highplummeter

what would be the easiest way, and under a 100$, to control 2 pilot operated hydraulic valves. To be more specific, i am trying to make a robot from an old zero degree turn lawnmower, but i am unsure how to control the valve. I have a few servos, but they are very low power and quite incapable of moving one of these valaves. I need someother to operate them remotely with a linear actuator, i already priced them, well over a 100$ per actuator.
Anyone ever done anything like this? Feedback, however complex it may seem, i am sure i do it in someway. Or it may give me or someone else a good idea how to control this thing.

reedy1

mmm ken you here yet ???

grkstl

is the hydraulic valve pneumatic pilot? or does it have coils on it? If it has coils just use 12V automotive coils and just give it 12 volts. the automotive coils are rated +/- 30% of the voltage where if you use industrial coils they are rated +/- 10% of the voltage. What this means is if your voltage fluctuates or drops or even spikes the automotive coils will still work. The inditrial coil require very stable power.

highplummeter

Well, I very much appreciate you taking the time to answer my question. Unfortunately, that project never fully came and is long gone. It was to be my graduation (STEM)(Sussex Technical Exhibition of Mastery) project in high school. I instead decided to downscale the idea of a GPS controlled bot made out of an old zero-turn mower to automatically cut the grass by itself; to just the basics of GPS control; A gps controlled remote control car where a basic stamp controller was to interpret the incoming gps information and make correct calculations on where to steer while i manually controlled the speed from a controller (to prevent accidental destruction).
The project never worked correctly due to my lack of belief in my lacking programming skills, highly inaccurate on board compass that was built into the gps with an electric motor drawing 180 amps a foot and a half way, and a severe lack of satelite reception for consistent gps usage..
By the way, that post was done by me in mid summer 2009, I had completely forgotten about this post, account, and site, I had just happened to set up this account to notify my email account of changes years ago.
Again, I really do appreciate your post.

Plus, the mechanics of that machine would have been an astronomical issue for me.
I apologize for the incredibly long post.

highplummeter

Oops I suppose that when i wrote that long passage, I actually never did answer your questions as to what I called pilot operated hydrualic valves. The valves I was referring to I think are called genie pumps, there are no coils to my knowledge, as the operator pushes the lever forwards it opens the valve farther mechanically, no electricity.