Greetings all! This is my first post so I will get the intro out of the way before getting down to business:
My name is Scott, I am in the Navy, married, 2 teenage daughters, 5 dogs, 2 cats, 1 horse. My electronics background is limited to basic theory for the most part. I have a general understanding of how circuits work, what the purposes of most components are, etc. I have very little experience with actually working on these things though. Pretty much limited to basic home/auto-repair style stuff.
So heres the project I'm looking for some help with:
On my car, I have installed some Koni adjustable struts.
**broken link removed**
What I would like to do is build a system to adjust them remotely, from the drivers seat.
-In the picture, the white knob on top of the strut is the adjustment knob. It slips on and off, and is only used for manual operation.
-The actual piece being operated is a small flat ear similar to a flathead screwdriver tip, about 1/2" wide.
-The range of motion is 2 full turns.
-There is very little torque required. can be done by fingers
-In a perfect world, I would be able to adjust them back and forth from the drivers seat to a minimum of 4 distinct positions, but more would be okay.
-I need to know exactly what position they are in at any given time, so either through switch position or indicator lights would work.
-There are four struts, but they should be operated in groups of two (front and rear separate)
-Space available is very limited
In my attempts so far to figure this out, I am getting the idea a stepping motor might be the way to go, but I am really only guessing. There may very well be a better option out there. I understand that a stepping motor needs some sort of controller, but I'm not really sure how all that would work...
Any thoughts about how to do this?
My name is Scott, I am in the Navy, married, 2 teenage daughters, 5 dogs, 2 cats, 1 horse. My electronics background is limited to basic theory for the most part. I have a general understanding of how circuits work, what the purposes of most components are, etc. I have very little experience with actually working on these things though. Pretty much limited to basic home/auto-repair style stuff.
So heres the project I'm looking for some help with:
On my car, I have installed some Koni adjustable struts.
**broken link removed**
What I would like to do is build a system to adjust them remotely, from the drivers seat.
-In the picture, the white knob on top of the strut is the adjustment knob. It slips on and off, and is only used for manual operation.
-The actual piece being operated is a small flat ear similar to a flathead screwdriver tip, about 1/2" wide.
-The range of motion is 2 full turns.
-There is very little torque required. can be done by fingers
-In a perfect world, I would be able to adjust them back and forth from the drivers seat to a minimum of 4 distinct positions, but more would be okay.
-I need to know exactly what position they are in at any given time, so either through switch position or indicator lights would work.
-There are four struts, but they should be operated in groups of two (front and rear separate)
-Space available is very limited
In my attempts so far to figure this out, I am getting the idea a stepping motor might be the way to go, but I am really only guessing. There may very well be a better option out there. I understand that a stepping motor needs some sort of controller, but I'm not really sure how all that would work...
Any thoughts about how to do this?