Operation

Features:

	Portable
	Length-set capability
	Easy threadup

	Driven wind and unwind stands
	Torque control by Pulse-Width Modulation
	Tension control by a weighted festoon* where the festoon is controlled mid-range by a photo-cell switching the unwind motor
	A shuttle to allow even winding of monofilament product
	Built-in gudgeons on the unwind shaft, allowing the equivalent of gudgeonless chucking
	It has been set up for stockrolls of thread as procured from The Silver Doller store in the Promenade Shopping Centre in Thornhill, ON Canada (3 for $1.00)

*So, what is a 'festoon? See the diagram to the right. It is a way to store film using a series of pulleys. As you feed film in, the weight drops. As you pull it out the weight rises. But the tension remains constant, which is the point of it all.

Operation:

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A stock-roll is mounted on the unwind shaft and secured with the outboard gudgeon/chuck assembly as shown.

Threadup begins from the bottom to the lower left roller and thence to the upper left roller.

The weight pivots on a classic 4-bar mechanism. Raise it to the upper stop. Lay the thread across it as shown right. Bring the weight down so that the pulleys engage the thread and pull out the festoon.

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Bring the thread over the upper right pulley, down around the worm gear shuttle as shown and cinch to the customer roll. (For photographic clarity the customer roll is a white spool, not a bobbin.)

See above the black insert on the yellow target is approaching the blue photocell. Wind up the customer-roll and unwind the stock-roll until the black insert just covers the cell. That is the starting position.

The start switch is the yellow button to the left of the customer-roll. See also, to the right, the shuttle motor connected to the shuttle by a belt drive. Uniform winding is achieved by reversing the motor to move the thread back and forth.

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Turn on the RCX Controller and set it to program 1. Press the green button on the controller to put it in operation. The shuttle begins to run to signal that it is 'on'. From that time you have ten seconds to input the customer length. Each time you press the yellow start button it 'beeps' and you add 100 revolutions to the customer roll. At the end of ten seconds it plays a riff (sound-down) to indicate the end of the 'input' interval.

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The next time you push the yellow start button, spooling begins, as follows: The customer-roll begins to wind. Slack in the festoon diminishes. The weight is thereby raised. The target is moved to the right over the photocell. When it sees 'yellow' it starts the unwind drive, feeding more thread into the festoon. That causes the weight to lower, the photocell to see the black insert and the unwind drive to stop. All the while, winding of the customer-roll continues, thread tension remains constant and the shuttle moves the thread back and forth to create an even build in the spool.

When the revolution counter says correct customer length has been achieved, the program and all the drives stop, another riff is played (sound-up) to signal that the full spool can be removed and an empty spool loaded.

Check out the software...