Hi, I am looking for a small one channel RC receiver to control a miniature linear actuator (see Frigelli’s PQ-12 firgelli.com/products.php) for a hobby project, maybe a cool invention. I am looking for a small hand held device with a slider that would easily fit in a palm. Does such a device exist?
Thanks,
Jacques
That looks like a very cool actuator, what are you planning on using it for?
When you say RC receiver, do you mean it has to be wirelessly controlled, or can you run a wire from the controller to the actuator. I’ve never seen a radio servo controller with less than two channels (and those are big RC car controllers), but there are plenty of one-channel servo “testers” available from stores online, or even from e-bay, and it’s fairly simple to build your own. You might want to take a look at this thread.
-Adam
Hi Adam, thanks for your reply. The actuator will be used on a rollerblade and I prefer not to elaborate on it’s purpose at this time. It does need to be wireless. I read your threads but much is beyond my experience in this technology. You mention the dual servo driver from servo city, it is not wireless but it does have the potentiometer hookup which would be useful fro positioning the actuator. You also mention the micro serial servo controller, is this wireless and can a pot be used?
Thanks,
Jacques
The serial servo controller is not wireless on its own, but can be paired with a serial radio. You would need a micro-controller to read the potentiometer position and generate serial bytes for the radio transmitter on the other side of the system though, which is much more complication than you need to do just manual servo control, especially if you’re just starting out in control electronics.
Most servo-control radio systems have pretty small receivers (like this one for example, and they do get even smaller). The size of the transmitter usually isn’t so much of a concern, I don’t know of any particularly small ones. Do you mind if the controller is something like this?
-Adam
Hi Adam, I think what you are proposing is to use the receiver from Tower hobbies or similar, seems small enough, this is connected to the actuator control circuitry by wires, and use the transmitter XP2 transmitter to send the signal for the desired actuator position wirelessly to the receiver. Do I have this correct?
The transmitter is not exactly what I was looking for but it would do the job for a prototype. I was thinking more of a small square box that would fit in the palm with a slider control.
Cheers,
Jacques
There is no reason why you couldn’t have a very small hand-held wireless single-servo controller like you describe, but I’m afraid you would have to do a lot of the electronics design yourself.
Good luck with your project!
-Adam
