Power sliding window..again

Gotcha...my misunderstanding.

 

No worries bud, I'm just glad to see some interest As an aside, if someone was interested in changing this up and selling it (MIT licensed github, so you have my blessing) I would look into a less fine pitched lead screw and the 300 RPM motor. Should be able to make the window move MUCH faster, be nearly silent and have plenty of torque to call on. I would also use ABS instead of Nylon as it mounts better with the 3M tape and will withstand higher temperatures.

 

Hey guys, I haven't stopped working on this. I've been talking to a few forum members and have been getting a consistent request to be able to use a faster motor. I'm pretty happy with what I have, but this has been a fun project so tonight I have been working on a multimotor mount that will allow you to mount up either a 15, 20 or 25mm motor (the picture has the 15 and the 25mm models I made in it for reference). The 25mm motors are super common and very powerful with gearheads that go all the way up to 3800 RPM (open and close the window in about 4 seconds) so I suspect that is the one that will be the most popular. I also took the opportunity to increase the motor housing size so that all of the electronics can be housed with it (that back section that says Hot), making it a one piece install. You just mount the housing, run power, connect up the switches and you're done. The motor driver I'm using also has current monitoring available, so I have another layer of 'oh crap!' protection. The last thing I'm looking at is moving to a proper lead screw. I have found a 1/4-16 lead screw that will improve the current open and close time by 30% with no other modifications (from 24 seconds down to 16),is only $10 and will run much quieter than the current 10-24 threaded rod. I'm hoping to find a 1/4-12 lead screw that doesn't cost $100, but no luck so far. As always, everything is in my github

 

I know you already have a design worked out but I was wondering if you had a "rack" attached to the window frame and a motor with a gear on the end of the shaft instead of a screw, wouldn't this be faster and maybe not as loud?

I'm also interested in seeing a design using an actual window regulator motor with the cables. Very fast and quiet.

 

The first design was actually a rack and pinion. The trouble ended up being that, since we are talking about 3d printing and not machining, the pinion wasn't stable on the rack with the design I had come up with and under certain torque loads, it would slip. I could have worked around that I think, but I also ran into mounting issues. The Pinion would have to mount to the truck body somewhere and that means modification to the truck I'll do another video soon with the camera further away from the motor, it really is nowhere near as loud as the video makes it sound, and a proper lead screw instead of a threaded rod will really cut the noise down too.

 

You have put a lot of research into this GREAT JOB!!! I cant wait to see the final product!! Keep up the good work!!!!!

 

Thanks,, it's been a lot of fun. I know it's never going to be as pro as the stuff BenWa has put together, but it works and I'm a bit of a mad scientist anyway

So for tonight's progress I have the multi-motor mount working. This means you guys can use motors up to 25mm and 3800 RPM or all the way down to the 15mm 300 RPM motor I first tested with the same parts.
Here is a 25mm and a 15mm motor next to the new mount


The 15mm motor slides into the adapter which bolts to the bulkhead. The motor itself does not get any screws because I can't find a good source for m.5 (yes, .5) screws, so I made the bracket to fit the contours of the motor and do all the clamping with the frame.


The 25mm is much more traditional and bolts with 2 m3 screws directly to the bulkhead. everything stays in alignment regardless of the motor you use and no other parts, except the shaft coupler obviously, have to be changed.


For electronics, I've decided to go with an Arduino Pro Mini ($5) and an L293D motor driver ($2.50) . The parts are cheap, super plentiful and can take a beating. The entire circuit board will be available on Osh Park and should be available for about $7 for 3 of them. You do NOT need the circuit boards, this is only for one touch open/close, auto closing when you turn the car off, end stops, stuff like that. If you want the window to move like your non auto power windows, you just need a switch and some wire. The entire electronics set are integrated into the back of the motor housing, so there won't be anything but wires to worry about running around the truck.

 

love seeing the updates man!

