microprocessor card choice

L

Thread Starter

Luca Gallina

I am facing the following application: a distance sensor is attached to a linear measure system (incremental encoder) in order to detect something like irregularly spaced teeth on a rack.

task 1: by using a rail, move the distance sensor along the rack and sample the analog signal at each encoder interrupt (quadrature encoder, 0.1mm resolution). Analog Values and encoder position pairs are stored in a primary buffer. Sensor motion along the rack is not very fast, maybe 50mm per second as base value. The faster, the better.

task 2: detect the peak analog value from the distance sensor (I expect a peak about every 10 mm) and store the related encoder position in a secondary buffer.

task 3: send to external device the secondary buffer values as soon as they become ready


The job is not conceptually complicated, but all tasks must run at the same time (while moving, data is collected, analyzed and sent to the external device). I'd like to use a microcontroller-based card but I'm puzzled on the choice of the right hardware.

It's a single installation (just one application, no limited or gross production), so card programming should be as easy and quick to develop as possible.

Card must be industrial grade, C programming language preferable.
Analog conversion: 10 bit would be fair, 12 bit better.
Communication to external device will be preferably by TCP/IP (protocol and comm check are managed by the Ethernet chip).
Card must be able to handle also a few 24VDC I/O (e.g. limit switches, ref.point sensor, etc).

Any suggestion will be appreciated, thank you

Luca Gallina
 
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