The Basic Stamp microcontroller is the real brains of this operation. The bonnet door opening mechanism is far too complex to simply be dummy-wired into working. It needs safety interlocks, precise timing and calibration to work reliably. The bonnet needs a brain. The basic stamp is a microprocessor about the size of your thumb, and it will run any program you put on it. Basic Stamps are adaptive and can handle almost any industrial, automotive, or marine application. Using stamps requires you to be familiar with 5-volt TTL logic, serial communication, and a coding language called PBasic 2.5. Basic Stamps are manufactured, distributed, and supported by Parallax, Inc. Many special effects teams, electronic hobbyists, and robotics folks use stamps to control their applications. Parallax also sells a standalone motor controller called an HB-25, capable of sourcing up to 18 volts DC at 25 amps continuous. This is plenty of headroom to control my Autoloc LA8 linear actuator, which pulls at most 8 amps at 12 volts for 10 seconds.
Basic Stamp Brain Box
The stamp and motor controllers are mounted to a plexiglass base, along with a bank of four pushbutton switches and four LEDs. These pushbuttons allow me to actuate the hood manually while the door is up, and the LEDs provide feedback from the stamp. They flash faster and faster as the bonnet door rises, and slower as the door shuts. This is how I can tell what position the stamp “thinks” the actuator is in.
Next I wanted to install the linear actuator to raise and lower the bonnet mechanically by remote control. This would be a great, dramatic way to begin a demonstration of the DeLorean computer integration. I decided on a sturdy and yet inexpensive linear actuator from AutoLoc. I didn’t like the idea of my linear actuators seizing up or losing their connection and sealing my bonnet shut for all eternity. So I had to redesign the actuator system to push the bonnet open without also holding it closed.
I have not yet solved the problem of motorizing the mirror, but I have the motor control circuitry wired up and waiting. I still have to take the doors apart and install Toby Petersen’s Wings-a-loft kit – which will open the doors by remote control – and I need to fabricate a brushed stainless switch panel for the new window switches, door popping buttons, and mac mini boot button.
Specifications:
Basic Stamp Microcontroller:
The stamp can also trigger the trunk-a-loft solenoid system sold by Toby Peterson of DeLorean Parts Northwest. This mini-actuator unlatches the bonnet door, and is triggered electronically with a 40-amp automotive relay. The stamp itself cannot pull enough juice to engage the relay coil, so it calls upon the 1-amp muscle power of a reed relay.
BS2 on Solder Board screwed to clear plexiglas base
Autoloc LA-8 Linear Actuator motorizes hood movement
