Another remote control volume thread?

[peace brainerd]

Asking those who have dealt with this.

I just scoured the net, and diyaudio, for an abc, plain vanilla, bone simple, off-the-shelf, way to turn a rotary knob (it controls air delivery at 24psi, 0 to 10L/min but applies as well to the basic aim of remote volume control) with a an emulating rotary dial on an RF remote.

I anticipate fixing the servo to contol the machine's 0 to 10L/min rotary knob. So I only need the mechanicals. I will figure out how to rig the interface mechanically.

I'd strongly prefer to use RF for "whole house" coverage.

To be succinct. Is there an "off the shelf" (no coding, scaling, etc) kit, or two to three discrete complementary parts, available so that I can control a rotary servo motor with a rotary dial on a hand held remote, so that the hand held rotary knob emulates the rotation sufficient to scale it and maintain that scale? I thought that would be found among some of the DIY volume control designs posted on the web but most of them incorporate extras such as integated volume pots, preamps, and more.... driving the price and unneeded extras beyond my needs.

For example, once the elements are powered, I sit three feet from the device, turn the remote knob until the servo motor rotates the machine knob to 1L/min. Mark it off on the remote. Turn it until the machine knob brings it to 1.5L/min. Mark that on the remote. Add on............

This would SEEM to be eminently simple as a robotics function. Yet I can find NOTHING this straightforward. I'm astonished.

Any clues?

[jkuetemann]

Have you looked into the types of controls used with RC (Radio Control) hobbiests? A control moves X amount and the corresponding servo moves X amount.

[counter culture]

I have done lots of this kind of stuff.

There are many ways of doing this kind of thing now, either using traditional PPM FM radio, or digital servo, or you can even use your Android or Apple phone as the remote. Probably the simplest is an RC car (pistol type) controller, 2-channel RX and a servo (plus battery). You can either strip the parts and re-house them, or use them as-is. They are also available built into little helicopters, etc., at amazingly low prices.

You can't be looking in the right place, this stuff, remote control, is everywhere now.

[jwilhelm]

This sounds like an Arduino project. Check out the Arduino playground.

[peace brainerd]

Originally Posted by jwilhelm

This sounds like an Arduino project. Check out the Arduino playground.

Am I wrong or does anything arduino require a learning curve? And I'm, honestly, not being ornery, but any suggestion of stripping/cannibalizing for something this simple just makes my blood boil.

Is there anything more simple, robotically, than rotating a servo motor with a dial remote that emulates the rotation of that servo with the hand/fingertip? Seriously?

Robotics/RC 101? So why is this an elusive animal? It's like asking for a source for phillips head screwdrivers and being told that "well, you're the only person who's asked that question... and I've worked this tool supply desk for 20 years". "Maybe you could program the a revolving phillips head with an arduino hobby board". "Maybe you could go to Autozone and buy a 48.99 dashboard installation kit.... I think that includes a phillips head screwdriver".

Sounds like hyperbole? So why can't find this? Turn a servo motor with an emulating dial on an RF hand remote. That's it. Simple. ABC. Junior High science class fundamentals.

But I browse the RC and robotics sites and nothing simply fits the purpose. Amazing.

I'm being impatient perhaps. It's the thanksgiving weekend. I'll phone a few robotics sites tomorrow and hopefully get a technician on the line to iterate this more precisely, with the correct terminology, and hopefully get what i need.

[jwilhelm]

Sorry I couldn't magically make something appear that already made for you. This is a DIY site. You need to track the movement of the servo motor on the remote with something and transmit that to the receiver. The receiver needs to turn the motor on the pot and track how much it moves. It's done with microcontrollers. You have a choice of building one from scratch and learning to program in C or using something like an Arduino that's already built for you and adapting one of the motion control sketches that are already written for it. Pretty much all robotics these days run on some sort of unit like this. Eight year old kids can make it work. If that's too much trouble for you try the dumpster behind a hobby shop. You might find an analogue remote control for a model car or airplane that you can scrape the dinosaur turds off of and botch together for it.