PASCO ME-1242 Instruction Manual

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Instruction Manual

ON/OFF

Speed Control

Button

Cable for connecting

to Smart Cart

Smart Fan Accessory

ME-1242

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Included Equipment Part Number

Smart Fan Accessory

Cable for connecting to Smart Cart (19 cm)

Battery, AA-Cell (4 not shown)

Highly Recommended Equipment Part Number

Wireless Smart Cart

OR

PASCO Cart

Suggested Equipment Part Number

PASCO Track

PASCO Data Collection Software

ME-1242

ME-1240 or ME-1241

see www.pasco.com

see www.pasco.com

see www.pasco.com

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Smart Fan Accessory Introduction

Side View

Top View

Press here

Press here

Battery Cover

ON/OFF Button

Battery

Cover

Spring

Spring

Introduction

The PASCO ME-1242 Smart Fan Accessory mounts on any PASCO Cart for use with or without a
PASCO Track (see www.pasco.com) to demonstrate principles of motion. However, the Smart Fan
Accessory is specifically designed to work with the PASCO Wireless Smart Cart (ME-1240 or ME-1241).
The Smart Cart includes four on-board sensors: motion encoder for measuring position or velocity, a
3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, and a force sensor. All of the sensors can transmit data wire­lessly in real time to a computing device (e.g., table, smart phone, or computer) that has PASCO Data
Collection Software.

The self-propelled Smart Fan Accessory facilitates students’ understanding of Newton’s Second Law of
Motion because the fan produces the applied force, and all the mass of the system is in one place. The
force can be adjusted for a variety of experiments because the Smart Fan Accessory ON/OFF button
also controls the fan speed. The mass can be adjusted by adding masses (such as the ME-6757A PAS­car Cart Mass - set of 2) to the accessory tray of a PASCO Cart.

Install Batteries

The Smart Fan Accessory requires four “AA-cell” batteries, either alkaline (included) or rechargeable
(such as nickel-metal hydride). To install the batteries, remove the battery cover from the end of the
Smart Fan Accessory. Press in on the sides of the Battery Cover and pull it away from the accessory.

2

Insert the four batteries into the battery compartment. (See the illustrations
on the inside of the battery compartment.) The positive (+) “button” end of a
battery goes into the section that does not have a spring.

Note: A feature of the Smart Cart is that it has reverse battery protection, so
if batteries are installed incorrectly, the Smart Cart will not be harmed if the
Smart Fan Accessory is connected.

Return the Battery Cover to the end of the Smart Fan Accessory.

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ME-1242 Assembly

Attaching the Smart Fan Accessory to the Smart Cart

Smart Fan Accessory

Cable Port

Smart Cart Cable Port

Connector

cable

Assembly

The figure shows how to attach the Smart Fan Acces­sory over the rails on the accessory tray of the
PASCO Wireless Smart Cart. Use the same method
to attach the Smart Fan Accessory to any PASCO
Cart.

Operation

1. Press the ON/OFF Speed Control Button to
start the fan.

• The fan starts at low speed.

2. After starting the Smart Fan Accessory, change
the fan speed by pressing the ON/OFF Speed
Control Button.

• One press changes the fan speed from low to
medium, a second press changes it from
medium to high, and a third press returns it to
low.

3. Press and temporarily HOLD the ON/OFF but­ton to stop the fan.

The fan turns in one direction when used in the man­ual mode. When used with a Smart Cart, the Smart
Fan Accessory is able to switch the fan direction.

Using the Smart Fan Accessory
with the Smart Cart

Connect the Smart Fan Accessory so it can be con­trolled by the Smart Cart by plugging the included
cable into the cable ports on the accessory and the
cart.

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Smart Fan Accessory Start/Stop Conditions and Calculations

Hardware Setup in Capstone

Thrust Display

Thrust Slider Control
forward and backward

Start Condition menu

Stop Condition menu

“On” “Off” “Auto” output selections

Generate the fan’s thrust
based on a calculation

Change the Output State
based on a logic statement

Advanced Options menu

Smart Fan Configuration Tool

Start the PASCO Data Collection Software (Cap­stone). Turn on the Smart Cart and use the software
to wirelessly “pair” (connect) it to the computing
device from inside the “Hardware Setup” pane. (See
the software Help system for more information about
connecting the Smart Cart.)

Smart Fan Accessory Configuration

Select the arrow next to “Smart Fan Accessory” to
open the Smart Fan Accessory Configuration Tool, or
select the “Smart Fan” icon from the Tools palette.

