Patent ID: 8614586

Claim:
An apparatus for determining the moisture content of in-shell peanuts, the apparatus comprising: an oscillator which generates a square wave signal at a predetermined frequency; a first filter which receives the signal and shapes the square wave signal into a sine wave signal as an output, wherein the sine wave signal is thereafter split into a measurement signal, a reference signal, and a phase detection signal so that: the reference signal is sent through a transformer and rectifier and then measured; and the phase detection signal is sent through an attenuator and to a phase detector; a multiplexer receives the measurement signal and directs the measurement signal through a selected sample of in-shell peanuts; an amplifier comprising a variable range resistor receives the measurement signal, wherein a first portion of the measurement signal from the amplifier is then rectified and measured; a comparator receiving a second portion of the measurement signal from the amplifier, wherein the comparator outputs the second portion of the measurement signal as a square wave; and a second filter receiving the second portion of the measurement signal converting the second portion of the measurement signal to a sine wave, the second portion of the measurement signal then being directed to the phase detector, the phase detector measuring a phase change between the measurement signal and the phase detection signal; wherein moisture content of the in-shell peanuts is calculated based on the measured reference signal, the measurement signal, and the measured phase change.