In order to unlock the front door of the bus, a latch holding the opening handle closed has to be lifted. When the latch is down the door cannot be opened. When its up, it can be opened from inside or from outside.
The goal is to lift the latch from outside. The fellow at the dodgy lock company suggested a string and said nobody would think of that as an unlocking method. Typical! My thought is to use an electro magnet to lift the latch or perhaps attach a permanent magnet to the underside of the latch and use the electro magnet to raise the latch.
Today, rather than make an electro magnet (which I could) I bought this one.
It has a 50 newton lifting force which means it should lift 5kg (11lbs). The cable will go to either a key switch or to a key pad. It all depends how fancy I feel. In the spirit of keeping it simple, perhaps just the key switch.
Apparently the magnet works off 9v so if a standard PP3 battery will do it, that's what I'll use. Otherwise, it could be 6 D cells. Those should last a good long time since they won't be used for many seconds at a time. It really is high time I had a way of getting in and out that didn't involve acrobatics. It's almost as bad as the Dukes of Hazard sliding in and out through their car window!
The key switch I can get at any stage. I want to make sure the system works before putting more money in than I have to. I've already bought quite a few bits and pieces that haven't been used for one reason or another and a few that just plain didn't work or that worked for the job for which they were purchased but not for later jobs.
I'm still baffled about what caused the paint on the hood to break up and what caused it to break up on the side of the body in two places. This is most mysterious. All fixed now though.
I did tweet about it to Rustoleum and was given a number to call. I don't know when I'm going to be in an area with cell phone reception and when I'll have time. I spend half my day in areas not covered by cell phones and can only barely get reception where I'm living.
The goal is to lift the latch from outside. The fellow at the dodgy lock company suggested a string and said nobody would think of that as an unlocking method. Typical! My thought is to use an electro magnet to lift the latch or perhaps attach a permanent magnet to the underside of the latch and use the electro magnet to raise the latch.
Today, rather than make an electro magnet (which I could) I bought this one.
It has a 50 newton lifting force which means it should lift 5kg (11lbs). The cable will go to either a key switch or to a key pad. It all depends how fancy I feel. In the spirit of keeping it simple, perhaps just the key switch.
Apparently the magnet works off 9v so if a standard PP3 battery will do it, that's what I'll use. Otherwise, it could be 6 D cells. Those should last a good long time since they won't be used for many seconds at a time. It really is high time I had a way of getting in and out that didn't involve acrobatics. It's almost as bad as the Dukes of Hazard sliding in and out through their car window!
The key switch I can get at any stage. I want to make sure the system works before putting more money in than I have to. I've already bought quite a few bits and pieces that haven't been used for one reason or another and a few that just plain didn't work or that worked for the job for which they were purchased but not for later jobs.
I'm still baffled about what caused the paint on the hood to break up and what caused it to break up on the side of the body in two places. This is most mysterious. All fixed now though.
I did tweet about it to Rustoleum and was given a number to call. I don't know when I'm going to be in an area with cell phone reception and when I'll have time. I spend half my day in areas not covered by cell phones and can only barely get reception where I'm living.
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