How to wire these louvre motors?

[rthorntn]

G'day,

Advice much appreciated, thanks for your time!

Basically I am about to have some motorised louvres installed and would love some help on how I would wire it.

Its basically 4 x 24v DC motors with +ve and -ve, each motor does a quarter of the blades.

The diagram in the pdf below (I think) shows:
 +ve on the 24v psu cabled to a switch for opening and then to +ve on the louvre when switched on.
 +ve on the 24v psu cabled to a switch for closing and then to -ve on the louvre when switched on.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2436853/Powerlouvre_Window_Wiring.pdf

Because it is my house, my wife will be using it and I am a beginner I want to do this right

Basically I want to control this with relays (home automation, open/close based on temperature) and wall switches (if the home automation has issues).

How would I wire it?

Thanks.

Richard

[David_AVD]

You can use relays in place of the switches in those diagrams.  Activate one relay to open and the other to close.

[rthorntn]

Thanks David, but can I have relays and switches in the circuit, if so, how would that look?

[AlfBaz]

Page 34, "twin switch panel wiring" one set can be relays the other manual switches.
Aside from that you would need to find out how the outputs of your home automation setup are configured.

[rthorntn]

Thanks AlfBaz and David_AVD!

Next question: With all that wiring what would be the optimal connection type to use to connect everything up?

I would be happy to avoid soldering

Also, just in case i'm not approaching this correctly, is there a relay that can be switched both with a button and using an MCU, so collapsing the switch and relay in to a single device, basically a relay with a manual override?

Thanks.

Richard

[David_AVD]

You can get relays with a button on the top for manual operation, but they are not common and usually more expensive than regular relays.

If you want to avoid soldering, maybe go for relays that plug into DIN rail bases.  Those bases have screw terminals.

[hlavac]

Look up "H-bridge" for reversible DC motor driving.
Also, can you tell when to stop? I mean, what happens when the louvres are fully closed/open?
You may detect that by measuring the higher stall current...

[David_AVD]

A lot of window motors have either limit switches or electronics built-in to stop at the end of travel.

[rthorntn]

David_AVD thanks and I believe the motors have limit switches.

hlavac, brilliant, I have in front of me two "ebay special" L298N boards, each board can support driving 2 motors:

http://www.geeetech.com/wiki/index.php/L298N_Motor_Driver_Board

I also have a arduino mega2560 with a PoE ethernet shield, a rotary encoder and I will order up some buttons, here is what I want to get working with your kind help eevbloggers

Independent control of all four louvre motors in forward or reverse using either a panel interfaced directly to the arduino or TCPIP (later project).

The panel will probably have two momentary switches, four latching switches and a rotary encoder:

two momentary switches for "open all" and "close all" louvres
four latching switches to enable each motor for movement using the encoder
moving the encoder one way will open the enabled louvres the other way will close.

A rotary encoder might not be the best idea because it doesn't automatically return to "centre" when you release it (like the old VCR jog shuttle dials), "centre" being the louvres not opening or closing?

Can anyone recommend the best buttons to use, it will be on a wall in my living room?
Can anyone help with cabling up the arduino and the driver boards "ENA" and ENB are confusing me because I do not need PWM speed control of the motors?
Can anyone help with the coding?

A lot of asks, happy to remunerate

Cheers
Richard

[rthorntn]

Update

For the inputs to control the louvre, I went with one of these:

http://www.4dsystems.com.au/product/1/9/4D_Intelligent_Display_Modules/uLCD_32PTU/

Looks cool I will add the buttons I need to the touchscreen and have it communicate with my arduino using serial...

[David_AVD]

Looks like a fun project that will be satisfying to complete and use.   

[rthorntn]

Thanks David_AVD, using a touchscreen should simplify things and it should look cool.

[AlfBaz]

using a touchscreen should simplify things

That's funny and scary at the same time, it's now easier to implement a touch screen than a switch

[rthorntn]

I actually had a working solution for this with an arduino and two L298N but it was messy and not very versatile.

Does anybody know of a nice clean solution to independently control four 24v 0.5a DC motors remotely it would be great if it had an ethernet or wifi with an http api that would allow me to easily control to louvres with a (future) domotics system.

Ideally DIN mount with mains power in and eight terminals to connect the motors

[rthorntn]

Anyone? Bueller