Development of Weighing Mechanism and yielding determination for potato picker machine
Subject Areas :
Keywords: Weighing System, Yielding Determination, Data Logging System, Potato Picker Machine,
Abstract :
The objective of this research was to develop a mechanism for sacking and weighing the potato collected by a potato picker machine. This machine comprised of a chain driven elevator and a rubber elevator with 12 degree tilt angle and 100 RPM optimum speed. A pair of trapezoid shape spout and sack holders was fabricated for filling sacks. A moving arm conduct flow of crop into contiguous sacks alternatively. The arm rotation is controlled by a 12 volt two way dc motor. The flip flop of arm is done by two micro switches. Two digital load cells weight the sacks and send a signal when the weight of each sack reaches to 30 kg. Data logging board consists of a microcontroller, LCD, keypad and electrical circuit. For noise deduction due to vibration of machine, a low pass filter was implemented in the circuit board of data logging system. Under the load cells, a 3 cm thick rubber material was placed to damp the vibration. For protection of data logging board, a box was used to cover the circuit and the keypad and LCD were located at the top of the box. For sacking and weighing mechanism measurement variation of elevator speed test for sack filling time was done. Result shown that in 100 rpm elevator speed sack filling time was the lowest. Use of designed system decreased cost of harvesting due to collecting the potato filling and sewing the sacks and counting the number of sacks for determining the yield in tons per hectare. Designed system reduced havesting cost and records yielding crop per hectare in its memory