Overview

Linear actuators which control the SL-C doors and front/rear clip are a nice addition to a build. These can be controlled through a simple rocker switch or with some other interesting options, some of which I have documented here:

• a dashboard switch 
• InfinityWire input from inTOUCHnet 
• InfinityWire input from inLINK 
• the driver door has another input, a hidden momentary switch accessible from outside the car

One of the interesting challenges when implementing an electronic solution for opening and closing various body parts is the overall choreography of the moving pieces. As you may be aware, closing the rear clip when the driver and/or passenger doors are closed with result in the parts hitting! There is a similar issue if you have the front clip hinged. Opening or closing the front clip when the driver and/or passenger doors are open will result in the parts hitting!

Even before the control of these body pieces on this build was automated, several times I made the mistake of not following the correct order. Fortunately the car was not painted yet so the impact, pun intended, was negligible. Now that the car is painted AND these operations are automated AND a passenger or bystander could press a button without the proper coaching, a solution to conditionally control the operation of the actuators was critical.

Attached are some pictures of my documentation you may find useful. Appreciate there may be other ways to do this, this is just one approach after a considerable amount of time, researching and testing. Included part numbers and links to websites. Some of the information is specific to this configuration, like the powercell assignments, so you will need to make the adjustments to fit your particular configuration.

I did not document the fabrication of the door actuator brackets, as this has been done via a video Allan posted that does a fantastic job of explaining their fabrication and installation. It makes it look simple, however the design and fabrication literally took me six different variations and a couple months to get working! Here are the links to his videos: 

Link  11:45Door Actuator Part One

Link  13:39Door Actuator Part Two

Passenger Door Linear Actuator

Front Clip Linear Actuator

Rear Clip Linear Actuator

Parts

The table below shows the parts needed to control the driver and passenger doors.  If you want to control the front and rear clams, you'll need the LAs, controllers, brackets etc.

(Contributed by Peter Vincent, originator of the linear actuator-operated doors and clams)

Modifying the AutoLoc Controllers

Some people have found that the controllers are marginal when a door is heavier than normal, as when you have added speakers, additional door panels, upholstery and so forth.  The symptom is that the door stalls part way through the travel.

Assuming you don't have binding-- and you must eliminate this as a source of the problem first-- there is a way that may allow the controller to move the heavier door.  The easiest solution is to move the sensitivity knob all the way to "least sensitive".  If that works, you are done.  

If not, there is another solution.

The approach to this problem is to replace the existing 50K potentiometer that controls the sensitivity circuit with one that has a value of 100K.  This is easy if you are handy with a soldering iron and have a desolder tool to assist in getting the old pot out.  Alternatively, if you understand electronics, you could just use a 100K resistor and some short wires to emulate the pot (don't do this if you don't understand what this means).