jlmoped Posted November 16, 2018 Report Share Posted November 16, 2018 A few months ago I had an idea of inflating/deflating left and right tires at the same time. I made a manual device with a few valves and it worked. Then I thought, wouldn't it be nice to be able to electronically control that with preset pressures? How difficult could that be? (Just to be clear, this is not a central tire inflation system that supply air through the axle like the Hummer or big trucks. This system just hook to the tire valve stems and can only work while the wheels are not moving) The answer was quite difficult. Our wonderful minds can easily comprehend when to check the tire pressure, estimate how long to let the air out and check again, then by judging the new pressure, how much air to let out and check again. Our minds can make those decisions in one second. Well, to program that, it took my slow-moving mind on and off for 3 months to complete this project. I used an Android Arduino to control 1 input and 1 output valve. The manifold has 2 outlets connecting to the tire valve stems. The temperature under the hook can go up to 190F, so I kept the controller as a portable enclosure. I kept the relays for the solenoids and voltage regulator close to the all the air couplers and hardware. The LR4 doesn't have a lot of empty space to mount these stuff, the only open spot is on the passenger side in front of the air filter. There is only one large hole going into the wheel well, so I made a through-bolt and mounted an aluminum U bracket to it and another L bracket to connect all the stuff. The air comes from the on-board Viair pump I installed on the driver side behind the air filter. I thought about connecting another air line to near the towing point inside the rear bumper, but I didn't want to unscrew the 2 plastic taps and remove the center plastic cover each time I need to use this. It will turn out to be more work than just carry longer hoses for the rear tires. The controller has 2 pressure presets and 1 adhoc setting for inflating and deflating. It also attempt to estimate how long it takes to inflate the tires with these parameters through another menu setting: tire width, tire profile, wheel diameter, wheel width, number of tires, air source CFM. This is still a wild guess calculation and I am still testing that out. Now this is done, I don't know if it is practical for real trail use, but it was a fun project. Now on to other crazy ideas.... BTW, how can I insert photos into the body of the post and not as thumbnail attachment at the bottom of the post? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lithium1330 Posted November 17, 2018 Report Share Posted November 17, 2018 neat setup! I remember those dual tire inflator to ensure left & right tires have same air pressure. And there are some DIY plans out there...though, i really don't see many of them in real-life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Wood Posted November 22, 2018 Report Share Posted November 22, 2018 I really love your tire inflation system. that is so cool. i just got a new tire inflation and deflation system that connects to all 4 tires at the same time, leaving all tires at equal pressure. It's the size of 2 air hoses.its made by Tyler @ (myoffroadradio.com) Its called the MORRFlate. You can check it out at (myoffroadradio>shop.com) there's some videos too. I believe it would work with the system you built. I will look forward to seeing the system you built in person some day. Keep on building and inspiring people.Andrew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlmoped Posted November 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2018 Well, I did a short 3-minute video demo'ing how it works. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CsauaEOgj_UklpMTYCA-ZpIeF4_WrdxX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.BlueSky Posted November 24, 2018 Report Share Posted November 24, 2018 Incredibly cool! As someone just now learning how to Arduino... color me impressed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Wood Posted November 24, 2018 Report Share Posted November 24, 2018 Excellent job making the videos and I love all the components that you use. The quick connect connectors are awesome, And those hoses are the best. It would go over really big If you were to produce and sell them. I would buy one. Good job Julian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AA Journey Posted November 25, 2018 Report Share Posted November 25, 2018 Impressive system! 👠Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHappel Posted November 27, 2018 Report Share Posted November 27, 2018 Very cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraemeWare Posted November 27, 2018 Report Share Posted November 27, 2018 A few months ago I had an idea of inflating/deflating left and right tires at the same time. I made a manual device with a few valves and it worked. Then I thought, wouldn't it be nice to be able to electronically control that with preset pressures? How difficult could that be? (Just to be clear, this is not a central tire inflation system that supply air through the axle like the Hummer or big trucks. This system just hook to the tire valve stems and can only work while the wheels are not moving) The answer was quite difficult. Our wonderful minds can easily comprehend when to check the tire pressure, estimate how long to let the air out and check again, then by judging the new pressure, how much air to let out and check again. Our minds can make those decisions in one second. Well, to program that, it took my slow-moving mind on and off for 3 months to complete this project. I used an Android Arduino to control 1 input and 1 output valve. The manifold has 2 outlets connecting to the tire valve stems. The temperature under the hook can go up to 190F, so I kept the controller as a portable enclosure. I kept the relays for the solenoids and voltage regulator close to the all the air couplers and hardware. The LR4 doesn't have a lot of empty space to mount these stuff, the only open spot is on the passenger side in front of the air filter. There is only one large hole going into the wheel well, so I made a through-bolt and mounted an aluminum U bracket to it and another L bracket to connect all the stuff. The air comes from the on-board Viair pump I installed on the driver side behind the air filter. I thought about connecting another air line to near the towing point inside the rear bumper, but I didn't want to unscrew the 2 plastic taps and remove the center plastic cover each time I need to use this. It will turn out to be more work than just carry longer hoses for the rear tires. The controller has 2 pressure presets and 1 adhoc setting for inflating and deflating. It also attempt to estimate how long it takes to inflate the tires with these parameters through another menu setting: tire width, tire profile, wheel diameter, wheel width, number of tires, air source CFM. This is still a wild guess calculation and I am still testing that out. Now this is done, I don't know if it is practical for real trail use, but it was a fun project. Now on to other crazy ideas.... BTW, how can I insert photos into the body of the post and not as thumbnail attachment at the bottom of the post? Julian, I developed a deflation/inflation system a few years ago. It did each wheel sequentially and worked well, except for one time when one tire got over-deflated. It was fully voice activated, gave visual and audible feedback and I couldn't have asked for much more. It worked on any vehicle and had no permanent installation. The running cost was relatively high, but it could do other things too, so was generally worth it. Worked with CO2 or compressor. Recently, I had to resort to going back to the old manual way, because my son went off to college ... Regards, Graeme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlmoped Posted December 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 Hi Graeme, I like your version of the system, highly flexible. But it seems maintenance course is high. Especial you are sending "it" to continual education. I presume that is to reprogram it for higher degree of automation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlmoped Posted December 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 Hi Andrew, I spent a lot of time making the brackets for the compressor, and the air manifold and solenoids. It won't be cost effective to reproduce is by hand. Sending it off to a machine shop will be very costly. The Arduinio part is easy to reproduce since all the programming is done. Someone from LandRover forum suggested making a portable version. Mounting everything in a Pelican case make sense and will be much simpler to assemble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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