Opening Vertical Blinds Remotely (ON TOPIC!!)

["Mark Pollock" <pollocmc@xxxxxxx>]

To give everyone something else t  think about here is my
problem/wish.

I want to be able to open(tilt) my vertical blinds without getting up
of my behind to do it. I know I could get a drapemaster(?) to do this
but they cost ~60 squid and given I've got a lot of windows with these
blinds on I thought I'd knock up a heath-robertson effort.

So I have at my disposal

A small DC motor (should I have got a stepper?)
a maplins gear kit
a prototyping board
a jump wire kit
a battery pack
a wall-wart
various switches
Access to a PIC programmer
some PIC chips (16f84 I think)
and one of those cog things that the tilt chain goes round.

Oh and a soldering iron and no talent!

I only want to tilt from open t  close not actually draw the blinds so
I thought quite a light weight motor would d  the trick. Eventually
I'd like t  make it work by IR/RF/X10. To that end I need some sort of
logic that says each time I am switched on, go in the opposite
direction from the last. (Is that where the PIC could come in?) If I
acheive this then I'd send say A16ON then A16OFF with a minute delay
to open and the same again t  close.

I know this sounds like begging (it is) but can anyone give some
pointers. If I ever get something half decent knocked up I'll post
details t  the group.

Mark.




____________________________________
Automated Home UK
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
____________________________________

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject t  http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/