Consolidated Leo posted:I'm also curious as to the use of hall effect sensors. There are linear and latching types and apparently they can be oriented in several different ways. I know they are used for tachometer applications and are very responsive. But I couldn't find anything about operating them side by side as you propose to do.
As mentioned, if I were pursuing this further I would change to Hall sensor chips in surface-mounted packages...and fabricate a circuit board to mount them on the track bed between the center and outer rail.
Another avenue of exploration with Hall sensors is they are intrinsically magnetic polarity sensitive (aka the "Hall Effect") so a North-pole magnet can generate a different chip response than a south-pole magnet. Thus by flipping the magnet disc, there may be something to gain (or lose) when you have interacting magnetic fields from nearby/adjacent magnets. The inexpensive generic reed switches I've seen and used respond equally to either N or S magnetic polarity. And while I've seen smaller reed switches, they seem to get spendy. But what makes this style of reed switch a challenge for this specific application is this relatively large size vs. the actuating magnet. The sensitivity of the switch to a magnetic field varies around the glass body. You can see the two ends of the "diving boards" that come together in the middle of the glass-body to close the switch have an orientation. OTOH there would be no doubt about orientation with the Hall chips when mounted for soldering.
Anyway, as said earlier there's homework to be done before this is ready for prime-time!
