Automotive Application Accessory for Interior Electronics

[JG2006]

Hello Everyone,
This is my first post.
I have a project for my car, I have a GPS and iPod that I am building in the car (2007 Toyota) that will "pop-up and out" when I start the car and "hide themselves" when I turn of the car. I am doing this for two reasons 1.) It looks cool 2.) If people don't see them they will be less inclined to steal them (which has happened to me before). So my design is simple and I just have no idea how to wire or control the servos or similar controllers. the movement is 180 degrees clock-wise when the car is in the accessory position and then 180 degrees counter clock-wise when turned of in the accessory position again. If I am unclear about what I am doing I apologize please help,
Thank you Everyone,
JG2006

[Al_The_Man]

You probably do not need servo's per se, as this is really point to point positioning.
If you can find a similar device already used on automobiles that do a similar job, it might be easier to source.
For example, although a bit heavy duty, a wiper motor usually transfers rotary motion to oscilating motion, the sometime have built in limit switches.
It may be possible to use this method with flexible actuator and keep the motor out of the way and use a forward reverse action to move an arm 180 deg.
You probably just need to engage the motor one direction to a limit switch and then reverse to the second L.S.
Al.

[JG2006]

I appreciate the information al_the_man. So, a point to point that is already in use on an automotive accessory sounds promising to me. Thanks again, If anyone can add to this please let me know.
Thanks,
JG2006

[2muchstuff]

Check out the tape transport mechanism used on an old VCR. They use a motor with an overrun clutch to move the tape in and out. The motor gets its signal from the processor to run a predetermined time, whether it be one way or the other. The predetermined time is longer than it takes the transport to move hence the reason for the overrun clutch. You could update the mechanism with some opto-interupters connected to a Atmel Mega controller.

[smarbaga]

hello
a model airplane servo with electronic control would do, if your into that stuff.