today i've tried to control the actuator with the Arduino but it didn't work, I should remove it from the car and do tests at home but it's a bit complicated and testing the signal from the car is complicated too as you have to start and stop it everytime, also I don't want to burn something inside car's ECU. So i've decided to do something easier, as the valve opens when the car starts and it stays open for like 10secs I'm thinking of making a sort of remote disconnection of the valve by putting a relay on the +12v wire on the valve and controlling it with a 433mhz RF remote to disconnect it by opening the relay so the valve won't get the power supply and will stay open. Do you think it should work?

 

Today I did some testing on the voltages: the power supply is around 12v and the signal is around 3.50v, i've also checked car's schematics and it's not lin bus it only says it's controlled by the PCM so it maybe a simple pwm signal, I didn't test it with an oscilloscope yet. This simplifies everything because in case I want to do the first version of the circuit that opens and closes the valve I don't need to use the mosfet to amplify the arduino signal but the relay on the signal wire should be enough.

I also noticed that when the car starts the valve is already open so I think that when the car stops it opens the valve. So my question now is, in case I want to do the "simple" version of the circuit by only cutout the valve when the car starts where is the best to put the relay? 12v, signal or gnd?

Thank you

 

I would be looking at the signal using a scope. Note the pulse width and frequency. That assuming the third wire has a pulse signal.

Ron

 

I did some tests with a logic analyzer, I don't know exactly how to interpret the signal when the valve is in idle because I see a 1hz signal with almost 1 second duty cycle could it be the logic analyzer not reading it well?
When the valve needs to open it sends a 19.69ms high (98.5 duty cicle) at 50hz and the same when it needs to be closed.
The only thing I noticed is that on closing the pwm signal is sent for around 0.8seconds and to open the valve for 1.3seconds

 

The open and close signals look identical except for the overall time. Icrease the sweep speed to see if there is any information contained in the negative pulses.

 

I'm not very expert in signal analysis, sweep speed was at 12MS/s and 6MS/s it should be the maximum speed if i'm not wrong.
What do you think about the idle signal? This is something a bit strange to me

Talking about the simplified circuit that just cuts out the actuator, as I have the signal and the power supply what if I put the relay on the GND? This should shutdown the actuator when opened, isn't it?

 

Hi ets23,
Was hoping you could help me out, i'm trying to connect the Kuster actuator on a project car. just need to be able to open/close it.

could you tell me how you did this?

i have a PWM controller with 1= 12V positive,, 2= negative (earth), 3= motor + , 4= Motor -
and the Kuster actuator has 1=12V = 2= signal (motor +?) 3= negative (earth)

also very interested in what PWM signal you send, 200HZ and then 100% at 12V or remove the wire?

 

hi freek,
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