Published August 22, 2018 © GPL3+

Laziest Way to Pass Salt

I wanted to create a way to pass salt in the laziest way imaginable using the Infineon TLE493D 3D Magnetic Sensor 2GO.

BeginnerFull instructions provided2 hours1,187

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Infineon 3D Magnetic Sensor 2Go

SparkFun Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 5V/16MHz

SparkFun Motor Driver - Dual TB6612FNG (1A)

Resistor 10k ohm

Breadboard (generic)

SparkFun Stepper Motor - 125 oz.in

Male Header 40 Position 1 Row (0.1")

Wooden Square Dowels

Duct Tape

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Infineon Software for 3D Magnetic Sensor 2Go

Infineon J-Link Software

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Soldering iron (generic)

Story

The age old problem has finally been solved! Following these steps, you too can create the system to finally pass the salt with just a turn of a magnetic dial! You can control the direction and distance the salt moves all from the comfort of whatever seat you are currently sitting in!

Section 1 - Setting Up Infineon TLE493D

To begin, let's look at an overview of the Infineon TLE493D.

Figure 1

Through a bunch of verification, I have determined that there are four pins that I can use as digital outputs on this board. Those are:

P2.0 - Arduino pin 6

P0.15 - Arduino pin 5

P0.14 - Arduino pin 4

P0.5 - Arduino pin 8

Figure 2

Install the software according to the manual.

Once that is complete you will also need to install the J-Link software found in the software category attached in this tutorial.

Once that is all set, plug in your device via microusb into your computer and go to the polar coordinates view. As you turn the device, the indicator on the screen should turn.

Figure 3

Once all of this is working, time to solder.

1 / 7 • Top View

You should probably test it again using the Infineon software again just to make sure that you didn't short anything.

Section 2 - Building the Circuit

So the circuit is pretty basic, the pins in pink on the TLE493D are the pins addressable in the Arduino code. The pins in black on the TLE493D are the pins that are found in Figure 1.

Figure 4 - Wiring Diagram

Figure 5 shows the logic for the TB6612FNG. As you can see, there are a bunch of wires to connect. All ground wires go to ground. Vm goes to your battery - I had a 12VDC power supply but the stepper motor should work between like 5V and 18V.

Figure 5 - TB6612FNG board

Once the circuit is wired it should look something like Figure 6. Hopefully yours looks less messy. I took a sharpy and wrote on the dial to give me an approximate position of the sensor.

Figure 6 - Completed circuit

Building the Frame

So this is approximately what I wanted the system to look like:

Drawing of what it is supposed to do

This is what it ended up looking like:

End result

To build the little bridge that the salt stand sits on is pretty simple. You will need some small square dowels and some wood glue. The distance for the dowels is just enough for the stepper motor to sit on.

Figure 7 - Wooden bridge

I took duct tape and taped the stepper motor and a bunch of wooden blocks with a bolt through it like in the image above.

To build the little block that the timing belt goes through, take a small section of 1"x3" piece of wood and cut two gaps according to Figure 8.

Figure 8 - sliding block

The timing belt should fit tightly in the small gap you made and should be free to slide in the other gap. If you make the crevices deep enough the timing belt shouldn't affect your salt. Alternatively, you can put a very thin sheet of wood or heavy construction paper over so you don't have to worry about it tipping your salt over.

Figure 9 - Little sliding block

Once that is all done, you can assemble it. It should look like this:

Figure 10 - setup tipped over

Programming

Make sure to use the TLE493D software. Use this link to get to the github package to be walked through the software.

The code is attached in this project. It's pretty basic so you shouldn't have too many issues.

Once complete, you should be able to turn your dial to the right to move the salt right and turn the dial left to move the salt left.

Video of system working

Conclusion

In the end, this project was well worth the effort for you have solved one of life's greatest struggles - passing the salt when you are just too lazy or too far away to physically pass it. The Infineon TLE493D microcontroller was more than capable of accomplishing this herculean task that was assigned to it and it managed the project with aplomb.

I tested the stepper motor with the Arduino Pro Mini before I moved it over to the TLE493D just to make sure I was only dealing with one variable at a time.

Code

#include <Stepper.h> 
#include <Tle493d_w2b6.h>

// change this to the number of steps on your motor
#define STEPS 800

// create an instance of the stepper class, specifying
// the number of steps of the motor and the pins it's
// attached to

Stepper stepper(STEPS, 4,5,6,8);


/**
* This example demonstrates the use of low poewr mode of sensor TLE493d-W2B6
*/

double rotationPos = 0;

Tle493d_w2b6 Tle493dMagnetic3DSensor = Tle493d_w2b6(Tle493d::MASTERCONTROLLEDMODE);
void setup() {

  // set the speed of the motor to 30 RPMs
  stepper.setSpeed(10);
  
  Serial.begin(9600);
  while (!Serial);
  Tle493dMagnetic3DSensor.begin();
  // The highest adjustable range is used for all three directions, i.e., within half of the total value range INT is disabled 
  // this has no effect on the TLE493d-A2B6 sensor
  Tle493dMagnetic3DSensor.setWakeUpThreshold(1,-1,1,-1,1,-1);

  //The update rate is set to 3 (fastest is 0 and slowest is 7)
  Tle493dMagnetic3DSensor.setUpdateRate(3);

  
}

void loop() {
  Tle493dMagnetic3DSensor.updateData();
  // rotationPos is getting the polar degree that the dial is turned
  // I converted radians to degrees to be easier to read
  rotationPos = Tle493dMagnetic3DSensor.getAzimuth()*57.3 + 180;
  // Serial print it so that I can see that the system is working
  // correctly
  Serial.println(rotationPos);

  // If I turn it to the right it'll be around 90 degrees but I 
  // put in a tolerance of 45 degrees
  if (rotationPos > 45 && rotationPos < 135) {
    Serial.println("To The Right");
    stepper.step(200);
  }
  // I did the same tolerance for turning left
  else if (rotationPos > 225 && rotationPos < 315) {
    Serial.println("To The Left");
    stepper.step(-200);
  }

  delay(50);
}

#include <Stepper.h>

// change this to the number of steps on your motor
#define STEPS 400

// create an instance of the stepper class, specifying
// the number of steps of the motor and the pins it's
// attached to
Stepper stepper(STEPS, 4, 5, 6, 8);


void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("Stepper test!");
  // set the speed of the motor to 30 RPMs
  stepper.setSpeed(60);
}

void loop()
{
  Serial.println("Forward");
  stepper.step(STEPS);
}

Credits

Alex Merchen

24 projects • 39 followers

I'm an EE with a Masters in ECE. I like building things.

Laziest Way to Pass Salt

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Section 1 - Setting Up Infineon TLE493D

Section 2 - Building the Circuit

Building the Frame

Programming

Conclusion

Schematics

Hand drawn diagram

Code

Main Code

Stepper Motor Test

Credits

Alex Merchen

Comments

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Laziest Way to Pass Salt

Laziest Way to Pass Salt

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Section 1 - Setting Up Infineon TLE493D

Section 2 - Building the Circuit

Building the Frame

Programming

Conclusion

Schematics

Hand drawn diagram

Code

Main Code

Stepper Motor Test

Credits

Alex Merchen

Comments

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