A surface tilt monitoring and controlling system, with additional time-based control and alarm indicators, utilizing mercury tilt switches, electromagnets, and FPGAs, programmed with VHDL and suitable for industrial and laboratory applications

A novel surface tilt monitoring and controlling system, which uses FPGAs and VHDL, is presented here.The system monitors continuously the left or right tilting mode of a surface equipped with metal strips.In case that tilting occurs one of two mercury tilt switches also existing on the surface, produces output logic 1, leading to corresponding electromagnet activation, in order to restore previous horizontal balance of the surface.Right or left tilt switch is activated after respective right or left tilting of the surface.Simultaneously right or left half of FPGA's board LEDs and seven-segment displays are activated, in order to present the tilting direction, while electromagnet's LED activation provides additional proof for its appropriate operation.Another process being activated upon tilting, is the one that measures time period of surface tilting mode.If time period set by programmer is exceeded, red LED alarm is activated indicating malfunction of electromagnets or other part of the system, proving it unable to restore previous horizontal balance of the surface.Our system is also equipped with a process that prevents both electromagnets and time measuring operations to proceed, in case that tilting occurs.This can be achieved by turning FPGA board SW0 switch to logic 1 state and gives the advantage of unloading surface mode, after intentionally causing the surface to tilt.Our system is cheap to manufacture, easy to use and due to FPGA incorporation can be combined with IoT and AI systems, in order to achieve monitoring and controlling of a large number of industrial product elevator systems, or platform surfaces for laboratory applications.