Thanks Paul. I'm a bit lost on what I should do. I'm kind of hearing what I shouldn't do. For an application like this what alternative would you use to the L298N to run the linear actuator? and what DC-DC 12V to 3.3V would you recommend to use for this application? I imagine there would be premium models for everything. I'm kind of after the "Toyota" here, something durable, but not overly pricey.