Background: For our senior design project, we are creating a "smart bathroom" where we are trying to make all of the systems hands-for (selling it for sanitary purposes) and I am responsible for the shower portion (we are also working on a smart mirror and a smart toilet). This includes a smart hub with a Raspberry Pi that will control all of the systems via voice command (e.g. "Turn the shower on", raspberry pi sends a signal to DC motors attached to 3D printed shower handles and turns them to proper temperature settings (70% hot and 30% cold would be a 270 degree turn on the hot handle and a 45 degree turn on the cold handle)). To regulate the temperature, we are going to utilize a thermistor circuit at the output of the shower head (e.g. If the temperature is above 110 degrees, the raspberry pi will tell the DC motors to turn all the way off to turn the water flow off and prevent scalding). We are using a shower with two handles (one hot, one cold) and I am going to remove the original handles and attach 3D printed handles that I will make in SolidWorks. I then plan on attaching the DC motors to the top of these plastic handles so that they can be moved/adjusted autonomously.
My Question: I have never worked with DC motors and don't really know what I would need. A lot of the motors that I'm seeing seem to represent RPMs as a selling point, but I don't think the DC motor that I need will need to turn fast, or much at all. I figured the DC motor would need to be very precise, so that incremental changes can be made to adjust the temperature (e.g. the water reads 95 degrees, but the user wants it to be 100 degrees, so the raspberry pi tells the hot water DC motor to turn 10 degrees to allow more hot water to flow). I'm assuming this would be similar to the motors used in robotic arms, where small, precise movements are necessary?
Any help/insight/feedback would be greatly appreciated!!
Let me know if I need to clarify anything.
My Question: I have never worked with DC motors and don't really know what I would need. A lot of the motors that I'm seeing seem to represent RPMs as a selling point, but I don't think the DC motor that I need will need to turn fast, or much at all. I figured the DC motor would need to be very precise, so that incremental changes can be made to adjust the temperature (e.g. the water reads 95 degrees, but the user wants it to be 100 degrees, so the raspberry pi tells the hot water DC motor to turn 10 degrees to allow more hot water to flow). I'm assuming this would be similar to the motors used in robotic arms, where small, precise movements are necessary?
Any help/insight/feedback would be greatly appreciated!!
Let me know if I need to clarify anything.