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Any simple voice-activated relay closure circuits out there?
Mounted an electric winch on the lawn tractor to raise and lower the snowplow. With steering, throttle, and push buttons to raise or lower plow, I run out of hands. Looking for a microphone and voice commands to close contacts from the commands "UP", "DOWN", and "STOP".
Right now I have two momentary buttons to raise or lower the plow.

Also, since the command string is always the same, i.e., UP, Stop, Down, Stop, maybe a sequence of relays is all that's needed. Hmmm. Then a simple VOX relay would initiate the next step in the string.

Looking for ideas!

Nice !
Perhaps pushbuttons added to the place you keep a hand on would avoid the complexity of dealing with microphone, wiring, DSP, voice recognition, engine noise... on an activity that may not be frequent enough to deserve it ?

Something like ----> https://www.motopartsmax.com/index.php/ ... gJunfD_BwE

Or...
Some Reed switches in place of the momentary units, mounted near the knee area. Then strap some magnets to your knees as actuators. Maybe left knee up and right knee down.

Or not.

Golly, J-Wax,
This post was almost reported as spam, until I read it again.
I thought you were looking for a Voice-operated wench!

Winch, with an "I"...
Wrench, with an "R"....
Just not a single "E"...

REALLLYYYY???????

How lazy do you need to be?

Granted, I'm not happy with all the switches that are stuffed on to the turn signal stalk, that have a tendency to fail with use.
But, a VOX system is just foolish for this application.

jwax wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:26 am Any simple voice-activated relay closure circuits out there?
Mounted an electric winch on the lawn tractor to raise and lower the snowplow. With steering, throttle, and push buttons to raise or lower plow, I run out of hands.

As Externet stated:

Externet wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 4:03 pm Perhaps pushbuttons added to the place you keep a hand on would avoid the complexity of dealing with microphone, wiring, DSP, voice recognition, engine noise... on an activity that may not be frequent enough to deserve it ?

Something like ----> https://www.motopartsmax.com/index.php/ ... gJunfD_BwE

A Specialty Power Switch would be a better option.

A big Rocker Panel Switch with Center Off and Momentary On both sides.
ON - OFF - ON

{LIGHT BULB!}
Go find a Burned out Electric Trolling Motor, that has Foot Peddle Control Steering.
Take the Foot Peddle and mount it on the tractor for your left foot.
Then wire it up to the winch and battery.
A lot of these Foot Peddle Controls have a Lock Out feature, so you don't activate the motor by accidentally bumping the peddle.



Signed: Janitor Tzap

Great ideas! Leave it to you folks to express interesting options!

I do have an idle left foot, so looking at foot switches. Thanks all!

A foot switch would be much safer as it guarantees the operator is not under the plow screaming UP UP UP while it goes Down. No need for a VOX guillotine. One should not design controls that allow an operator to be in harms way while operating it. This goes for wired or relocated switches in this case. Lets keep that left foot attached to you.

If you insist on VOX, I think a phone app to an IOT enabled Relay is easiest to implement. Check out the Lazy Light switch on ebay

One time while i was in Europe waiting for the train, i freaked out, i thought a worker was about to get crushed between the Loco and a freight car.
the Loco was backing up and it did not look like anyone was inside of it. The worker was between the cars, then the guy ducked down and did something,, grabbed an airline i think, but the Loco stopped within a foot of the worker. He then steps out from under the car. and i saw something big on his chest.. turned out to be a big Remote control chest pack.. you gotta really trust your equipment in situations like that, and ya better know what your doing..

Good comments on safety guys! Foot switches it is!