Tools
Palette

Smart
Fan
Icon

• The fan in the Smart Fan Accessory can provide forward or backward thrust. The amount of thrust
(-100 percent to +100 percent) and the direction are controlled by the Slider Control. The amount
and direction can also be entered as text in the Thrust Display (for example, “+35”).

• Under the “Advanced Options” menu are the “Start Condition” and “Stop Condition” menus.

• Use the “On” and “Off” output selections to turn the fan on or off. Enable the “Auto” output selec­tion to allow the “Start Condition” and “Stop Condition” or calculations to control the fan.

Start/Stop Conditions and Calculations

Start/Stop Conditions and Calculations are designed to support remote “sense-and-control” operation of
the Smart Fan Accessory when it is used with the Wireless Smart Cart. Calculations can be written that
rely upon the measurements from the on-board sensors of the Smart Cart, or other sensors that can be
used with the PASCO Data Collection Software. For example, the Smart Fan Accessory could be
instructed to start its fan when the Data Collection Software measures a temperature that rises above a
set value.

Start Condition and Stop Condition

The menus for both the Start Condition and the Stop Condition show three choices. The default choice is
“None”:

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ME-1242 Start/Stop Conditions and Calculations

Generate the fan’s thrust based
on a calculation

Change the Output State
based on a logic statement

Smart Fan Accessory

Configuration Tool

The other choices for Start or Stop Conditions are “Measurement Based” or “Time Based”.

A Measurement Based condition depends on the sensors
that are being used. For example, if the Smart Fan Acces­sory is attached to a Wireless Smart Cart, the Data Source
menu shows all the measurements possible with the Smart
Cart’s built-in sensors (for example, position and velocity).

Once a measurement is selected, the Start Condition win­dow changes to show “Condition” and “Value”.

The Condition choices are “Rises Above”, Falls
Below”, “Is Above” and “Is Below”. The “Value” text
box shows the unit of measurement (and because
Position is the selected measurement in this case, the
unit is “m” for meters). After the Condition is selected,
enter the value in the “Value” text box.

A Time Based condition controls the amount of time
that the computing device will “wait” before recording
data and the duration of the recording time. The Time
Delay minimum default value is 0.001 s and the Duration
minimum default value is 0.001 s. The Time Delay and
Duration do not have a maximum limit.

Measurement Based and Time Based conditions can be used together. For example, the Start Condition
could be a Time Delay, and the Stop Condition could be when the measured distance “Rises Above” a
certain value.

Calculations

There are two Calculator icons in the Smart Fan Accessory Configuration Tool

.

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Smart Fan Accessory Start/Stop Conditions and Calculations

Calculator Icon

Calculator

text area

• Click the Calculator icon to see the menu choices:

• Click “Use Calculation” to open or close the Calculator text area in the
Smart Fan Accessory Configuration Tool.

• After the Calculator text area
opens, a check-mark appears in
front of “Use Calculation”. Click
“Use Calculation” again to close
the Calculator text area.

• “Create Calculation” means to
build a calculation using the Calculator Tool. Click “Create Calculation” to open the Calculator text
area. (A check-mark appears in front of “Use Calculation”. Click “Use Calculation” to close the Cal­culator text area.)

• “Choose Calculation” means to select a previously created calculation from a list.

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ME-1242 Start/Stop Conditions and Calculations

Default title for
first calculation

Insert Data

tool

You can create your calculation in the Calculator text
box inside the Smart Fan Accessory window, or click the
Calculator icon in the Tools palette to open the Calcula­tor window.(See the software Help system for more
information.)

• The top part of the Calculator window shows a list
of Calculations. (In this example, the list shows
“Thrust1=”.) Below the list is a row of buttons for
selecting degrees (DEG), radians (RAD) or “Timer
Mode”, and “Edit Calculation Properties”.

• The lower part of the window starts with a row of
special editing tools.

Superscript

Subscript

Greek lower and

upper case

• Below the tools are the types of calculators, the
calculator functions, basic arithmetic functions and
the text area that shows information about each of
the calculator functions.

Example Calculation with Start Condition

This example assumes that the Smart Fan Accessory is
connected to a Smart Cart, and the Smart Cart is wire­lessly connected to a computing device.

In the Calculator text area, create an equation as fol­lows. First, enter “-100”. Second, click the “Insert Data”
editing tool and select “Position, Blue (m)” from the
menu. Third, click the “Accept” button.

• Thrust1=-100[Position, Blue (m)]

Under Advanced Options, set the Start Condition to
“Measurement Based”, the Data Source to “Position,
Blue (m)”, the Condition to “Rises Above”, and the Value
to “0”. Set the Stop Condition to “None”.

Check the box for “Auto”.

