Arduino controlled actuated grill block

[Daox]

Well, if everything goes well and there is interest, I could draw up some diagrams for it as well as make up a nice parts list so anyone could do it. That was kind of my original plan. I've heard a lot of guys talk about it and want to do it, but nobody has done it yet AFAIK. So, I'll help pave the way and others can use that to make their own.

I'll definitely give the 12V a shot tonight when I get home.

[lunarhighway]

I could draw up some diagrams for it as well as make up a nice parts list so anyone could do it

that would be nice... with time not in high supply a working example with instructions might fast forward my own attempt.

[jimepting]

I too would like to see some plans and parts list. That way, I could leave my screwdriver home;-)

[Daox]

Its alliiiive. Thanks dcb, the 12 volts did the trick with the h-bridge. It runs perfectly now. So, I made a short video of the testing. I currently just have it setup to go in and out depending on what pin I ground, so you'll see me grounding two different pins to alternate the direction the actuator travels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av14FsWlQvI

[dcb]

Sweet That's a nice h-bridge you found there. So just a pulse needed to move it in our out perhaps?

You might want to try to measure how much force and travel you have to work with too. That should narrow down a lot of the design decisions.

[Daox]

Yeah, I'm currently pulsing the open/close command to the actuator for a half second. With the actuator currently not under any load, it is more than enough time to get full actuation. We'll see if some tweaking is needed after its installed. At the moment, I'm not planning on using any switches to verify open/closed status.

[dcb]

Sure, can just send another pulse every 30 seconds or so if the temperature is still high or low. I can visualize some venetian blind looking flaps snapping open and shut already

[sepp]

hello, since you will be passing cables through the engine bay to the inside of the car anyway, wouldn't it have been more easy to simply use a metal cable on wich you push-pull from the inside to open or close the grill? you could recover that from an old bicycle's brakes.
that system has always been widely used in cars, just think of the accelerator pedal or all the buttons that controll the airflow and heat... would be more ecological aswell i suppose.
anyway, that thing of yours looks quite heavy and powerfull, make sure it can't put stress on any non-moving parts. or it seems like if the grill was obstructed, that it could tear up the front of your car lol

[Daox]

Well, first off there won't be any cables going to the inside of the car. The grill block will be fully automatic and all electronics will be under the hood. The current bench testing setup uses manual controls simply for testing purposes. Once things are ready to go on the car the manual control will be swapped for a temperature sensor that will control the opening and closing of the door.

Would it have been easier to do a manually actuated grill block? Absolutely! This was a step for me to make me learn some electronics and how to work with micro controllers. Also, the Matrix is really my wife's car. She will not want to have to deal with opening and closing something and watching coolant temperature to make sure the engine doesn't overheat.

The actuator, while powerful won't be enough to mess up anything with the car. The door will be thoroughly tested before its installed as well to make sure everything will work correctly.

[wyatt]

I am wondering how hard it might be to hook this up with a display so you could see what the engine temp is. It would be a lot like the MPGuino I would guess... so it should be able to be done. Also, if you did this, you may be able to code it up with a MPGuino like interface where you can set open and close temps, and have a calibration area. I think it would be useful information to see.