F-Body Ideas - Camaro and Firebird - Page 9

scott_fx · 09-21-2006, 07:01 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by turbocad6

that cable setup is very similar to how some window lift motors are setup & got me to thinking... anyone consider instead of relocating & extending, switching over to motorized? yeah, I guess that can open up a whole other set of possibilities & headaches maybe too, but there could be a lot of possibilities with that I would think.... just thinking out loud

yeah. why dont you just get a high torque servo to turn it and then get a servo tester

http://www.hobbyengineering.com/appServoTester.html
http://www.rc-cam.com/servotst.htm
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXVK79&P=FR

that'll let you rotate that controller and relocate the knob anywhere you want

sorry if this was posted already, i havent read the whole thread

turbocad6 · 09-21-2006, 07:05 PM

cool links

JasonWW · 09-21-2006, 10:29 PM

One of the ideas I mentioned earlier was to use a simple gear reduction motor. Possibly a worm gear. You really don't need the added complication of a servo and all the electronics, just a simple rocker switch or 2 push buttons. The motor would attach directly to the flap under the dash and if you want to get fancy some simple switches installed to light up an LED on the full hot and full cold location just to keep from going to far.

Motorized would definetely be good if I were to put the controls in the headliner or something, but in the center console there is a good route for the cable to follow, so I'm going to try and keep things simple and just extend the cable.

EDIT: I actually mentioned it in another thread and linked it here. It's too much data to copy here so I posted a link to it.
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...&postcount=105

JasonWW · 09-24-2006, 10:11 AM

Well, I got the sheath material from a bicycle shop, so no problem there, but I can't find the cable anywhere.

All the bicycle stuff is thicker. I tried 4 hardware stores and none had cable small enough. It seems the factory cable is 26ga or about 1/32" diameter and this is smaller than what your going to find for general usage.

Anyone have any ideas of where I can find some?
I'm going to try some fishing supply stores next. If I can't find the stainless cable I'll look into some heavy duty plastic lines. A 30-50lb line should work if I have to use it.

JasonWW · 09-24-2006, 10:37 AM

I think I may be onto something here with the fishing supply. I looked on ebay and found some 70lb line. It has 49 strands of stainless steel and is 0.030 diameter. 1/32" diameter is 0.03125" so that's about right. The nylon coating my be a problem, though. If it is I'm sure it can be easily removed by pulling it through something to scrape it off or else burning it off. Maybe a different brand will have it without the coating. I'll let you know what I find out.

If 50lbs would be OK, I could go with an even smaller diameter of 0.024"

After painstakingly counting the strands on the factory cable it looks like 50, but I may be off by 1 or 2 so the strand count is about right with that fishing line.

JasonWW · 09-29-2006, 02:16 PM

I've got the new stainless 49 strand cable, new sheath and finally the right design for crimps to make everything fit right, work right and be strong. I'm finally confident it can be made and work very well for a long time. All the parts I thought would be the easiest to find were the hardest and what I thought would be the hardest to find were the easiest.

Anyone have any tips or parts ideas for extending the electrical or vacuum lines? I'm thinking they will be easy, but what do I know?

Once the new cable is all together and working I'll start a new thread on all the parts that work and don't work so you guys can have an easier time with it.

I'm finally going to put in that order for the 10.4" touch screen.

narandomsortofw · 09-30-2006, 09:55 AM

Extending the electrical wasn't a problem at all. I bought somewhere around 60' of 14 gauge wire and 12' of 18 gauge wire (there is total of like 15 wires to lengthen). Just be ready to do some crimping....I used 1/4" vacuum tubing for the vacuum lines. They fit right over the top of the existing lines. They fit on kind of snug and I used super glue to securely keep them connected. It works like a charm...here is my setup.

narandomsortofw · 09-30-2006, 09:59 AM

Oh and this is just to show you guys the rest of my car...because I don't have my own thread. It's not done....and nor is my car clean right now, but it's my first time doing any mods to a vehicle.

JasonWW · 09-30-2006, 10:30 AM

Ah, super glue. I was wondering how I could keep them from leaking over time. That's the little stuff I need to learn. Thanks.

I was wondering whether to use rubber vacuum lines the whole distance or to use plastic hose like stock with short rubber connectors on each end. I wasn't sure if a thick bundle of rubber hoses would snake through the center console area. Using the plastic lines takes up a lot less space. So you used rubber lines the whole way? No problems with the size of them?

I was also thinking the best way to legnthen the wires were to solder and heatshrink them. You think crimping them is fine? I know that would be easier, but I'm not sure of the long term reliability. What you crimp them if you had to do it over or do you think soldering would be the better way?

Are you still waiting for your cable to come back from that place?
I think I've got the extended cable pretty much all figured out.

narandomsortofw · 09-30-2006, 11:47 AM

I used the rubber tubing the whole distance (like 3 feet) you can get it at Pep-Boys it's windshield wiper tubing. You can see in the last pic on post #128 how it is setup.

I haven't sent my cable to Push-Pull.com yet. I am looking at some servos. #1 because they're cheap #2 it kind of seems easy to do #3 I waiting to see if what you do works. If it does I was going to see if I can you help me with mine.

Thanks for this thread. I got all of my ideas from here. I have an 8" touchscreen, and haven't figured out the computer side of it (I just bought a motherboard off a friend....but I don't know how it's going to work in the car)

JasonWW · 09-30-2006, 11:55 AM

Give me a couple of days, maybe a week and I'll put up all my info on extending the cable control. I just need to accurately measure how long it needs to be as the length is very important. I'm working on a fairly simple way to couple the 2 sheaths together and keep the cables ligned up. Then I will assemble the whole thing. The crimp lug in the small disc by the knob was the hardest to figure out as it has to be fairly strong as well as tuck into that small notch so as not to rub. I got it figured out though.

I'm waiting to post up all the info just to make sure I work out all the bugs.

BTW, I've only got about $20 in parts so far. So it's fairly cheap compared to a servo setup.

narandomsortofw · 09-30-2006, 11:58 AM

I told the Push-Pull company that I would need it to be 55" total length. That gives you enough room to get around everything and still have a little extra slack.

JasonWW · 09-30-2006, 12:09 PM

I don't think there is room for extra length. The whole cable is hard to bend so it's difficult to tuck the excess out of the way. I'm going to make it maybe 2 inches (max) longer than needed.

Now that I know it can be done, I may change the mounting location, but I'm sticking with the center console for now.