Programmable winch motor
December 18, 2009 6:24 AM Subscribe
I need a programmable winch-like motor for an art project.
The motor would act like a winch, reeling and unreeling cable. The motor would be on the floor, the cable would go from the motor to a pulley on the ceiling, then down to attach to the work. The work would weigh less than 100 lbs, so a winch made for a truck would be overkill, though I guess it wouldn't hurt. It needs to be programmable. I need to be able to program how much cable is reeled/unreeled, the speed of the reel/unreel, and the time between reel and unreel.
What is out there?
The motor would act like a winch, reeling and unreeling cable. The motor would be on the floor, the cable would go from the motor to a pulley on the ceiling, then down to attach to the work. The work would weigh less than 100 lbs, so a winch made for a truck would be overkill, though I guess it wouldn't hurt. It needs to be programmable. I need to be able to program how much cable is reeled/unreeled, the speed of the reel/unreel, and the time between reel and unreel.
What is out there?
It sounds like a job for an Arduino or one of the many other physical computing platforms.
In the simplest case, you could wire it up (via a suitable relay board) to the controls (forward/reverse) of any electric winch, and program the Arduino to turn the winch on and off for specific time periods. Even better would be some sort of sensor to turn the winch on/off at specific heights. You'd probably be able to control the winch speed too.
A stepper motor big enough to lift that kind of weight is going to be quite expensive I think.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 7:19 AM on December 18, 2009
In the simplest case, you could wire it up (via a suitable relay board) to the controls (forward/reverse) of any electric winch, and program the Arduino to turn the winch on and off for specific time periods. Even better would be some sort of sensor to turn the winch on/off at specific heights. You'd probably be able to control the winch speed too.
A stepper motor big enough to lift that kind of weight is going to be quite expensive I think.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 7:19 AM on December 18, 2009
Will it be running back and forth pretty much constantly? Is it actually lifting 100# or would you just want it rated for 100#?
posted by edbles at 7:35 AM on December 18, 2009
posted by edbles at 7:35 AM on December 18, 2009
I've seen my share of rigging gear and truck winches, but never a programmable one like you've described.
You may be able to hack something together from a small portable winch likethis one. Be careful.
posted by anti social order at 8:39 AM on December 18, 2009
You may be able to hack something together from a small portable winch likethis one. Be careful.
posted by anti social order at 8:39 AM on December 18, 2009
A garage door opener might do it. You'd have the remote, also, to hook up to a computer program.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:04 AM on December 18, 2009
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:04 AM on December 18, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks for the replies.
Ardunio ... I hadn't heard of that, I'll check it out.
Running constantly, while the gallery is open.
Garage door opener ... interesting idea...You can program the remotes?
posted by allelopath at 9:54 AM on December 18, 2009
Ardunio ... I hadn't heard of that, I'll check it out.
Running constantly, while the gallery is open.
Garage door opener ... interesting idea...You can program the remotes?
posted by allelopath at 9:54 AM on December 18, 2009
Expensive solution:
Full disclosure: I work for a theatrical rigging company.
I don't know what your budget is, but if you can drop a grand or two send me some me-mail and I'll direct you to our sales department who can point you to some high end gear with a customizable interface.
Cheap solution:
You could probably hack the garage door opener by attaching the output of an arduino to whatever it is using as a signal wire the arduino site has a ton of resources and tutorials for projects, but it will take some time and experimentation. One thing you should think about with the weight load limit on the garage door opener or anything else you modify is that the force of starting and stopping a load isn't just the wight of the object but rather the force from accelerating an object of that weight at whatever speeds.
posted by edbles at 11:06 AM on December 18, 2009
Full disclosure: I work for a theatrical rigging company.
I don't know what your budget is, but if you can drop a grand or two send me some me-mail and I'll direct you to our sales department who can point you to some high end gear with a customizable interface.
Cheap solution:
You could probably hack the garage door opener by attaching the output of an arduino to whatever it is using as a signal wire the arduino site has a ton of resources and tutorials for projects, but it will take some time and experimentation. One thing you should think about with the weight load limit on the garage door opener or anything else you modify is that the force of starting and stopping a load isn't just the wight of the object but rather the force from accelerating an object of that weight at whatever speeds.
posted by edbles at 11:06 AM on December 18, 2009
Especially if this is going to above people's heads you should find an engineer pal or friendly engineer mefite to direct you to the right formulas for making sure it doesn't murder anyone.
posted by edbles at 11:09 AM on December 18, 2009
posted by edbles at 11:09 AM on December 18, 2009
What I think people mean by using a garage door remote is wiring something like an Arduino to the buttons on a garage door remote to have it close the contacts when your Arduino sketch tells it to.
However, most garage doors use torsion springs to carry most of the weight of the door, and the motor just moves the spring-assisted door. Thus I don't think a garage door opened would be a good idea.
nthing having an engineer check this out as well. I think it's possible that you might inadvertently end up in a situation where the dynamic load of the object moving up and down would be greater than the rated static load of whatever motor you end up using to raise and lower the object, which could cause the motor to fail.
What is your budget?
posted by MonsieurBon at 3:34 PM on December 18, 2009
However, most garage doors use torsion springs to carry most of the weight of the door, and the motor just moves the spring-assisted door. Thus I don't think a garage door opened would be a good idea.
nthing having an engineer check this out as well. I think it's possible that you might inadvertently end up in a situation where the dynamic load of the object moving up and down would be greater than the rated static load of whatever motor you end up using to raise and lower the object, which could cause the motor to fail.
What is your budget?
posted by MonsieurBon at 3:34 PM on December 18, 2009
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posted by Psychnic at 7:08 AM on December 18, 2009