Newbie questions

[ronniebuss]

I am very new and raw to servos and control. I have done a bit of research online and am ready to jump in. I am a model train enthusiast who is looking into animating my scenes. I have done so with crude modification of toys and such, but want to do it right. I have a little ice fisherman who pulls a fish out the lake. He moves due to using the controls and bed of a toy dump truck mounted under my layout. I have a drawbridge that works using other toy parts. And finally a ski lift that moves with a hobby motor and gear set. All of these and more will be converted over to servos. I have a few questions:

1. How do I determine how much torque my servos need to raise the bridge, spin the ski life, and make the ice fisherman move?
2. What servos do you recommend for continuous rotation?
3. What controller do you recommend for doing a bunch of other ‘sequenced’ scenes I have in mind?
4. What software pkg. do you recommend for creating all the scenes?
5. What question/s am I NOT asking? lol
   Thank you,
   Ron

I have attached the file of my ice fisherman

[cbenson]

1. How do I determine how much torque my servos need to raise the bridge, spin the ski life, and make the ice fisherman move?

Force x distance = torque. You will need some way of measuring the force needed.

2. What servos do you recommend for continuous rotation?

lynxmotion.com/p-429-hsr-142 … servo.aspx

3. What controller do you recommend for doing a bunch of other ‘sequenced’ scenes I have in mind?

lynxmotion.com/c-52-servo-control.aspx (uses many of the software outlined below)
lynxmotion.com/c-153-botboarduino.aspx (you will need to create your own code)

4. What software pkg. do you recommend for creating all the scenes?

Lots of free software here:
lynxmotion.com/c-15-software.aspx

5. What question/s am I NOT asking? lol

Not sure, but feel free to ask more as they come up.