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| Electrical Issues: Hatch Lift - Battletech Pod - Tail Gate Lift Motor |
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| lilshawn:
you can use a regular microswitch and just have it go through a relay. but also don't forget, your not trying to lift a 75lb door either... voltmeter is your best friend... hook it up and load down the motor and see what kind of amps it draws. i'll bet it's under 8 amps. ALRIGHT PEOPLE BETS ARE ON! |
| kahlid74:
I used the Killawatt power meter last night and with no load, it's at 2 AMP. I found a 20 amp 12volt DPDT Rocker switch and a bunch of 40amp 12volt relay's so I've got em all on order with arrival tomorrow. This afternoon/evening I need to build the door and affix the motor to the top of the pod. Building this door is going to be tricky because of the weird angles on the side. The wife is out of town for 4 days and the little man is at his grandparents for the next two days so I've got lots of build time. I'm going to hit up the junkyard today looking for struts. |
| kahlid74:
So the top part of the hatch is now working as expected. Rocker switch and relays have arrived. Electrical wiring to commence. I've cut the Side door but it needs a little trimming to fit. The width was calculated wrong so I've got a 4x12 rectangle in the bottom left that is open. If the current door fits/works I'll just affix another piece with an extension/wood glue/bondo The motor arm is strong enough to lift the wood but when I hooked it up and tried it once I noticied that the arm moved away from the board in a slant, which since I affixed it to the wood with bolts got very tough about 50-85 degrees up. The issue was the arm connects to the motor on a 45 degree slant, which is fine if it didn't move but when moves with the wood it moves out to the left, resulting in an angry motor. To semi-resolve this I simply tilted the left side of the motor up, to where it's kind of slanted and the slant on the motor is more closely associated with a 70-80 degree above 0. The motion up is a jerk at the start because it's easy but as it climbs it encounters resistance and becomes smooth. The motion down is smooth until about 35-40 degrees above 0 and then it comes down hard. I associate this to the fact that I can move the track on the motor moderately easy, which makes sense since you can also open the lift gate by hand. So it's 100% confirmed that I will need struts to let the door close smoothly without force and also lift smoothly at the first phase. I assume once I add the side door the motion up will be smooth with all the weight associated. So now to find struts. At the junkyard most are ballpoint, which creates a problem, since I really need the plate style. Additionally it's anywhere in the range of 15 to -15 degrees out, and all of these struts are firmly in their associated cars. The motor was easily removed with two bolts but these struts I'll have to take apart lots of paneling and I just don't want to be out there spending so much time doing that. I might take a trip back and check it out again. |
| BadMouth:
Cool. I want one to mess around with! I was thinking it would be inside the pod, like on the van. Nice move putting it on top. --- Quote from: kahlid74 on January 25, 2013, 11:05:50 am ---The motion up is a jerk at the start because it's easy but as it climbs it encounters resistance and becomes smooth. The motion down is smooth until about 35-40 degrees above 0 and then it comes down hard. I associate this to the fact that I can move the track on the motor moderately easy, which makes sense since you can also open the lift gate by hand. So it's 100% confirmed that I will need struts to let the door close smoothly without force and also lift smoothly at the first phase. I assume once I add the side door the motion up will be smooth with all the weight associated. --- End quote --- The Pololu software allows you to start the motor out slow and brake as it nears the limit switches. I imagine people have accounted for this with the Arduino as well. As long as the motor isn't overloaded by the door, you could most likely smooth out the motion in software. They also make adjustable gas struts, but I've never used them. |
| kahlid74:
--- Quote from: BadMouth on January 25, 2013, 11:25:18 am ---Cool. I want one to mess around with! I was thinking it would be inside the pod, like on the van. Nice move putting it on top. --- Quote from: kahlid74 on January 25, 2013, 11:05:50 am ---The motion up is a jerk at the start because it's easy but as it climbs it encounters resistance and becomes smooth. The motion down is smooth until about 35-40 degrees above 0 and then it comes down hard. I associate this to the fact that I can move the track on the motor moderately easy, which makes sense since you can also open the lift gate by hand. So it's 100% confirmed that I will need struts to let the door close smoothly without force and also lift smoothly at the first phase. I assume once I add the side door the motion up will be smooth with all the weight associated. --- End quote --- The Pololu software allows you to start the motor out slow and brake as it nears the limit switches. I imagine people have accounted for this with the Arduino as well. As long as the motor isn't overloaded by the door, you could most likely smooth out the motion in software. They also make adjustable gas struts, but I've never used them. --- End quote --- The initial idea was inside but once I actually looked at it, the part that went up with a curve wasn't practical at all. So I removed it, then I wound up grinding a bunch of the arm down and I then settles on the arm and bottom attachment. |
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