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Design with linear actuator. Question about revolutes, sliders, and fastened mates
tim_horton406
Member Posts: 6 ✭
I'm working on a design for a linear actuator driven vesa 100 touchscreen mount that will tilt the display from 20-40 degrees using a DPDT momentary-on switch. The linear actuator, ECO-WORTHY, 12V, 2 Inch Stroke actuator has internal limit switches at each end of its stroke. I've modelled the ViewSonic touch display, linear actuator, and its mounting brackets. I have the actuator bracket position fixed, with a pivot point where the actuator connects to the bracket. The actuator has a 2-inch stroke which I model with the slider. The end of the shaft is connected to another bracket at a pivot point with the shaft being the fixed point.
1. After I complete the model, is it possible to simulate the operation of all the moving parts, if they're properly constrained, with the free version of Onshape? Currently I can exclusively activate either one of the revolutes or the slider. I was hoping that activating the slider on the finished design will show the tilting of the touchscreen display with the actuator bracket pivot points rotating as necessary.
2. How do I connect the end bracket to the shaft with a revolute, while keeping the shaft from separating from the bracket when I use the slider? I looks like I can only use one type of mate at a time.
Here's a link to my assembly document:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/45f63a8eab3d37d0eea4a6c1/w/c2ff16dc76704416571c6a09/e/adc2756c3d4c4cf35ccbd4e2
I suppose you can ignore the movie I've uploaded and open the model and try the sliders and revolutes yourself. I am a new user (3 days now) and have worked through the Intro to CAD tutorials so far.
Thank you,
Tim
Answers
Can't really tell what's going as everything is moving around in the link you shared. That said if you were trying to get this to "work" in a higher level assembly, you are likely running into constraints fighting each other. For example you might need to set the slider to a cylindrical mate and one of the revolutes of the brackets to a cylindrical as well.
For something like this I probably would leave one of the brackets "free" (i.e. not mated) in the actuator sub-assembly and then mate it to the part it mounts to in the higher level assembly. The +/- 10deg limits on the bracket might also be causing issues and shouldn't be needed…
To animate you'll need some additional info. Linked doc will animate.
I drew in some parts to make it work but a master sketch inserted in assembly might be better with parts generated after motion is finalized.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/d3300576bd987f0466f4b503/w/7b3501377cbb4ac2adb43384/e/605e202595483a426a28e742
Thank you for taking a look. Sorry about the movement of parts… I wondered if the link shared was to a static version of the design or not. Let's take this one step at a time, how do I connect the bracket to the end of the shaft of the actuator so it stays connected when I use the Actuator Shaft Slider? I created a pin and inserted it through the bracket and the shaft with a fastened mate, but when I retract the actuator shaft, the bracket does not move with the shaft.