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DickB
03-16-2007, 07:56 PM
This was a boat-related winter project of mine.
At my lake home in northern Minnesota, I have a Shore Station boat lift with a Lift Mate Universal motor from Shoreline Industries. This type of lift and lift motor is very common in the Minnesota lakes area. In fact, Shoreline Industries is located in Pine River, Minnesota, just a few miles from my lake home. The motor they offer comes in 12v and 110v versions. I have a 110v version, as I have power available at my dock. The motor works well, but it uses a momentary switch to run it, so you have to stand and hold the switch for the 2-3 minutes that it takes to raise and lower the lift. I wanted automatic operation and remote control.
Lift remotes are commercially available – even Shoreline offers one. But none that I could find had the specs that I wanted at a reasonable price. I wanted:

Long range on the remote – at least 1000’, so I can operate it from the deck of my lake home.
Automatic operation – stopping by itself when the lift reaches the fully up or down positions.
Automatic adjustment for varying lake water levels.
An auxiliary output for turning on lighting under the lift canopy.

Electronics is one of my hobbies, so I decided to design and build my own remote controller. I used a car starter remote kit ($45 on eBay) and a Programmable Logic Controller as main components. I've bench tested the remote extensively, including range tests, and it appears to be working well. It'll be another month or so before I can install it on the lift and know for certain. I'm looking forward to it.
I've posted more information here: http://frontiernet.net/~dbipes/boatlift/index.htm

gpapich
03-16-2007, 08:18 PM
Keep up the inventiveness. If there's one thing I'm glad my father taught me was that if no one makes it, make your own.

zelatore
03-19-2007, 12:08 PM
Nicely done! I've got 2 electronics degrees and I still wouldn't have thought to use a PLC. (possiblyi becasue I haven't actually used those degrees in a dozen years or more). I'd have tried to do it all with electro-mechanical parts like you started with.

Don