- Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:31 am
#104165
I work in a parking booth, and I often need to keep exact track of the number of cars that have gone in and out of the parking lot. As such, I am trying to build a device that will let me keep track of the number of cars. The parking lot is for a public park, so I only have one lane of traffic entering and one lane of traffic exiting from the booth (both of which are within feet of my location). Also, I have many pedestrians walking in and out of the park throughout the day.
After looking around online, I figured out that the way traffic sensors work is one of two variations. Either they use the black tube that has a sensor at the end that reads the puff of air from the car running over it, or they create a magnetic field that is disrupted when the car drives over it.
So now, my question is this - how can I best implement some form of car counter? Are the pressure sensors here on sparkfun sensitive enough to read the air from the black tube, and where can I get some of that tube? How could I generate a magnetic field for the car to disrupt, and would a reed switch or all effect sensor be able to pick up on the disruption? Or, could I go completely simpler and use some sonic range finders (though I am worried about the pedestrians throwing off the sensors in that case)?
After looking around online, I figured out that the way traffic sensors work is one of two variations. Either they use the black tube that has a sensor at the end that reads the puff of air from the car running over it, or they create a magnetic field that is disrupted when the car drives over it.
So now, my question is this - how can I best implement some form of car counter? Are the pressure sensors here on sparkfun sensitive enough to read the air from the black tube, and where can I get some of that tube? How could I generate a magnetic field for the car to disrupt, and would a reed switch or all effect sensor be able to pick up on the disruption? Or, could I go completely simpler and use some sonic range finders (though I am worried about the pedestrians throwing off the sensors in that case)?