Question on a belt driven motorized control panel....

[bell]

have a question on this which im making...
First what it is for.... I'm building a very high end old school audio system in my gti.
The brain to the system is a Rockford fosgate symmetry epx2, which is a hideaway brain with the control panel which mounts up front. It controls everything from source/ volume, crossover functions, 28 band multi channel eqs.
I'm mounting the control panel to flip up into the dash so it's out of sight, these are very pricey and hard to come by...dont need it stolen
Main hinge for the panel is a 1/4" aluminum rod with bushings, ill be tigging it for the panel mount.
To move it I plan on using a worm gear drive with a ribbed timing belt and pulleys, which will mount on the shaft of the panel flap and motor.
My question is this..... the worm gear motor stops and locks in place, but will the belt system hold the panel stable enough for me to push buttons? They aren't hard buttons to push, but I want it solid.
Any thoughts welcome....

Heres the control panel down in operating position


Here's the panel flipped up in closed position..


A side shot of the aluminum rod mount and where the pulley will mount. Worm gear motor will be down low or behind...

[bell]

I don't know why my pics are upside down lol

[bell]

[Ayles]

Sweet idea, and I remember when that unit came out. About ten years ago I sold my Fosgate stuff from the early 90s

[dad911]

Should be ok with ribbed belt like GT2. Inexpensive, plenty on ebay & amazon, commonly used for plastic printers. make sprockets as large as possible, larger radius and more teeth engaged will be stronger.

[bell]

Good info.... space wise I'm limited to a 32 tooth at the panel, worm drive is a low ratio so it'll take about 3 seconds to flip down....i think I can play with that too though

[bell]

Heres a rough layout....
2 punch 200x2
2 punch 4080
1 punch 40i
2nd batt, 1/0 power cable
Has tweet/protech horns/6.5s for front stage and 4 12s in the hatch....all controlled individually with the symmetry....

[bell]

[bell]

The enclosure hinges forward for well access.....i have a linear actuator ill probably use to automate....

[dad911]

on second thought, how about a servo to rotate control panel, with a simple 555 circuit or arduino to open/close?

[bell]

I thought of that but the way the worm drive will lock when not on is my main requirement..

[dad911]

Retract servo.



Or retract hardware, will lock in both positions.

[bell]

I like the strength of the worm gear setup personally, plus a simple relay setup and 2 micro switches and it'll be 1 touch operation for either direction..

[rwest]

Very interesting bell, looking forward to seeing the end result.

[bell]

Picked up a geared 12v motor today, will work perfect, going to get the pulleys and belt ordered

[bell]

[dad911]

That's not a worm gear. Might backdrive, depending on friction and ratio.

[bell]

Got this for 12 bucks at a local electronic surplus place, it's new and they had a test station with torque guage.
It'll work prefect as it has a very short ratio, they didn't have any worm gears that were small.
once I played with this for a bit it'll surely do what I want it to....i can always change it if I'm not happy with it...but I think it'll lock good

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by bell

once I played with this for a bit it'll surely do what I want it to....i can always change it if I'm not happy with it...but I think it'll lock good

If you are worried about button-pushing force overcoming the motor/gear-drive, maybe weld up two small tabs/rails on the inner sides of the console?
That would act as a travel-stop and "brace" for button-mashing when the display is down.

[bell]

Yes there will be stops for it, and also 2 micro switches to deactivate the motor when it reaches the limit.