Hello, i recently purchased one of these vintage elevator switches (check out the pic in the attachments) and I want to automate it. Im very new to arduino but doing some research I figured a stepper motor would be best for this project. Basically I need 3 positions. The neutral one which is vertical and then the "up" and "down" position as if you were the elevator operator and going up or down to other floors. I wanted this to be controlled from a button. Push one button and the handle moves from the vertical position toward the left (down position) and then after a few seconds return back to the vertical neutral position. And the other button to go from the vertical neutral position to the right (up position) and then after a few seconds return back to the neutral position. Can anyone point me in the right direction of where to find an example of a code I can work with?
I would use a servo for that rather than a stepper, much easier to deal with and more power efficient.
Wow...!! That is a NICE piece of gear.
I take it you are going to attack the mechanical on the rear side of the mechanism.
Would be a crying shame to deface the existing piece front face.
You may find, depending how much force is required to move the handle mechanism in the time allotted, that you might have to make your own servo mechanism.
Not difficult using a series permanent magnet motor and gearbox unit ( heaps of torque).
Plenty with many various ratios on Ebay and use a pot connected directly to the switch pivot to give position feedback to the Arduino.
Nice project.
I'm sure there are pretty powerful servos for sale out there.
I would also be sure to add some type of slip clutch, so the neighbours kid doesn’t ‘crank’ the mechanism out of the wall!