This system helps ski carry operators connect chairs to the cable

Most ski lifts are fairly easy programs: they use massive ol’ motors to drag cables with chairs or hangers hooked up. Extra superior removable designs let the chairs come off the cable quickly whereas within the terminal, so skiers can hop on at a leisurely tempo. However fundamental fixed-grip chairlifts don’t have that functionality and skiers have to leap on whereas the chairs transfer at full velocity. To assist ski carry operators house these chairs correctly, Marc Antaya designed the Ski Raise Spacer 2000.

Antaya was working as a liftie at a neighborhood ski space and observed that it was tough to connect chairs to the ski carry cable at constant intervals that facilitate easy operation. So he constructed the Ski Raise Spacer 2000, which measures the cable velocity and distance traveled, calculates the spacing, and stops the carry on the proper instances to hold the chairs. It’s wired in collection with the carry’s present controls, so it may’t override their security measures. It merely gives a distant begin/cease perform, which it may carry out when desired for attaching chairs.

The system consists of an Arduino Nano Each board, lithium batteries, relays, an LCD display screen, and a management interface. That interface is vital, as a result of it lets lifties calculate the chair positions in a number of alternative ways based mostly on the info they’ve obtainable. For instance, they’ll begin with a sure variety of chairs and the cable size. In that case, the system will calculate the spacing between chairs. Or they’ll enter the cable size and desired spacing, wherein case the system will calculate the full variety of chairs required.

To do its job, the system must know precisely how a lot the cable strikes. To attain that, Antaya constructed a wheel turned by the cable. It has magnets, which the Arduino can use for rotational encoding due to Corridor impact sensors. That is all configurable within the system menu system, the place the liftie can set the wheel circumference/diameter and variety of magnets.

Antaya has already examined an earlier model of the Ski Raise Area 2000 at his native ski space. After updating it as proven within the video, it’s prepared for a second spherical of testing.