HELP !!! if you can !

[dbug10s]

Hello, My name is James Sanderson and I have really never asked a question here but read a lot so here we go. I have a Pro-Tools 105 Tubing Bender with a hydraulic cylinder for powering it and I am wanting to add a encoder and DRO to it to show degrees of bend. There used to be a guy who made a "Tube Bandit" which is exactly what Im wanting but it appears he stopped making them in 2009. He used what looked to be a simple display which was placed in im assuming his box design and then the Rotary Encoder was mounted to one of the arms of the machine and it had a replacement pin with a worm drive gear attached to it and the pin was locked onto the die itself with a set screw whereas this pin normally just free rotated in that bore. Then the encoded had a small gear on the shaft of it where the drive belt connected the pin and encoder. I am thinking that it would even be possible to somehow mount the encoder to the pin and eliminate the belt. I have no problem making whatever I would need as far as hardware goes to correctly mount all of the components the problem lies where I have no idea what or where to but the electronics for this. I was also thinking about using Touch DRO for the display. Any help whatsoever would be so appreciated and I will try to reciprocate any information that I may be able to help someone else with ( I have been doing powder coating professionally for about 25 years so I have a plethora of knowledge there.

 

[keeena]

Is the the model you have? linky If not: do post up the exact one you have.

If you could fix the pin to the moving arm: then yes - I could see how mounting a rotary encoder directly to the pin could work to pick up the angle.

I would think the most basic approach could be accomplished by a simple microcontroller like an Arduino, LCD display, and a few other minor bits (plus the encoder). You could get a bit fancy by having ability to input the spring-back factor (or whatever its called).

SWAG has a DIY kit option here for $99 which could work for ya:

 

[RJSakowski]

If you are looking for something less challenging from the electronics perspective, this may be a good starting point.https://www.amazon.com/iGaging-Digital-Protractor-Stainless-Bladed/dp/B00AEIB3Y0

 

[mksj]

It is bit difficult to understand what you are asking without a picture or drawing, is is something that is broken or something you want made. Some DRO's can use an encoder to display degree of rotation, they also sell simple stand alone angle indicators like the one below.

Rotary Angle Encoder and Remote Display, with a 6mm Diameter Shaft.

Rotary Angle Encoder and a Remote Display with a resolution of 0.1 degrees. 6mm diameter shaft.

www.sra-measurement.com