Printer Friendly Forum Posts - pulse trigger delay

I recently purchased an tonneau cover that has a lock and then a latch before it can be opened (it's an A.R.E. LSX tonneau if anyone is interested). In any case, the lock ties into the factory lock/unlock of the doors, and therefore works with my aftermarket alarm (Compustar 2-way), so when I unlock the doors, the cover unlocks. Works nice.

The next step is to get an actuator kit for the cover, simple enough, Autoloc sells a kit. Problem is that I need to "unlatch" first, then use the actuators to push open the cover. So, what I was thinking was using an door lock actuator to do the unlatch following by a brief pause (1 second, say) at which point the actuators would kick in.

I was thinking of using a momentary toggle switch for up and down (press up, the cover would rise to it's up-most position, press down, it would close). Then I would connect this up to a couple aux channels on my alarm and be able to do it from the fob. Basically, use this relay setup for a 3 Wire Positive door lock system, at least to do teh latching... the unlatching would be triggered somehow by a pin switch when the top is closed...

posted_image

At the same time, the toggle switch can be used to control one of the Autoloc actuator controllers/timers (it works by sending a negative pulse to the unit, first time opens, second time closes). So, that problem is solved. However, if I use one switch to do both simultaneously, the actuators will get hung up before the latch is released (and the latch may not release if there is pressure on the cover).

So, what I need is the ability to delay the actuators for a second or two until the latch is released. I took a look at the PAC TR7, but it doesnt seem to do exactly what I want. So the question is, anyone have any ideas on something I can use to get it done? I'm not a wiz at designing circuits, so kind of hoping for a ready-made solution like the TR7 or someone to help out a bit with a schematic.

Basically, I need something that accepts the pulse of the toggle switch, delays a second, and then forwards the pulse to he actuator controller. At least, that's my idea. If anyone else has a better idea, I'm willing to listen.

Thanks.