Custom electronic device with PCB?

These are just blinds, and I'm not sure that you would need a pcb board just to open and close blinds. Just a wireless remote to drive a little motor to lift and close

Depends on the functionality - if he wants any sort of logic then a PCB may be required to hold the programmable chips, light sensors, remote sensors, etc. Unless he's just going just wire straight to a switch.
 
Depends on the functionality - if he wants any sort of logic then a PCB may be required to hold the programmable chips, light sensors, remote sensors, etc. Unless he's just going just wire straight to a switch.

The OP stated in his first post:
But I want to buy all parts or for someone / company to make the entire device that will operate a blind type shutter with 2 positions, open / close.
 
what's the function?
you mean open the blinds in the day when it is light and close them at night / when dark? open close on a time schedule?

Or you just want a button for open and a button for close?

When you say blind shutter, you mean like in a home? roller blind or Venetian blind?
Or are you talking about shop front security shutter type blinds?

You want it wired in? wired into what? mains? battery?



if you don't want to keep intellectual property rights on the design the open source hardware park do multilayer boards small volume / cheap (ish)

https://oshpark.com/

That's $5 per square inch, (around $20-$30 for a (3 copies) credit card sized board) plus delivery to the UK...

or, you can make your own boards,
Maplin sells plain copper board, etch resist pens and ferric chloride. (they also sell prototype strip board.) if you want to get more pro about it. then for your minimum.

sorry for late reply, yes a home type roller blind with a switch for open/ close (no schedule), wired with a battery is preferred but dont mind a mains. Not bothered about IP its just for myself.
 
Like a motor/transmission and controller for the blind and other parts like that?
Literise Motor- Black - BlindsParts.com
Power rise satellite
Power Rise Satellite - BlindsParts.com
These are just blinds, and I'm not sure that you would need a pcb board just to open and close blinds. Just a wireless remote to drive a little motor to lift and close

ahh, so I was going in the complete wrong direction in the build it seems.. this looks good joe, this blind will only by around the size of an ipad
 
So there are no safety concerns? - lock out switches, break beams etc to be worrying about.
(In the town where I live a kid once got killed by a blind style security door in a garage. sure he shouldn't have been messing about with it, but it should have stopped rolling down when there was someone underneath it!)

no mains will make things a lot easier too...

what you need is a motor (with gear box to slow it down and provide torque.
a battery case, and a double pole three throw switch. (the kind where the center position is off.

(you don't need a PCB at all!)

you'll have six points on the bottom of your switch.

1[Batt +ve] 2[motor] 3[Batt -ve]
4[batt -ve] 5[motor] 6[Batt +ve]


there is a little metal slider inside the switch, when it's in the middle position it just sits above legs 2 and five, push the switch the the right, and the contact pivot to the left, connecting pin 1 to pin 2, and pin 4 to pin five, the motor will spin one way.

push the switch the other way and it connects pin 2 to pin 3 and pin 5 to pin 6, this makes the voltage appear the other way around and the motor spins the other way around.

they seem to start on ebay at £1.26

DPDT On/Center Off/On 3 Way Latching Toggle Switch AC 250V/2A 120V/5A | eBay

or there is this one. (Probably not more than 30 minutes from your house if you're in the UK and Maplins are almost everywhere)
Everel 16A Momentary Rocker Switch (On)-Off-(On) DPDT Black | Maplin

it's got blue lights and everything.

(maplin also sells batter boxes and motors) - motors are probably cheaper out of china though, certainly ones with gear boxes.

you might want a box to mount your switch on to make it look good/finished? (but definitely no PCB!)
 
So there are no safety concerns? - lock out switches, break beams etc to be worrying about.
(In the town where I live a kid once got killed by a blind style security door in a garage. sure he shouldn't have been messing about with it, but it should have stopped rolling down when there was someone underneath it!)

I don't see how you could die from a tiny motor moving cloth/plastic blinds on a window open/closed ;).
 
I don't see how you could die from a tiny motor moving cloth/plastic blinds on a window open/closed ;).

I miss-read the first post, saying he expected the box where the PCB to go would be no bigger than an Ipad.

people who have secturity shttuers, awnings etc, could get quite bored of winding them in and out with a regular handle!

I'm guessing that the windows is far away/high up, since we're talking about adding a blind in such a small space!
 
I'd stick with the Arduino's then. There's sketches you can get all ready to load and run. And there's world wide support for the board. Plus there's more programmable I/O pins than most boards. And they're inexpensive. If you smoke one it doesn't break the bank to replace it.

I'd agree with seti. Arduinos are *very* easy to use, and you can control a little PWM motor with it easily. Literally plug in 2-3 wires (depending on what motor you get) right into the arduino, and myself or someone here can write the code for you (would be like 5 lines or something). The only thing you'd have to do is get something to hook the motor up to the blinds with. I'll let you use your imagination there :p
 
So there are no safety concerns? - lock out switches, break beams etc to be worrying about.
(In the town where I live a kid once got killed by a blind style security door in a garage. sure he shouldn't have been messing about with it, but it should have stopped rolling down when there was someone underneath it!)

no mains will make things a lot easier too...

what you need is a motor (with gear box to slow it down and provide torque.
a battery case, and a double pole three throw switch. (the kind where the center position is off.

(you don't need a PCB at all!)

you'll have six points on the bottom of your switch.

1[Batt +ve] 2[motor] 3[Batt -ve]
4[batt -ve] 5[motor] 6[Batt +ve]


there is a little metal slider inside the switch, when it's in the middle position it just sits above legs 2 and five, push the switch the the right, and the contact pivot to the left, connecting pin 1 to pin 2, and pin 4 to pin five, the motor will spin one way.

push the switch the other way and it connects pin 2 to pin 3 and pin 5 to pin 6, this makes the voltage appear the other way around and the motor spins the other way around.

they seem to start on ebay at £1.26

DPDT On/Center Off/On 3 Way Latching Toggle Switch AC 250V/2A 120V/5A | eBay

or there is this one. (Probably not more than 30 minutes from your house if you're in the UK and Maplins are almost everywhere)
Everel 16A Momentary Rocker Switch (On)-Off-(On) DPDT Black | Maplin

it's got blue lights and everything.

(maplin also sells batter boxes and motors) - motors are probably cheaper out of china though, certainly ones with gear boxes.

you might want a box to mount your switch on to make it look good/finished? (but definitely no PCB!)

This looks like what I was looking for and I have maplins round the corner from me, only thing to add to this is if its possible to flip the switch and when the blind reaches the top it stops the motor. This is why I thought i'd need a PCB board to program the motor to stop after a certain distance (time) ?

Maybe im wrong, but i've never built something like this.. I can go maplins on the weekend, so i can pick up the motor, battery pack and whatever else you suggest

Thank you guys for all the advise and knowledge so far! this project will build my knowledge quite abit at the end (even if its a simple project). :cool:
 
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