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do-it-yourself

Tailgate Opener

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Tailgate Opener is designed for use by individuals with limited upper extremity strength and coordination associated with stroke, arthritis, back injuries, or multiple sclerosis.

Materials:
Parallax Homework Board
Tailgate
12V Car Battery
9V Battery
DNA Motoring Central Lock System (3 slave 2 wires-actuators, 5 wires actuator, and 1 master)
Power Diodes(X10)
10k Ohm Linear Taper Potentiometer
TIP 120 NPN-D Transistor
Extra Wire(22 AWG Hook-up Wire)
Electric Tape
Industrial strength Velcro
Duct Tape
WD-40

Technical Specifications: 

Step 1:
First, you must remove the tailgate and remove faceplate from the tailgate, make sure you understand how the tailgate works. Do research on how a tailgate and actuator works.

Step 2:
Remove the bars that connect to the handle of the tailgate.

Step 3:
Velcro Actuators inside of tailgate, make sure the actuators are at a 45 degree angle pointing down. For extra grip, you can use the duct tape.

Step 4:
Attach the bars to the actuators.

Step 5:
Plug in actuators.

Step 6:
Connect the wires from the actuators to the Homework Board, then hook those to the battery.

Step 7:
Now it is time to wire up the Homework Board. First, get about 5 feet of hookup wire, the TIP 120 transistor, the power diodes, the 10k ohm potentiometer, 12V car battery, and the 9V battery.

Notes:
You only need one power diode, the rest are in case one of them burns out. If you get the same power diodes and potentiometer that we got, you will need to solder the diodes to some hookup wire. The potentiometer is adjustable, adjust it accordingly to how much power you want. Here is a useful website for wiring the board up: http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/HighCurrentLoads.

Step 8:
Solder all of the necessary wires together, the hookup wire to the diodes and the potentiometer, then some extension wires from the tailgate to the to the battery(hookup wire will work fine).

Step 9:
Now you must wire the board with all of the components. Connect one of the long extension wires from the positive (+) end of the battery to a column under VDD on the breadboard and the other long extension wire to the negative (-) under VSS.

Step 10:
Connect one end of the diode near each end of the extension wire on the white breadboard.

Step 11:
For this next step, you need to solder three lengths of hookup wire (each one about 2-3 in. in length) to the potentiometer and then connect one wire to the VIN section of the white breadboard, one wire into the VDD section of the white breadboard, and the final piece of wire into a pin (i.e. p1, p2, p3) on the left of the breadboard.

Step 12:
Now, you need to take the TIP 120 transistor and plug it into the VDD section of the breadboard.

Step 13:
For this step, you need to take the power cables from the actuators, cut off the ends of the wires, and connect some hookup wire to the end of each one, then plug them both into VDD, the negative (black) wire near the transistor and the positive (red) wire a few higher spots up on the breadboard.

Step 14:
Now cut two pieces of wire (both about 1-2 in. in length) and connect one piece from VDD to the column on the column directly under it, and the other wire from VSS into the column directly under that one.

Step 15:
Now is the time to get the more Velcro to secure the wires to the back of the tailgate. This is more of a personal preference depending on where you have the battery. After, you need to mount the wireless receiver.

Step 16:
Reattach the tailgate to the vehicle.

Available

Price Check
Price: 
0.00
as of: 
03/01/2016
Additional Pricing Notes: 
Cost of supplies and materials.
Seller(s): 
Tailgate Opener