Hi /diy/nosaurs.
I've joined some engineering/diy competition at my work, I'm curious as how would you guys proceed/what are your ideas.
The idea is to allow remote (280m end-to-end of the train) control of 4 pushbuttons, control of a lever (center of the red box) and monitoring of two control lights.
So far I've got communication (LoRa on arduino inside the locomotive, LoRa usb-key on android with the operator), pushbuttons, LEDs monitoring and power figured out.
My team have some ideas about controlling the lever, which may require up to ~40N to push a full 90°, but so far nothing groundbreaking.
Any input on controlling a slippery rubber lever ?
>>984067
Additional thoughts :
We gotta be non-invasive, so we're gonna go with suction cups & magnets on a panel that holds everything mechanical. We aren't guaranteed the surfaces we're latching on will be metal so...
Also it's not a commercial product or anything, not gonna be mass-produced outside of the contest. It's some internal PR stunt to show that we can create stuffs using 3D printing and "new technologies", nonetheless quite fun to join.
What does it control? By that I mean it's obviously a mechanical lever, so hydraulic or pneumatic?
Perhaps you could disconnect hoses at lever and add a spool/coil valve block. Than as long as you can energise coil you would have control over flow. Or have I misunderstood you completley?
Also, is it proportional? Or do the operators use it either on/off
I get the impression you want to rig something up to physically turn the lever, I think the better way would be to bypass it all together
>>984135
It's just an electromechanical switch (not sure that's the word, I mean it has three position with electricals switches on them) not pneumatic nor hydraulic. There are 3 positions, rest (270°), switch 1 (about 245°) and 180° (all of that assuming clockwise and 0° north). Also a spring get it back into rest if no pressure is applied.
I can't disconnect anything, as I need to be totally non-invasive, we need to replace the manned actions by robotics ones.
>>984137
Off/pos1/pos2, reset to off if let go. I can't really bypass it, the point of the challenge is to not disconnect/plug anything, basically making a robotic interface to replace a human.
For now we are going with two electric actuators and some sort of molded/3d printed plastic "hand" on the lever...
The biggest pain in the ass is that we're not sure if the panels are going to be metal, since we were going to use strong magnets to plant our base "controller", so we need to use suction cups.
>>984151
Actually, mine is more like pic related.
(never had anyone killed in commercial travel since 1980 tho, can't say that much about the germans !)
But don't worry anon, it's just a prototype intended for doors maintenance. The worst that could happen is our 1kg Li-Ion battery catching fire and burning a Z2N...
>>984146
In the photo it appears as if there is two bolt holes to the left of the lever. Could you incorporate them to attach a 3D printed mount to or would that be deemed 'invasive'
>>984185
Good catch, but I can't unscrew them, and they are usually painted over/not very deep.
I think the suction cups will do okay, it's glossy paint so it should hold. I don't really know how successful we will be at turning the lever...