 

It was electronics tonight. I massaged some protoboard to fit behind the motor, so we might not need to do custom circuit boards at all. Once installed you just have connections in the back for power and the motor. End stops and the actual control switch feed out the front on low voltage pins. The entire circuit board slides in and out, so you wire it up and then insert it into the enclosure. Much easier to work with that way.


Under the Arduino mini is the motor H-Bridge. I'm not worried about it getting too hot because it's on/off duration is going to be so short. The chip uses pins 3,4,5 and 6 as heatsinks anyway, so no biggie there. The 8 pins are for the end stops and the open/close switch. Now it's time to code I hate coding.

 

Having an Arduino seems a bit overkill since all you really need is a way to limit the travel in each direction. This could easily be done with two limit switches (no programming needed) but hey, it's your design so build it your way.

Oh yeah, you could also eliminate the H bridge by using a couple of small 4PDT relays....Just sayin'

 

Will the 2016 models come with the power window as a factory option?

 

Yes and No, If it's just a manual button you are totally right and this could all be done with passives. What I'm working on is having it more like the drivers side auto window. So hit the button twice, it auto opens or closes, hold it down and it's manual. Additionally, if you turn the truck off, I want it to auto close after a countdown period. We'll see how frustrated I get working on the safety stuff like over current protection and stall detection and it may just turn into a manual switch in the end

 

Hey Scratch, I've been experimenting with 3-D printed lead screws. Here is one that I printed for a different project. It is setup to be 1 turn per 50mm, so it shouldn't require a super high RPM motor to travel the distance needed in a short amount of time.



I'm experimenting with how to accurately combine multiple prints as my build capacity tops out at a 200mm lead screw which isn't quite long enough for projects like yours.

Just a thought, might be cheaper (and more customizable) than $100+ steel lead screws.

 

Actually, it would be pretty easy to have a momentary push of the open button cause a relay to latch itself on while sending power to the motor to open the window until a limit switch unlatches the relay. Then, a momentary push of the close button would latch a different relay which would send power to the motor while reversing the polarity. This would stay latched until the window closed and hit a limit switch that would unlatch the relay. The auto close feature when the ignition is powered off could be done with another relay. The reasoning behind using 4PDT relays is: Two of the poles are used to send power to the motor, one pole is used to latch the relay and the fourth pole is used to electrically interlock the relays so both cannot be on at the same time (which would cause a direct short circuit) No Arduino or H-Bridge needed.

I am PLC programmer/Electrical controls engineer, so I do know a thing or two about automated controls but I also know a bit about relay logic.

I was just offering a solution using relays as an alternative to the Arduino because not everyone on here is comfortable with programmable controllers or electronics.

 

Your timing is remarkable. I was just thinking about trying to do a printed screw in Nylon with a 3mm or so hollow core that I could run a threaded rod through. That way I could print the screw in segments and use the rod to join them into longer distances. Are you using OpenSCAD to make the screw?

 

Im honestly leaning more and more towards your relay idea. The entire goal was to be 0 mods to the truck, cheap and simple enough that anyone could build it. As I mentioned, I really don't have plans to do kits or anything like that, so the arduino was my solution for simple and easy to get electronics (I'm a microcontroller dude, so those are my nails) but I really think your relay plan is going to work out better. I'll experiment with some relays I have laying around here somewhere, gotta find them first.

 

BTW, I love this. The whole idea has been morphed and changed because you guys are coming up with ideas and contributing them. Maybe it's not pro, but it's a better solution than I could have come up with on my own.

 

I like the idea of using threaded rod to join the parts together. I was experimenting with glue & pins today but didn't really like the outcome.

Yeah, I'm using OpenSCAD to modify the screw. I didn't create the original design, it is from thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:608282), but I'm tweaking some of the dimensions and trying to integrate a motor coupler directly onto the leadscrew to reduce the number of parts needed.

 

I printed 4 of those leadscrews unmodified and joined them together with some all thread. Works well, just needs a few tweaks. I think your idea is the winner.

http://youtu.be/YX6BoQhJuKA

 

This is awesome!