Using Servos/Motors to open Side Panel

[Belial88]

I put on the hinges, it's quite badass! I have it right on that fold part too on the back, so no cutting really involved.

Then I broke it... buttt dont worry about that, i'm gluing it better. Apparently, side panels are not even at all, they are terribly manufactured. But those screws you push on, just brute force any irregularity and unlevelness. Which works great, except for hinges, so the side panel won't side perfectly on.

However, that's where magnets will help and come in, along with a very good job in making things look even with an uneven hinge job.

Anyways, sorry, no pics/vid yet, but I will in a day or two (jbweld takes a long time).

For reference though, the door opens just with no force at all! Like you could literally blow air on it to open it (hey when i take that video maybe i'll do just that... with a 120mm fan or something).

The magnets will literally be the hardest thing for the servo to push through (by a large margin). I got some 3/16th x 1/16 round rare earth magnets from radio shack. Not sure if I like them though, might be a bit too thick, though I'm sure with work I could use them.

I'm going to go ahead and purchase that adafruit trinket.

Now the question is still battery, battery charger, and servo.

 

[Belial88]

^ Interesting, but looks like he (she?) describes nothing. One page she has pics of the (2) case(s) brand new out of box, next page she shows pics of them assembled limo-style. Looks like she has 2 micro linear actuator (that is insane overkill). Interesting mount point, she really wants it visible, she could've used a much smaller one if closer to the hinge but I guess she has a ton of space to do that... Then it looks like a simple side panel window mod where you just use a sheet of acrylic as the side panel, attached by 4 hinges, with the actuators attached to some custom cut piece of metal, probably aluminum.

I'd love to know her switch mechanism and micro-controller, but she doesn't talk about it at all...

 

[Belial88]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE1ucislSxU&feature=youtu.be

Hinges are up. I think a micro servo (ie under 1.25" so as to attach rod to side panel or else it'll end up on the window, which would be okay but would rather avoid) would be preferable. I think I need something strong, as the magnets take about ~25oz of force, around the max of a lot of micro servos.

I need an adafruit trinket 5v.

I don't think I'll be able to do my charge thing, but what I can do is use AA batteries and make it super easy and convenient to swap them out:

And that's 6v! And I'm guessing the trinket will be okay on 6v.

 

[Belial88]

adafruit trinket $10 shipped
that 6v 4xaa battery pack thing $1 ebay
TowerPro MG90 4.8/6 2.2/2.5(not mg90s) for ~$10 ebay (highest torque sub-micro servo I could find). At 1.33inches to the servo horn, the rod is going to have to be slightly angled. It's either this or the HS-65 which is 4.8/6 1.8/2.2 but 1.2" total so would be straight. I think I have a little more than 1.25" anyways before the window.

Tada! For $21 I do what everyone else has done using linear actuators for $90 + $40 + battery (firgelli L12 + arduino).

as soon as the trinket 5v is back in stock, of course ;/

Til then, maybe I can find a better servo and battery source. I won't make a purchase until I can get it all at the same time, no point in having the servo here when the trinket isn't here yet kinda thing.

 

[Belial88]

Okay, made the purchase.

I still wish I could get a battery charging circuit of some kind... there's usb battery packs, but they tend to be expensive and bulky, and I'm not sure you can both charge and use them at the same time.

 

[dma0991]

Tada! For $21 I do what everyone else has done using linear actuators for $90 + $40 + battery (firgelli L12 + arduino)

There's a major difference. There's a working concept and a proof of concept. There are actual working concepts using linear actuator(linked in this thread). As of right now, yours is only a proof of concept. Period.

 

[Belial88]

Possible issues I think are not enough throw, and the servo being too weak (which are really connected issues). If this servo is too weak, I'd get an HS-85BB (42/49), and then the rod would have to either be angled slightly, or stuck to the window (i could use some of those ball/rod connections though to still get it on the window).

A linear actuator for this kind of project though is kinda insane, those are meant to push very heavy weight. Even micro actuators are meant to push on the scale of 10+ pounds, whereas micro servos are ~1lb+, closer to what a side panel weighs.

Pretty sure I'm going to be very confused on the trinket programming stage though, but that's nothing the actuator guys didn't go through.

 

[Belial88]

Currently got all the parts, trying to make it work. I have the arduino IDE and trinket servo library on, but the code and how to wire it (particularly the momentary) is a bit daunting.

There's a ton of similiar stuff online, like using 2 momentaries for servo control, servo control with a pot, but nothing exactly like this.