Hi everything, I'm currently working on a project and could use some advise. My goal is to create a real-life "healthbar" that reacts to the lifebar in games. For visual aspects I want to go for mixture of liquid and LED setup looking like this:
The "bottom" part of the picture would be the only visible part and facing towards me.
I have tried a manual setup so far, consisting of a acrylglas pipe with a diameter of 20/16 mm (outer/inner). My plungers are currently two rubber rings with a diameter of 16 mm mounted on wooden sticks. This is air and water tight. To reduce the friction and make motion smoother I have used detergent. The plunger move quite smoothly with that, although I may switch to a liquid with lower viscosity.
The next step would be the automation of the plunger movement. This is the part I'm mostly lost at. The plunger needs to move a distance of ~15cm. Given that life in a game can change quickly, it would need to move that distance in approximately 0.5 s (faster response would be better). The liquid to be displaced would be about ~30 mL.
I have looked at linear actuators but found most of them to be very expensive for a small project and quite large.
Linear stepper motors may work but I'm not sure if they can response fast enough.
I was recommened solenoids but as far as I can see they are only meant for small displacements.
To summarize what I'm trying to achieve:
~15 cm displacement of ~30 mL liquids.
Response speed: 15cm/0.5s
Cost: ~15€
Bonus for low noise