Flowcode and MIAC controlling time in Oxfordshire

Flowcode 6 and MIAC users and bespoke clock manufacturers and repairers, Smith of Derby share a wonderful example of how these growing-in-popularity development tools can allow manufacturers to develop quick solutions for market needs and use the hardware in product development too.

This is the Parish church of St George in Lower Brailes, Oxfordshire.

Here, Smith of Derby used a MIAC when the old mercury filled triggering system for a carillon had to be replace for health and safety reasons (a carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in the bell tower of a church or municipal building). The MIAC offered a reliable control unit; so all the team at Smith of Derby had to do was interface and programme the control software. Flowcode lends itself so well to control algorithms, and so the 150+ year old giant music box was able to be updated.

The use of Flowcode, combined with the MIAC unit saved the customer well over £1,000 in development costs which we thought was pretty impressive!

Engineers have kindly provided the circuitry for the interface used in this project, alongside some example code from the Flowcode program used and a video of the solution in operation (Smith of Derby bell tower Oxford).

To find out more about how Flowcode – an alternatvie Arduino IDE and suitable for those who are PIC programming as well as using ARM and dsPIC target devices and the MIAC, which gives you the ruggedness and power of a Programmable Logic Controller with the flexibility and ease of programming of a microcontroller, can help you visit www.matrixtsl.com.