Automated blinds, project basic principle ideas please

[lompa]

Before i strat going on about things i will just say abit about my background. I am looking for a final year project for my computer & digital product design course, my course is not as detailed as pure Electronic Eng. My project must really include product based design and microprocessor design.

I have been looking at the forums which i must say are a great help. I have seen some motor control ideas.

am i thinking that a simple light sensing circuit with feedback that would controll a stepper motor clockwise or anti clockwise.

How could i encorporate a PIC micro controller into this?

Would a R/c servo do this job?

Also is it possible to adapt a sevo so that it will be able to obtain a greater rotation range?

Am i on the right lines? any suggestions on how to improve upon this idea or if you have any other great ideas please post below

thanks for your time

P.S the other idea i had was a PIC motor controller that would monitor the RPM speeds of a motor and would contantly spin at the same speed even if the load is increased/decreased (eg lifts, supermarket conveyers ect) what do you think of this idea?

 

[bmcculla]

A stepper motor would probably work for this project.

The PIC could read the voltage from the light sensor and generate the drive signals for the stepper.

Driving a motor at a constant speed despite a varying load is fairly common. The most common type of control is called a PID controller. the PID algorithim can be easily implemented in a microcontroller.