Problem: I need to control an old furnace
Context: Only spot for an actuator is in top of it where a lot of heat comes up and will melt plastic.
Context:
I have an old furnace that I need to control remotely and inside of furnace shell there is controlling mechanism that has pin that can be pushed in or a turning valve. With a bit of ‘engineering’ I could use one of these https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01HBCWW96 to actuate a pin however… I read that they push their pin down then they heat up… and the only place I can mount one is at the top of furnace and it gets hot water will boil off it in an instant, so I am worried it would melt any plastic actuator.
I can use servos and mechanical linkages to get into an area that has temperature that should be more sain though any plastic parts can be significantly weekend.
So… what do I buy?
Here is a part that has the pin I want to control. This reguliator part of right by fire dish so I would mount a fin metal tube with a rod inside of it to transfer force from actuator outside of furnace body.
Problem is pin is pointing up and… heat goes there too.
Either. They both just push down on same control valve. One is rotation other vertical motion. I focused on actuators because I saw them being used for temperature control systems and I have not seen any devices that can control a turning angle that would fit this.
that would drive a pin up and down.
Interesting idea would be a little tricky to find a right cam to do this but it could work though I do it though my problem is control of turning radius.
I actually have a large dial of the side that can be turned that rotates a head 90 deg that I can link with a slot in control nob in the regulator.
The best option I found to control rotation via home assistant was via a servo (Home Assistant & ESPHome Servo Example (Step-by-Step guide) – Siytek). I am worried that even if it is at an angle the temps are still going to be too much for servos and will just melt/soften the plastic to point it is no longer functional not to mention that the basement is damp, that is one more reason why I was looking at actuators (they have an IP rating)
Yah the knob is plastic cover though it quite a chunk of material, so much higher thermal mass as well as no real stress put on it and servos have some fine parts that get me worried.
I think a stepper motor could do the job. I think I will use something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h64QsAV51Ng to try control the knob.