.

Pete, I tried the calculator hack route and was able to get the memory +1 method working with a roller rocker switch and with a magnetic reed switch but the problems started at higher speed. The calculator I used would not detect the change at high speed. It would have been a painfully slow wind if I had used the calculator I hacked. I ran my program on the arduino using the serial out display to the computer and to the LCD display and was coming up with consistent numbers at high and low speed.

Mike, lots of sewing machine and cordless drill winders out there. Some pretty cool low tech devices. I was shooting for something a bit more custom and portable than a sewing machine.

FYI Costs: 1/8" baltic birch plywood $5 Arduino $20-35 depending on where you buy, motor controller $9-20 depending on where you buy, motor $5, wire $2 switch $1 misc $5.

Matt

[Mo Soar]

This is ours:


http://www.thunderbuckerranch.com/

DC motor, the belt out of a bread machine, skateboard bearings, fishing reel parts for a traverse and a rev counter made of opto electronic parts out of an inkjet printer. That is the Mark 1 and he's made a couple of changes since then and it's working working very well.



For more info on winders and pickups in general, this site is invaluable:

http://music-electronics-forum.com/f11/
The Pickup Makers forum on the Music Electronics site.

[slausonm]

Mo Soar,
Thanks for the link. I joined the forum. Your picture is not clear enough for me to see how you used the fishing reel parts for traverse. I gave up on automating the traverse for now until I have more time to figure it all out. I tried a hobby servo but that didn't work well. I think the next version will use either a stepper motor or slow speed gear motor to operate a crank type mechanism. For now traverse by hand will have to do. The rest of the project is keeping me plenty busy.

[Mo Soar]

The most common method for automated traverse is a oscillating fan motor driving a cam and push rod. Since that speed is fixed, you fiddle with the speed of the winding motor until you get the right number of turns per traverse that you want.

The fishing reel design is still hand-operated - you have to turn the lever to traverse as you wind and it takes some experience get a smooth, non-lumpy wind. It takes about 10 minutes of winding and about 10 minutes of fiddling (set up, tension test, tape wrap, electric testing, etc) per bobbin. If we ever got big enough to make 100s of pickups a month, it'd probably be worth it to upgrade, but for now we have a stable, understood, simple system that works.