Electrical Question - Long Post

[JLR]

Sorry in advance for the long post. I need some help. I have a linear actuator connected to the hatch to my bridge. It is actuated by a 2 channel rf remote/receiver with a key fob. I want to add a manual override of the rf remote system in case either the receiver or the fob craps out. I purchased a mom on/off/mom on DPDT 6 screw toggle switch to use as the manual override. The wiring is the question. I know how to wire the switch if it were the only thing that worked the actuator. But now, I am adding the RF receiver to it. The rf receiver has 12 v pos and neg inputs and an output wire for each leg (2) going to the linear actuator. Is there any problem if I pick up the 12v feed to the receiver from the upper or lower posts on the switch and connect the two wire output from the receiver (to the actuator) to the middle posts of the switch? It should work just fine but checking here first just to make sure I am not missing anything. Thanks and again, sorry for the long post.

 

[sandspur1966]

Hi John, I see no reason not to just wire both switches in parallel. Either one would activate the circuit and not impact the slave switch.

No expert here though, other may have a different opinion.

 

[tonytrakovich]

JLR

I imagine the circuit would look something like this. This is a guess not knowing anything about the RF receiver. Never try to actuate both switches at the same time. I also assume the RF receiver is fused. May not be a bad idea to put a fuse between the receiver and the new switch. Either leg will work. I would start with a rating that is 1x the motor full load amps.

 

[JLR]

Tony - thank you. That was extremely helpful. I have a few questions. I thought that the dc power leads went to a set of the end terminals rather than the set of middle terminals. Just want to make sure that you meant to send them to the middle terminals. If that is correct, then it looks like I am all set to go. I plan on putting fuses on the dc positive feed to the terminal and perhaps on one of the feeds to the actuator. They will never be operated at the same time.

 

[tonytrakovich]

I think the diagram is correct. The power goes to the middle. When switch is moved up, the middle and bottom makes connection. When switch is down, the middle and top makes connection. The "X" jumpers reverse the pos and neg to reverse the direction OD the DC actuator motor.

 

[JLR]

I think the diagram is correct. The power goes to the middle. When switch is moved up, the middle and bottom makes connection. When switch is down, the middle and top makes connection. The "X" jumpers reverse the pos and neg to reverse the direction OD the DC actuator motor.

Thanks again for the help. A nice project over the four day weekend.

 

[SeaEric]

I think the diagram is correct. The power goes to the middle. When switch is moved up, the middle and bottom makes connection. When switch is down, the middle and top makes connection. The "X" jumpers reverse the pos and neg to reverse the direction OD the DC actuator motor.

+1. Sounds correct to me. Power feed to the center set.

 

[JLR]

Thank you Eric. Of course, this post relates to the never ending boating issue concerning backup systems and spare parts. With that said, and although I do carry both a spare remote and a spare receiver for the linear actuator that lifts the hatch to the bridge, it occurred to me that a separate override with a momentary switch is a good backup if the RF system fails. It couldn't hurt.

 

[JLR]

For some reason, the wiring kept blowing the fuse in the hot line. I did not have enough spare blade fuses to figure it out. I think I might put a true A/B switch in to isolate the power from the remote receiver and isolate the feeds to the actuator as well. That should be foolproof.

 

[tonytrakovich]

Did it blow the fuse when in the center (off) position? Or did it blow when you tried to actuate the switch? Up? Or down?

 

[JLR]

It blew when I threw the momentary switch to the down position.

 

[JLR]

What would the wiring look like if I were to completely isolate the two wires to the actuator and the two power wires. Some sort of dual A/B switch or the like?

 

[tonytrakovich]

Curious, did it blow fuse in the up position as well? Also you are sure the motor on the actuator is 12V right?

Here is a diagram with a RF / Man switch.

 

[JLR]

Thanks Tony. It only blew the fuse when I pushed the switch down, not up. Nothing happened when I threw it up. Yes, the actuator motor is 12V. Thanks for the diagram below. I'll give it a shot in a week or so.

 

[JLR]

Tony - sending you a pm so as not to unduly bore the other HOF members with my questions.

 

[SeaEric]

This not boring to me at all. I'd like to know what went wrong and what the fix is.

 

[JLR]

Eric - not a problem. Here is what was sent to Tony in my pm.

Tony - thank you for being patient with this simple project. I have two questions about your original switch drawing because I'd like to find out why it did not work. First, does it matter that I took my 12V source for wiring directly to the actuator leads from the top posts on the switch rather than the 12V line feeding to the top posts of the switch? I shouldn't think so but not sure. Also, does the polarity of the output side of the receiver legs have to match the polarity on the input side of the receiver. In other words, does the receiver output leg polarity have to be on the same side (left or right) of the switch as the leg feeding power to the middle terminals? Again, since the top and bottom posts are criss-crossed, I shouldn't think so. Finally, just to give you a little more flavor, the way I had wired it gave rise to no motor activation in one momentary position and a dead short in the other. Maybe I just wired it wrong.

Tony has responded but we are still fleshing out what went wrong. Be pleased to post a solution when we have one.

 

[JLR]

I spoke with the manufacturer of the RF remote/receiver. He was kind enough to send me a wiring diagram that I cannot figure out how to upload here. However, I can report that according to that diagram, I would need to add two new relays and several diodes to make it work. More importantly, the receiver has to be in momentary mode rather than latching mode. That is a deal breaker for me. Way too complicated for the simple setup I was looking for and I like to have the receiver set for a one press rather than holding it until it opens and closes. I guess the way the receiver was wired required the use of these relays and diodes. A lesson for me in how to make something that sounded simple into something was a little too complicated.

 

[JLR]

I think the diagram will be uploaded here.

 

[tonytrakovich]

This will work. It requires 2 switches. The RF / Man switch will isolate the RF receiver from the actuator when in Man mode. You can leave your receiver in latching mode.

They were using the diodes to isolate the RF rec. from the switch. That's probably why the fuse blew. We will isolate with the RF Man switch.