actuator advice

[Matthew Sparks]

Hi,
I am working on an Arduino project and I need to come up with some kind of hand held actuator.
I need basically to push a button repeatedly mechanically

so something you could hold in your hand, and place over a button like on a video game or the like
that when signaled by the arduino would press the button. once - twice or multiple times...

any ideas on what I should use?
Thanks
Matt Sparks

[Matt Joyce]

A solenoid springs to mind.

[Matt Joyce]

That's not a pun.

[Ryan Micallef]

I disagree.  That was a great pun.

A solenoid is a good bet, but there are other options, depending on what you have in mind.  E.g., you could use this actuator to pull down a lever onto the button or flip a switch.

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8782

A servo might also do the job.

Keep in mind you may need more power than the arduino can supply alone, so think a little about a separate power supply and switching higher current with, perhaps, a transistor.

Alternately, if you needn't leave the controller intact, just use the arduino to short the button wires together as necessary.

You making a star-power foot pedal for Guitar Hero?  If it works, I'll be your first customer.

--
Sent from my MacBook Wheel

[Matthew Kime]

what kind of button?

when i asked that question someone wisely guided me toward an opto-isolator.

On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 5:59 PM, Matthew Sparks<mspar...@mac.com> wrote:
>

[William Ward]

Sounds like the original post was about building a "cybernetic" fast finger.  So yeah, it would be interesting to have something that can smack that button faster than you could twitch yourself.

Actuators fast enough to be interesting will probably involve something rotary, so check out rotary solenoids at http://www.solenoids.com/ .

Other folks are correct, you'll have to supply "mo' powa'" to drive such a device (likely, but not a given, and I'm not looking) but that's not a big deal.  Strap it on and let the Arduino boost your high score. ;)

Bill

[dr...@stonedcoder.org]

... you hacking?

I've thought about a handheld keypad interaction device, for brute forcing
access control keypads and such. I figure the best thing would be to have
a roughly palm sized grid of 10x10 solenoids, and have a keypad on the
back to assign digits to solenoids so you can handle pretty much any size
keypad.

Problem is solenoids are tricky, I have some here that are half inch
throw, I guess they would work but you'd want a frame that holds the
actuators a quarter inch above the buttons or something.

This plays into the whole vision of what a bug (bug labs bug) could be.
this could be a double wide module and the double wide LCD/touchscreen
would be a great interface.

Likewise having the standard arduino type outputs on the bug:

http://www.buglabs.net/modules/bugvonhippel

allows for you to do some really cool stuff with patching into a given
device and issuing series of commands directly. Naturally this would
require you carry around a giant pile of datasheets, but that's what
kindels are for :)

Anyway the question triggered that memory and it would be really cool, and
is a big part of why I love what bug's doing.

Also, I'm not a criminal, I just love thinking about this stuff :P

-Eric

[Matthew Sparks]

not necessarily fast, but accurately timed and strong enough to depress it.
Big green lit up button on the top of a video game
this is a video game playing bot.

What is an Opto-isolator?

[Matthew Kime]

an opto-isolator is an IC with an led and a photo detector. this
allows you to close your switch while maintaining separate circuits.
i'm using this method to "push" buttons on a digital camera. the
downside - you'll probably need to physically modify whatever button
you need to press, if only to connect the wires.

[Dan Lavin]

A stepper motor with a cam to actuate the button would also work.