Hall Effect Sensors

[cteno4]

Hey inobu, good to see you back!

 

jeff

[inobu]

Been doing Lionel O Scale work up at all hours thought I would check in and saw this thread. I remember going through the same steps.

 

Inobu

[dennis]

I have been playing with a latching hall effect sensor, Honeywell SS461C .

 

This sensor will switch when, say a south pole gets near and will stay there until an opposite pole gets there.

 

This means that (depending on which way up the sensor is glued) if you put a north pole followed by a south pole on the front of the train and the reverse on the end it will activate the switch when the train passes and the switch will remain on until the train leaves the sensor in either direction.

 

In my case the North sets the sensor output high which is the default. So as the first north pole passes it does nothing.

Then as the south passes the sensor switches.

When the train leaves the south pole at either end does nothing but the north pole switches the sensor back to high.

 

It all works at 5V logic levels so its easy to connect to an arduino or even just drive LEDS.

 

I currently use them to switch points on a reversing loop but I am adding more to use as block switches.

 

I don't remember where I saw this first but it was on a blogg somewhere.