Touch sensor: strip of metal, throw relay?

[Quixote_1]

Well, $250 is certainly more reasonable, but for the moment I can't justify the expense since it would only be the one card that I would be buying in the near future. I am interested in the technology though, and I would be interested in exploring it further once I have a little extra money. Unfortunately, my door system still needs another thousand (approximately) sunk into it before I manage to get it working the way I envisioned.
In the meantime I'll do some research and think of some ways that I could use these devices. I've bookmarked your site and I'll keep an eye out for when you make the new board available.
Thanks!

 

[Brightan]

Well, $250 is certainly more reasonable, but for the moment I can't justify the expense since it would only be the one card that I would be buying in the near future. I am interested in the technology though, and I would be interested in exploring it further once I have a little extra money. Unfortunately, my door system still needs another thousand (approximately) sunk into it before I manage to get it working the way I envisioned.
In the meantime I'll do some research and think of some ways that I could use these devices. I've bookmarked your site and I'll keep an eye out for when you make the new board available.
Thanks!

just to be clear, you are obviously not under any obligation to buy anything from me just because we have been discussing it here. It is a useful exercise in real world applications of a potential new board and your application is an interesting one! My intent wasn't to make this thread into a sales pitch for my boards. Keep posting updates on your project.

 

[Quixote_1]

just to be clear, you are obviously not under any obligation to buy anything from me just because we have been discussing it here. It is a useful exercise in real world applications of a potential new board and your application is an interesting one! My intent wasn't to make this thread into a sales pitch for my boards. Keep posting updates on your project.

No worries. If your board does everything you say it will, then I am definitely interested and would not be buying it out of a feeling of obligation, but rather because it would do exactly what I need. While originally I was hoping to rig something up for under 50 bucks, I think that $200 would be a small price to pay for the safety of my friends, loved ones and me.
Thankfully I can work on my system a bit at a time and take care of everything else before I put in the actuator. I just need to run the wires and then I can worry about that once I can work it into my budget.
I'll definitely be posting updates on the project as it comes together.

 

[Quixote_1]

I was looking at the manual for a winch that I bought with the intention of setting up a pulley system to hoist my bikes up above the stairs up to my apartment and I noticed that the motor current amps range from 0 and no load to 90 at 2000lbs. My two bikes weigh about 60lbs total (I'm guessing), so according to the chart the winch will draw about 15amps. How much work would it be to make your board capable of handling higher amperage rates? I think that there are a lot of uses that may use more than 5 amps. That may be enough for a small actuator, but doesn't even a garage door opener require a 20amp circuit?
Also, there are still some guys out there that like to build battle-bots and those things use a lot of juice too.

 

[Brightan]

I've done higher current H-bridge designs for some military stuff and that starts to become a completely different beast but they are controllable through exactly the same micro-controller setup, just discrete power mosfets and large heatsinks. For something like a slow moving winch and that kind of large currents, a mechanical relay would probably be the most cost effective method.

 

[Quixote_1]

I've done higher current H-bridge designs for some military stuff and that starts to become a completely different beast but they are controllable through exactly the same micro-controller setup, just discrete power mosfets and large heatsinks. For something like a slow moving winch and that kind of large currents, a mechanical relay would probably be the most cost effective method.

I guess I don't really need to detect power spikes on that anyway. I can treat the winch as a whole other project, but I thought maybe I could use one of those extra h-bridges for it.