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Any free Hall effect sensors here?

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5/6/2006 10:21 AM

Any free Hall effect sensors here?

Hi,

I have some junked disk drives and am wondering if there are any Hall effect sensors in these things. I have both floppy drives and hard drives to scavenge from... anyone know if they have any useful sensors?

I also have an old electronic distributor from a vehicle. I know it has a Hall effect sensor in it...

Could any of these parts be used either in a counter for a winder or a Gauss meter?

Just curious. I know these sensors are cheap but there is no way I can get one shipped and recieve it today. If I can salvage one today or tomorrow it would put a smile on my face.

What do you think?

C

5/6/2006 2:11 PM

On 5/6/2006 4:21 PM, Clint B said:

quote:
"I have some junked disk drives and am wondering if there are any Hall effect sensors in these things. I have both floppy drives and hard drives to scavenge from... anyone know if they have any useful sensors?"

Maybe in the motors, which will be brushless. The magnets may be more useful.

quote:
"I also have an old electronic distributor from a vehicle. I know it has a Hall effect sensor in it..."

quote:
"Could any of these parts be used either in a counter for a winder or a Gauss meter?"

Sure. With a lot of work. Part of the problem is that it may not be obvious just what kind you have, or how best to use it.

quote:
"Just curious. I know these sensors are cheap but there is no way I can get one shipped and recieve it today. "

Sure there is - just have ordered it three days ago.

quote:
"If I can salvage one today or tomorrow it would put a smile on my face."

If your objective is to build a working, reliable counter or gauss meter, it's a whole lot easier to use known components.

5/9/2006 1:46 PM

I have to agree with Joe, you could get anything in there & are most likely looking at hall effect switches which could only be used as a counter sensor.

In the U.K. the linear sensors used to measure gauss are like hen's teeth for some reason though I managed to get one (ss496a1) from RS components through a friend.

This is on a 5v supply with the output lead into a multimeter and the multimeter ground onto a voltage divider at 2.5V. Spec for this is 3.125mV/Gauss but a plastic spacer reduces this to 1mV/G (or whatever you fancy).

For the count sensor I prefer optos & have an interruptable opto from an old printer and a reflective one from Maplin that I use. These are straight into a CMOS schmitt trigger to clean up and reliably trigger my counter (wish I could post the cct, dead simple).

It's all easily checked with a calibrated strobe & doesn't miss a beat.

I have a simple, very smooth PWM speed controller too but sit here typing because they haven't delivered my damn wire.

Rob.

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