Long Analog PI
These videos show the two major things I have done to this elevator position indicator that I got from the Kiener Garage in St. Louis. This is a piece that I saw working while it was still on the elevator, so that makes it extra special.
Project 1: Cleanup and Simple Controller
This is the first project with this PI. This piece had just recently been pulled off, so it still was dirty from being installed all these years. The first step of the project was to take everything off and clean it up. After that, I had to choose how I wanted to wire it up. At the time, I was using a remote control input system to run indicators like this. However, I really didn't have a good place to mount the IR receiver, so I decided to make a simple controller which cycles the car up and down using an Arduino. The finished result was a clean and functional indicator, but that wasn't enough....
Project 2: Phone App Control
For this project I upgrade the existing controller inside this PI with a new system that can be controlled from your phone! I came up with an idea that I wanted to test out and this piece was the perfect test subject. I spent a good amount of time designing the new hardware and software, and after a lot of experimentation and testing, I got a working product! I learned a lot from this experiment, and I plan on expanding upon this style of control for future projects! Some of my improvements include a better looking interface, a selective collective control for simulating the movement of the car, and maybe changing the states of buttons on the interface to let the user see what floors are activated.