Place the Smart Cart in the middle of a level track or on
a horizontal surface. In the software, select “Record”. Move the Smart Cart in a straight line a short dis­tance (such as 30 to 50 cm) away from its starting position, and then let go of the cart.

As soon as the Smart Cart is moved away from its starting position, the fan will come on and provide
thrust to return the cart. However, the cart will pass the starting position and the fan will reverse direction
to push the cart back toward the starting position again.

Note: Due to the aerodynamics of the Smart Fan Accessory, the thrust in one direction will be more
effective than the thrust in the opposite direction.

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Smart Fan Accessory Using the Smart Fan Accessory with a Dynamics Cart

ON/OFF Speed

Control Button

Motion Sensor

Track

Rubber Band

Smart Fan Accessory

Cart

Air Flow

Using the Smart Fan Accessory with a Dynamics Cart

Assembly

As with the Smart Cart, snap the sides of the Smart Fan
Accessory over the rails of the Accessory Cart of the
PASCO Dynamics Cart.

Operation

1. Press the ON/OFF Speed Control Button to start
the fan.

• The fan starts at low speed.

2. After starting the Smart Fan Accessory, change
the fan speed by pressing the ON/OFF Speed
Control Button as follows:

• One press changes the fan speed from low to
medium, a second press changes it from medium
to high, and a third press returns it to low.

3. Press and temporarily HOLD the ON/OFF button
to stop the fan.

Suggested Experiments

Experiment #1: Measure the acceleration of the cart with the Smart Fan Accessory using the a Motion
Sensor (or equivalent). Vary the mass of the cart or the fan speed of the propeller and repeat.

Note: To prevent the Smart Fan Accessory from coming off the cart during a collision with a wall or an
End Stop, secure it to the cart with a rubber band as shown.

Experiment #2: Determine the force of the Smart Fan Accessory by connecting the cart to a mass that
hangs over a pulley. Adjust the hanging mass until the cart doesn’t move. Vary the fan speed and repeat.

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ME-1242 Using the Smart Fan Accessory with a Dynamics Cart

Air Flow

Hanging Mass

Air Flow

Spring Scale

Force

Air Flow

Force

.

Alternative method: Use a spring scale to determine the Smart Fan Accessory’s force at three different
propeller speeds.

.

1

For a discussion of fan cart experiments, refer to Robert A. Morse, “Constant Acceleration Experiments with a Fan-Driven Dynamics

Cart,”

The Physics Teacher

, October, 1993, pp. 436-438.

Experiment #3: Counteract the fan’s force with the force of gravity by inclining the track until the cart with
the Smart Fan Accessory cannot climb it. Vary the fan speed and repeat.

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Smart Fan Accessory Technical Support

Specifications

Mass of Smart Fan Accessory (with four AA Energizer™ batteries)

1

Note: The masses of batteries of different brands vary slightly, so it is important to measure the mass of the Smart Fan

Accessory yourself.

1

approximately 280 g

Technical Support

For assistance with any PASCO product, contact PASCO at:

Address: PASCO scientific

10101 Foothills Blvd.
Roseville, CA 95747-7100

Phone: [phone] (worldwide)

800-772-8700 ext 1004 (U.S)

Web: www.pasco.com

Email: [e-mail]

Limited Warranty
For a description of the product warranty, see the PASCO catalog.

Copyright
This PASCO scientific
institutions for reproduction of any part of this manual, providing the reproductions are used only in their laboratories and classrooms,
and are not sold for profit. Reproduction under any other circumstances, without the written consent of PASCO scientific, is
prohibited.

Instruction Manual

is copyrighted with all rights reserved. Permission is granted to non-profit educational

Trademarks
PASCO and PASCO scientific trademarks or registered trademarks of PASCO scientific, in the United States and/or in other
countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify,
products or services of, their respective owners. For more information visit www.pasco.com/legal.

Product End of Life Disposal Instructions:
This electronic product is subject to disposal and recycling regulations that vary by country and region. It is your
responsibility to recycle your electronic equipment per your local environmental laws and regulations to ensure that it
will be recycled in a manner that protects human health and the environment. To find out where you can drop off your
waste equipment for recycling, please contact your local waste recycle/disposal service, or the place where you
purchased the product.

The European Union WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment) symbol (to the right) and on the product or
its packaging indicates that this product must not be disposed of in a standard waste container.

Battery Disposal Instructions:
Batteries contain chemicals that, if released, may affect the environment and human health. Batteries should be collected separately
for recycling, and recycled at a local hazardous material disposal location adhering to your country and local government regulations.
To find out where you can drop off your waste battery for recycling, please contact your local waste disposal service, or the product
representative.

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