Sales Advice

[Mutai]

Hi Adafruit!

Project: 1986 BANNED MR2 Climate Controls.

I would like to replace the mechanical climate controls on my project car to electronic ones. Most of the controls involve a lever connected to a cable which is attached to some mechanism, ie a blend door, valves, etc. Moving a lever can change where air flow is output to in the dash, temperature of the air, or whether it's fresh air or recirculating. The fan switch is just a four position switch and three settings for fan speed. There is an automatic mode(4th position), but not sure how this works.

My goal is to remove the cables and have the mechanisms manipulated by servos. Also what I would like to do rather than have a button for each possible function, is to have something graphical and touch screen if possible.

My question is what items should I purchase to best accomplish this? Should I go arduino or raspberry pi? Since this an automotive environment, heat/cold/humidity will be a factor.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I looked through all the products but wasn't sure which way to go. I like the demo of the piTFT touchscreen and thought that would be great, but not sure if it's necessary when there is arduino and touchscreen shield. Also would I need the feedback servo?

I love this place; feeling very inspired. Take it from an EE who hasn't done a lick of engineering since university .

Thanks,
Tomy.

[Franklin97355]

Tomy, I'd start with an Arduino and the tft touchscreen unless your home computer is a Linux box. You won't have as many problems interfacing to the hardware and it should be powerful enough to learn on. You might rethink servos for control unless the doors move very easily as hobby servos (at least the inexpensive ones) don't have much power. Perhaps a linear actuator would suffice.

[adafruit_support_bill]

Good advice from franklin9735. Another option for actuators is a geared stepper. These are the same as the type commonly used in OEM automotive ventilation controls.
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_ ... pper+small