A friend of a friend asked me how to best open and close a flap at the end of a tube: pneumatics, hydraulics, electrical, or what? It was an automotive application and no hydraulic system or compressor was available. So, the answer seemed obvious: a 12-V dc, small-gear motor.
The friend said he had tried that already, but he ran into problems with limit switches. The need for a constant closing force at the end of travel was another complication. Adding a microcontroller was too complicated, he said.
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