Hello! I am new and not very knowledgeable in electronics (thus why I am here 
) so I hope I can give a clear enough description in this post to have someone help me figure out what components I need and how to wire my project. So I appologize for the long post, but wanted to give as much info as I can on my situation.
My project is a snowplow on my ATV that I have added an actuator to angle the plow left/right. I also have a solenoid mounted on the plow which pulls a locking pin when energized, and a spring returns it to the locked position when off. The factory winch raises and lowers the plow. So the way I have it right now is 3 switches to run all of this. I first turn ON the solenoid switch which pulls (and holds) the locking pin and then I use the actuator switch to either angle the blade left or right. When I am close to one of the 5 angled positions the blade can be locked in, I turn the solenoid off, thus dropping the locking pin, and when the pin drops into the slot I stop pressing the actuator switch. The solenoid is a simple ON/OFF switch, the actuator is a ON/OFF/ON momentary DP/DT switch, and the winch is a ON/OFF/ON momentary that came with the ATV so I am not sure of the switch type, but from what I can see there are only 3 wires connected to it (one being 12V+ and the other 2 wires run to the factory winch components which either wind in or out the winch cable depending on which side of the switch is pressed).
What I want to do is clean up my current setup, make it weather resistant as possible, and reduce the number of switches. I am sure there is a complicated way to make this all automated and hit one button when I want to angle the blade, but that is way beyond my understanding and also probably budget. LOL I am trying to do this as cheaply as I can. I found a great deal on a Eaton 4 way switch which I would like to use to control the actuator and the winch. When I talked to tech support they told me to get 4 basic contact blocks that are NO, but after doing more research these won't work for the actuator as I need to reverse polarity which my current DP/DT switch does for me. I am assuming the winch side of things will be fine with the standard contact block, but wanted you guys to confirm for me as well.
This is the Eaton switch I have bought now and these are the standard contact blocks they sold me with it ( I have 4 of them). For the solenoid I bought this basic ON/OFF switch. I bought this box to mount the Eaton and the Carling switches in and mount to the handle bar of the ATV.
Winch control: So I believe I can keep 2 of the standard contact blocks and use them for the winch controls by wiring them with the 12V+ wire to the top of both contact blocks and then one of each of the remaining 2 wires from the factory winch switch to the bottom of each block. This would then allow me to remove the factory winch switch.
Actuator control: From what I understand I would need to reverse polarity and the standard Eaton contact block they sold me won't do that by itself. I could add relays, but I am limited on space and also want to make this as simple and cost effective as I can. So I am wondering if the contact block I found online would work for me. This is the double block that I found and I would return 2 of the standard blocks and buy 2 of these instead. I don't know if that would work, or how to wire this to function correctly like my current DP/DT switch does.
Solenoid control: The new Carling basic ON/OFF switch will get mounted next to the Eaton 4 way switch and should be a straight forward swap of the current wires I have setup already on the existing switch. (just a cheap one I had laying around, but not water proof)
The actuator I have is not from this company, but looks to be exactly the same with specs and all. I have the 6" with 20:1 gears like this one from Northern Tool. The company I got mine from no longer has it on their website, but these links should give you the info on it.
This is the solenoid I used from Digi-key.
I am open to all ideas on improving this setup and thank you all in advance for any input you can give me.
Thanks
Bryan
) so I hope I can give a clear enough description in this post to have someone help me figure out what components I need and how to wire my project. So I appologize for the long post, but wanted to give as much info as I can on my situation.My project is a snowplow on my ATV that I have added an actuator to angle the plow left/right. I also have a solenoid mounted on the plow which pulls a locking pin when energized, and a spring returns it to the locked position when off. The factory winch raises and lowers the plow. So the way I have it right now is 3 switches to run all of this. I first turn ON the solenoid switch which pulls (and holds) the locking pin and then I use the actuator switch to either angle the blade left or right. When I am close to one of the 5 angled positions the blade can be locked in, I turn the solenoid off, thus dropping the locking pin, and when the pin drops into the slot I stop pressing the actuator switch. The solenoid is a simple ON/OFF switch, the actuator is a ON/OFF/ON momentary DP/DT switch, and the winch is a ON/OFF/ON momentary that came with the ATV so I am not sure of the switch type, but from what I can see there are only 3 wires connected to it (one being 12V+ and the other 2 wires run to the factory winch components which either wind in or out the winch cable depending on which side of the switch is pressed).
What I want to do is clean up my current setup, make it weather resistant as possible, and reduce the number of switches. I am sure there is a complicated way to make this all automated and hit one button when I want to angle the blade, but that is way beyond my understanding and also probably budget. LOL I am trying to do this as cheaply as I can. I found a great deal on a Eaton 4 way switch which I would like to use to control the actuator and the winch. When I talked to tech support they told me to get 4 basic contact blocks that are NO, but after doing more research these won't work for the actuator as I need to reverse polarity which my current DP/DT switch does for me. I am assuming the winch side of things will be fine with the standard contact block, but wanted you guys to confirm for me as well.
This is the Eaton switch I have bought now and these are the standard contact blocks they sold me with it ( I have 4 of them). For the solenoid I bought this basic ON/OFF switch. I bought this box to mount the Eaton and the Carling switches in and mount to the handle bar of the ATV.
Winch control: So I believe I can keep 2 of the standard contact blocks and use them for the winch controls by wiring them with the 12V+ wire to the top of both contact blocks and then one of each of the remaining 2 wires from the factory winch switch to the bottom of each block. This would then allow me to remove the factory winch switch.
Actuator control: From what I understand I would need to reverse polarity and the standard Eaton contact block they sold me won't do that by itself. I could add relays, but I am limited on space and also want to make this as simple and cost effective as I can. So I am wondering if the contact block I found online would work for me. This is the double block that I found and I would return 2 of the standard blocks and buy 2 of these instead. I don't know if that would work, or how to wire this to function correctly like my current DP/DT switch does.
Solenoid control: The new Carling basic ON/OFF switch will get mounted next to the Eaton 4 way switch and should be a straight forward swap of the current wires I have setup already on the existing switch. (just a cheap one I had laying around, but not water proof)
The actuator I have is not from this company, but looks to be exactly the same with specs and all. I have the 6" with 20:1 gears like this one from Northern Tool. The company I got mine from no longer has it on their website, but these links should give you the info on it.
This is the solenoid I used from Digi-key.
I am open to all ideas on improving this setup and thank you all in advance for any input you can give me.
Thanks
Bryan
