Hi,
I’m completely new to this, however I’m in the restoration business so I am relatively competent when it comes to finding solutions (I’ve just fixed a 1920s mechanical ticket machine), working with levers and gearings and having a bit of patience.
I’ve found myself with a project but I don’t know where to start with. I need to try and replicate a very, very similar action to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe3K2dogM_4 . It doesn’t have to look the same, its the action that’s important but they’ve found the ideal solution, I just don’t know where to start.
My uneducated guess is its a stepper motor making a quarter turn one way, then quarter turn back and its being controlled with some kind of controller. Again I’m assuming that it might be something like this https://www.robotshop.com/uk/tb6600-stepper-motor-driver.html#Dimensions wired to go quarter turn one way, quarter turn back. I can then make something to attach to the motor spindle to act as a lever. My plan was to run it from 6-12v batterys.
However, I don’t know if I’m barking up completely the wrong tree.
I’m always happy to see a person with interest in robotic/mechanic.
Do you have a drawing or schematic of what you would like to achieve? Just so you may post your final project in the robots section.
Personnaly, I would achieve this kind of motion using a Servo Motor.
Servo Motors are easy to control using any kind of microcontroller able to produce a PWM signal (Pulse Width Modulation).
This video should introduce you easily to the magic of servo motor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUHmYKWwuWs
Let me know if you need any additional information and if this helps you.
I’ve also been looking at this one with a stepper motor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv-9mxVaVzE controlled by the same Arduino uno. I’ve also downloaded the software and had a look at a few tutorials, I reckon I can work it out.
The servo you’ve shown me on the tutorial does look a much better action than the stepper. I’m going to order a servo and a stepper, along with the relevant drivers and an Arduino Uno and have an experiment next weekend. Its all going to be about going forward slightly slower than it goes back and be able to reset it to exactly the same start position.
