Programs/Code

Velocity Sensors

The velocity sensor system consists of 3 PNP IR beam break sensor pairs which are operated through Arduino. The each pair consists of an emitter and receiver, each running off of a 24 V input. The receiver outputs are stepped down with a voltage divider of 22 kΩ and 4.7 kΩ to 4.2 V. Receiver 1 corresponds to the bottom most, with receiver 2 and 3 following suit. The Arduino code outputs the velocity across pairs 1-2 and 2-3, as well as the overall average velocity, average acceleration, and calculated impact velocity.

Download Arduino velocity sensor code:

Download

Circuit diagram for velocity sensor wiring

Soldered board for wiring setup

Valve Control and Pressue

The MIPS Test Table is operated through a custom MATLAB App Designer interface that serves as the single control and monitoring station for the pneumatic firing system. From one screen, the operator triggers an automated firing sequence, open, wait, close, then vent, through software control of the firing and vent solenoid valves and an active relief valve, eliminating manual valve handling during a shot.

MATLAB GUI interface with one laptop setup for controlling the valves and collecting data

The interface also provides real-time pressure feedback; a pressure transducer streams tank pressure to the GUI at 5 Hz, shown as a live 30-second rolling plot, and the exact pressure at the moment of firing is automatically captured on every shot. Bringing valve control and live pressure data into a single application replaced a more fragmented setup and resolved a serial-port conflict that had previously prevented running control and sensing on one computer. Paired with the velocity-measurement subsystem, the interface lets the team correlate tank pressure with slug impact velocity across each test.