I have an excavator arm that is anchored down to a box to serve as its base. It currently is controlled by 4 manually operated valves that in turn move 4 pneumatic double acting cylinders. I am trying to switch the valves over to this valve which is controlled by a moving solenoid.
I was wondering if anyone here could point me in the right direction for tutorials/code that shows how to control valves by using a remote control. I have the arduino uno and many transistors/resistors/wires/bred boards/etc
Here are some current photos of the excavator arm and base it sits on with the valves and hoses.
Again, this is a purely mechanical setup driven only by changes in pressure when the operator moves the nob up and down. I want to be able to press a button or move a joystick on a controller to tell the cylinders on the arm to move up and down. Any help is greatly appreciated. I am not receiving any monetary wealth from this project, it is purely an educational project for kids interested in building things.
Driving valves wouldn't be too different from driving regular solenoids or another sort of electromagnet. There is a lot of information out there on driving solenoids and relays via digital logic which will apply to the Arduino, as well as a wealth of material that's Arduino-specific.
Does it need to be an XBox 360 or PS3 controller? They're fairly complex pieces of hardware and use somewhat complicated communication protocols. You'd be better off if you could find an older game pad of some sort. Old PC joysticks with the 15 pin D connector are very easy to use with an Arduino.
It looks like you are getting the 12 volt version and it requires 3 watts. P = V * I 3 = 12 * I I = amps = .25 amps. Therefore, you need to get a 12 volt power supply that can source .25 amps per solenoid.
Note that a relay is nothing more than a solenoid with internal mechanical hardware to create a switch. You can look at any tutorial that talks about connecting a relay to an Arduino.
However, I have a way you can do this without involving the Arduino at all. It will still require heavier duty FET's that can handle the 12 volt, .25 amp requirement, but it will get wireless working fairly quickly.
They have 8 digital IO pins. Using the provided software, you can make the slave (the one connected to the servos) mirror the IO pins on the master. Therefore, if someone hits a pushbutton connected to the master, the slave will act like someone pushed the button.
Is this something like what you need? If so, I would recommend getting the servos working with a simple pushbutton first, then with a pushbutton/FET. Once you get that working, you can upgrade to the wireless. (start simple first. It isn't worth blowing up the wireless radios until you get that working).
If it isn't, let me know and I will brainstorm a different idea.
Edit: If you don't need wireless, and you can handle long wires, forget the wireless component and connect directly to the switches.
Using an actual gaming controller + arduino would take a large amount of time, especially if you are new to this. Plus, that may not last in a museum environment.
I like the joystick idea. So this would only need a circuit designed to open and close the 4 solenoid driven valves? I would probably only need two joysticks then? I'm just looking at this big picture right now. Just throwing out ideas.
The joystick is nothing more than a normally-open pushbutton. You may not need any additional circuitry, except maybe a reverse-protection diode to protect the solenoid coil.
I think the solenoid valves are normally closed until voltage is applied. When voltage is removed, the solenoids close again. It may be easier than you think, simply wiring the switches to a 12v supply and then to the solenoid.
You may be able to limit the part count to the solenoids, two joysticks, and a diode per solenoid.