I am looking to build a product similar to this RIB Chain barrier that is pictured below. Basically I want a motor to drive a carriage along a track that raises and lowers a chain to keep people from turning around in my driveway and running over my son while he is playing. I want to build it myself because cant easily import this system model from Italy. I am okay with building a carriage/sled and the chain/gearing similar to the parts diagrams in the at attached pictures. but I am lost in a sea of motors and motor controllers.
My goals are to have it work like a garage remote - ie I hook the controller up to a momentary switch. Pushing that button on a remote raises it if the chain is all the way down but if you push the button again while the chain is raising then it reverses it.
My core questions are around
- ‘how does the motor know when to stop?’ The example I found doesn’t use any limit switches that I can see. If you have the controllers turn the motor a set distance of travel does it ever go out of sync after 100s or 1000s of runs. Does the controller sense when the motor hit a hard stop and shut it down? Can someone recommend a controller that might be good for this use case?
- Could someone recommend a motor that is strong/fast enough? I believe the chain that need to raise will weigh about 25 lbs and I know i want it to raise in 20 seconds or less.
