Automated Conveyer System

Hello everyone! I am in the beginning planning phases of a project I am going to be building, so I should be here in the community for a while!

My project is going to be 8051 based (not sure of the exact model yet as I'm in the very early stages). It's been a couple years since I've even looked at microcontroller programming so I'm pretty rusty but I'm confident I'll be able to get back into it.

My plan is create using the 8051 an automated conveyor system very similar to the one showed in this video:

YouTube - Automated Conveyor Systems, Inc. Product Model: HSS - High Speed Sorter

Here is my rough sketch of what I propose:
**broken link removed**

I will load in a random order two different colors of items to send down the conveyer, using the IR sensor it will determine the color, color 1 goes straight while color 2 gets diverted. It will keep track of the total numbers for item 1 and item 2 and display the total for each color on the LCD.

That's it for now, but if I'm able to complete this part I would like to continue on with the project after they're separated to emulate further industrial automation along the line.

My question is basically, can this project be completed using only one 8051 chip (I've forgotten the input/output limitations). If it is capable on one chip, how many more input/outputs could I add? (maybe adding a third color that will be kicked off into a discard bin using a plunger like in a doorbell)??

Any input would be much appreciated!!

Infrared sensors cannot distinguish between different colors.

There are hundreds of different versions of processors loosely called "8051". They have anywhere from 15 I/O (89S2051) to about 64. You can attach more than a thousand I/O with external chips.

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the vague information. As I said, I haven't done this in a while.

What type of sensor is it that I can detect the light reflection amount? I know that a white block would reflect a larger signal than a black box. Then I would assume using a A/D converter I could use that to detect black vs. white.

I know that a white block would reflect a larger signal than a black box.

Click to expand...

One way to guarantee that is to use visible light. If you choose the paint or coloring carefully you can make a surface that looks different to infrared.

There are photo sensors that are tailored to operate with visible light. Probably the best way to identify them is that you can see the light on their transmit side.

All the line following robots I've seen using an 8051 use infrared sensors to detect a black line vs. a white background. Wouldn't that be the same thing as recognizing black vs. white blocks?

Also, I will be using the DS89C430 for the project. This is the same trainer board I used in my microprocessor class, and I'll be buying one for programming and troubleshooting.
8051 Single Board Computer Trainer

Thanks.

It's probable that the white and black blocks have different IR reflectivity.

I'm planning on using this method to detect color.

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That links to a wiggly dragon head. Not really going to do color detection, it might smell humans.
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hahahah...woops...that's someone's avatar from another board, lol.

Here's the method:

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Probably using the LDR and LED method so I can use about 3 colors or so.