I am hardly missing a possibility to control my hydraulic gearbox in my boat: Foreward - Neutral - Backward.
From my steering position two microswitches are activated by respectively foreward and backward.
Normal position of the actuator should in neutral ( middle position ).
When activating microswitch 1 (making contact), the actuator should move 34 mm from middle position in one direction.
When deactivating microswitch 1 (breaking contact), the actuator shuld automaticly move back into middle position again.
When activating microswitch 2, the actuator should move 34 mm from middle position in the opposite direction and stay there until the contatact is broken and den move back into middle position again.
The speed should be less than 1 sec from middle position to the end positions.
Sombody told me, that this should be possible by using an Ardinio uno but have had no succes ind finding a solution until now.
Does anybody have a solution on this problem and maybe already have made it by themself?
If so I realy do hope, that they will share it with me.
Hard to say without more details, but I expect it's possible. I think you would be lucky to find a ready made project to suit your needs but you may find that someone has done something similar -perhaps using a linear actuator for a very different purpose for instance.
What specific actuator do you have and are the microswitches already in place? How is the gearbox controlled today?
ariesdk:
Today my gearbox is operated by push-pull wire wich activate one microswitch for forward and one for reverse.
These 2 microswitches are controling a Linak L12 actuator (12 volt) but it is too slow for maneuvering in harbours:
Is this a standard factory fitted feature on the boat?
How do other owners of the same sort of boat deal with the problem?
An Arduino with some ancillary components could control your actuator but I'm not sure it would do what you want. It appears that it's capable of 40mm/s maximum, so it might be able to go a bit faster, but I suspect that under load, it won't manage its top speed.
Also, I expect that there is a reason it slows down as it approaches the endpoint - it would need less components to just ram the actuator to the stop at full speed but the installer chose a soft stop controller for some reason. I'd guess to make sure it doesn't reduce gearbox life, so it might be wise to keep doing that.
To get substantially more speed, I think you would need a different actuator and to be sure that you can supply the thing enough current. You can get versions with feedback pots to tell you where they are. Then you could do a fast change and still go slow in the final millimeters to be gentle to the gearbox.
Seems you boat has been around for some time. Have you cleaned up ALL the electrical connections and is the system using large enough wire to carry the needed current?
ariesdk:
No, it is my own idea - but there are factory made systems - very very expensive. - Not for pensioners ;-))
I'm still a bit at sea.
Are you saying the boat originally had no remote control system and you installed the Linak L12 actuator but you have found that it is too slow and you are looking for advice about a faster actuator?