Hi, I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to circuits and I'm currently working on a personal project that requires a small, light panel to be lifted slowly, pause then released at the same pace as before. Instead of using a switch, I'd want to use an active motion sensor to trigger the motion. How would I go on about designing/making this?
Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thank you.

 

What problem are You trying to solve ?

How fast, and how far, is "slowly" ?
How much does the Panel weigh ?
Does it hang by wires, or is it mounted to an articulated Arm ?
Does it change angles, or just move Up and Down ?, or maybe side to side ?

"" Trigger the motion ""
What motion ?, and why does it need to move ?, and compared to what ?
Does it need to track the movement of another object ?
Is this an "On-Off", 2-position movement ?, or a proportional-movement ?
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Hi, I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to circuits and I'm currently working on a personal project that requires a small, light panel to be lifted slowly, pause then released at the same pace as before. Instead of using a switch, I'd want to use an active motion sensor to trigger the motion. How would I go on about designing/making this?

Are you asking just how to sense motion for triggering, or the whole mechanical drive?

There are PIR and Doppler sensor devices, which can be used, though may have mis-triggers. IR break sensor (emitter+ receiver), which won't detect motion per-se, but would detect a break in the beam path. There are also ultrasonic transducers. All of those are straightforward to implement (though ultrasonic would likely require more support logic for timing and comparing successive range-to-object readings). This also presume "active motion sensor" to "trigger the motion" is for starting your lift and drop cycle - and not say also to ascertain you've reached a limit of that travel, so that it can reverse, in which case you're looking for a proximity sensor (there are proxumity sensors, like capacitive touch, but sense before any physical contact), or some make/break (like an interrupted light beam, magnet + hall effect sensor or reed switch).

You don't provide much detail on your project - is there an µC, or will it all be discrete electronics? How far is the motion? Do you have a mechanical drive system already, or are you asking how to make that as well? Is the panel connected by power/signal wires (flexing of which, and range of motion may be issues) is it's motion relative to ground, or in another plane? Is it rigid, or can it blow in the wind (panel could be raised and lowered by cord and stepper or servo)? Are you designing PCBs for this, or is everything protoboard and/or breadboard? What's your mechanical situation - are you dealing with OTS parts, or do you have a 3d printer?

The first thing in designing this is going to be to consider the various real-world interractions of the device, because how you do things will be greatly impacted by those. Is your device runnning from batteries? Some sensors consume power power than others (and drive mechanisms as well).

 

Curiously, in similar threads: https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/how-to-build-circuit-for-lifting-mechanism.23870/

 

Curiously, in similar threads: https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/how-to-build-circuit-for-lifting-mechanism.23870/

Thank you Splud, that's actually really helpful! I'll have a little read through and see what I can find.
Thank you again for your help, I really appreciate it.