Need to hold balloons in place

Community General Discussions
1

Hi everyone,

so I'm a bit stumped with this project I was working on. The idea is to have 40 balloons held in place that can be individually and specifically released. Originally I was going to use hobby motors but I need something that has a little more force (to prevent people from just taking the balloons) and was thinking of using servos.

I unfortunately don't have any with me (at college) and had a few theoretical questions which I couldnt answer. The servos need to fill two functions, the first being to counteract force (as they normally do) when powered. Will they do this if no pwm is given just power? And secondly I'll need them to change position by 90 degrees or 180 degrees i.e. 0 to 90 or 180 to 0. Is this possible without PWM? the Arduino can only provide a signal change from low to high or vice versa.

I know there are serial servo controllers out there however I'd have to order 2-3 depending on which one I get and then the wiring and coding could be much more complicated (unless there's an easy way i'm missing, which is possible)

Can anyone recommend any other ideas for retaining a balloon? and releasing it with a low to high or vice versa signal?

2

What about solenoids?

If you use solenoids, all you would need would be driver transistors, resistors and a voltage source that would keep all the solenoids powered for as long as you want them to be. Better yet, spring load them to hold the balloons and only require power to open them. Depending on the number of balloons you are controlling, you might need a shift register or three.

3

Would they…

Would they be being released in sequence (IE, the first ballon first, etc)? If this is the case, couldn’t you hook them onto a spiral of wire (like a corkscrew) going horizontally, and then just gradually rotate the corkscrew with a motor? I’m not sure if this is what you want, but I hope it’s usefull. This would only require one motor.