Dukes Snow Blower Automation

NO! It just comes from years and years of accumulation garage sales and being at the right place at the right time I guess.

Okay last night I think I showed that you are not going to replace a Single Halogen Light Bulb with A Single LED Light Bulb and be anywhere near as BRIGHT! So whats the solution? It will require another trip to the HorseFixer Shop and lab to do some more tests! I went back out in the garage last night and ran an AMP test on a single Halogen bulb and found that they draw 2.83 Amps X 6 that would be 16.98 + the strobe at about 3 amps would be 19.98 + the two stock tractor lights would be .65 that would be a total of 20.63 AMPS and thats not even Operating the Chute Motors You can see where I am going here I am almost 21 AMPS and the tractor charging system at best is 15 AMPS! I am 6 amps over without factoring in the chute motors. That is why it is important to GO LED Well I slept on it overnight and went right out in the Garage after work and I think I have found a solution. The globes in these lights are just that a glass Len's with a chrome rear shield with a socket to hold a clip in H-3 bulb. I already made mention that the 36 LED flat panel arrangement was the brightest I had found, What if I could squeeze 3 of those 36 LED panels in one light? 108 LED's well after testing that is exactly what I am going to do. I found that the 3 LED Panels fit in the globe like a glove. And not only that..... They produce more light than a Halogen bulb and draw around 1 Amp Each. I think the problem is solved.

Have you checked the real output of your tractors chaging system?? it might not be up to the full 15amps, and if you max it out for hours at a time will it hold up?? how much resistance in all the wires, switches and conections you ran? how many amps does the coil need just to run the tractor?? resistance acrossed the amp meter I know most of mine melt down right there, major weak spot, and if it takes all it can just to keep up with the lights ect.... will it have any left to charge the batt.? just a thought.

I didn't run anything New thru the Tractors amp meter, so all it has is the original tractor lights and engine starter. everything else is ran thru a main 10 ga THHN Fused wire to the control box directly from the battery and branches out from there down to 12 GA then to 14ga accordingly. 10 GA handles 30 amps 12 - 20 an 14 - 15 amps I don't expect to draw 15 amps at anytime and most of the time under 10 thats why I did all this work going to LED's to ensure it will be well below the 15 amp charging system max for just that reason!

Very nice Duke........are you sure you are going to move that blower over to the bigger tractor next year??? You have so many contraptions on that baby it would take a week to unplug everything!

I love the smell of smoking voltage regulators in the morning.

Jim when you get tired of SMELLING & replacing them switch to LED's!

I've only replaced one in over 30 years of owning Wheel Horses. If you don't overload them they live a long healthy life.

Scotty, Yes, there will be a bigger tractor for the blower eventually. Everything will be duplicated on that machine and I am sure ideas will be refined and improved!

This one will have everything stay in place but instead of a blower there will be a new Duked out plow system installed fully automated! Wait till you get a load of this!

IMO, which usually isn't always so humble.... yeah, you're way underpowered to take full advantage of the blower.

HOWEVER, you are planning a power upgrade, and by then, you'll have all the nit picky stuff worked out and can do it up right with the power upgrade.

What a guy, always a thunkin!!!

Fully automated means you push a button and watch it do it's thing. No other operator input needed.
You're in luck though, I have some used Mitsubishi 12 channel FXn series PLC's I could give you a good deal on, and they only draw about .6 amperes with all channels programmed and they have slots for up to 4 expansion modules in case you need to add an A/D, D/A or ethernet card. Any expansion modules will only add about .2 amperes each.

Fully automated means you push a button and watch it do it's thing. No other operator input needed.
You're in luck though, I have some used Mitsubishi 12 channel FXn series PLC's I could give you a good deal on, and they only draw about .6 amperes with all channels programmed and they have slots for up to 4 expansion modules in case you need to add an A/D, D/A or ethernet card. Any expansion modules will only add about .2 amperes each.

I have a rack myself of allen allen bradley PLC's We could mount on your tractor. If you need Rockwell Software RS Logix I have that to. I can prolly get a copy of Wonderware and we could design a neat screen interface Altho I may have to brush up on my boolean algebra its been a few years since I took PLC's & Robotics In College. If we run out of supplies we might be able to talk to the Sheriff into a few extras... We have Racks and Rack's of Allen Bradleys at the Jail they prolly wouldn't even notice! And I dont like your button Idea, I want to just to think about it and it will happen kinda like in th movie FireFox its kinda like MIND OVER MATTER If I dont Mind It Doesn't MATTER!

niiiiiiiiiiiice!

Thanks anyway but I like my tractors plain and simple.
I design, build, program and install automated manufacturing equipment for a living.
I appreciate the simplicity and dependability of my tractors and prefer to leave them uncomplicated.

Here's one for you to practice on.

0101001101101111011011010110010100100000011011110110011000100000011101010111001100100000011000010111
0010011001010010000001110010011001010110000101101100011011000111100100100000011100110110100101100011
0110101100100000011000010110111001100100001000000111010001101001011100100110010101100100001000000110
1111011001100010000001111001011011110111010101110010001000000011010000100000011100000110000101100111
011001010010000001100010011100100110000101100111011001100110010101110011011101000111001100101110

Well said Jim

WoW! I'm Impressed! Uncomplicated Tractors and all! Yer my HERO!

I was pretty sure I was