Motors and bits
My first input is about small tiny motors. Someone in our club, suggested that the small motors that are used in cell phones that make the vibrator vibrate would provide an excellent source of animation.
He suggested that these motors are available in electronics stores. The need a bit of work to get started - first step is to remove the off centered weight that causes the vibration and replace it with a small gear. He is into Z gauge and is used to this very small work.
These little motors are small enough to be put just about anywhere - even inside small "O" gauge people???? I wonder how slow you could get one to go...
Kelly
Maybe some sort of pulse for powering them?
Also you might be able to leave the weight on them, depending on what you are trying to do.
Was thinking something like a kite. Mounting the wire to the kite so the weight taps on it. Think this would make the kite bounce a little like the wind is moving it....
Donald
A lot of things in real life vibrate.
You could put one inside a tractor trailer have it vibrate very very lightly, it won't be apparent, but I think it should give it a more realistic look. Perhaps, mount a small shack on one of these vibrating motors and as a train passes, a photo eye can trigger the shack to vibrate??? Again, we aren't talking earth quake here.
Josh
I got ten of them. One of them was put on 12vdc (not 13.6v) and run for two weeks with the weight on. Didn't even get hot. The test was to find out how long it would take to die. It never did. But I'd suggest, under load conditions, you hold it down to around 8 volts or less.
Bill
If you talk r-e-a-l nice to your local appliance repairman, you might be able to get your hands on some of the timer motors for washers/dryers [pre-all-digital]; had a couple at one time [probably buried under my junque somewhere] and as I recall, the output shaft of the motors turned at between two and three RPM. If/when I find mine, or get some replacements, I plan to gear the output shaft to turn some cams at about 25 RPH to start/stop the flat rides in my amusement park. May try multiple cams with some gearing in between them so three [for a start] turn at slightly different speeds, thus giving a more random effect to the operation of the rides.
Another idea using those timer motors might be to use one of them to turn a standard rotary dimmer switch, or even a pair of dimmers geared to turn opposite directions so that as one set of lights dims, another brightens.
Jack Priller
I bought a few of the motorized pots from All Electronics and found them useful. You do have to disassemble the pot part to get the 270 degree "stop" out of it....after which it will continuously rotate in either direction. Works down to 3 volts DC nicely. The price is right, and they are quiet. They also have a slip clutch, in the event your animated "whatever" catches on something and binds.
Bill
Could take an old speaker and remove the paper cone and connect the center to the item that needs to be moved. Some sort of sound or pulse wave to make it move up and down.
Two speakers to make it move up/down and sideways.
Donald
Small speakers used to drive short linear movements? ... sounds like a
good idea. I would think many modellers could determine things like
throw distance, but speakers are designed to vibrate. How would they
stand up to single 'to-' or 'fro-' motions. This would mean maintaining
a dc voltage to hold it in position for a while - like a solenoid,
really.
I can experiment to find how far a speaker would move with a given dc
voltage; I could limit the voltage to keep within the power rating of
the speaker, but surely a 1W speaker (say) is only designed to sink 1W
with it moving all the time, not static.
(I think my musings arise from knowing that ratings such as '8-ohm' for
the impedance actually varies enormously with frequency and it certainly
is NOT the same as dc resistance.)
Dave
A idea just pop into in head:-)
Tortoise switch machines.
Has anyone try to use one of these to turn the knob of a variable
resister(pot)?
What I was thinking was to make a connection rod so that it will turn the
knob when the switch machine moves back and forth.
Now since I don't own any Tortoise machine a couple of questions:
Will they run slow enough for a direct connection or will I need to place in
some gearing?
Would they have enough power to move the pot even if I have to use gears?
Would using a small hobby motor work better if gears are required?
What I was thinking was for the house lights. Having a dimmer switch hooked
up to one and then as it moves it turn the dimmer up to full and then
switches and moves the dimmer back down....
or:
Using gears on a bunch of dimmers and a chain. Having a motor turn the
chain so that it moves all the different dimmers at the same time. Would
need some sort of limit switches for both ends so that the system would go
from dark to bright and then back to dark.
What I was thinking that since the Tortoise has the back and forth motion
and variable resister (light dimmers) only travel about 270 degrees and not
a full circle the Tortoise using a linkage would be able to move the knob.
Sort of like taking two Tortoise machines and replacing one of the motors
with a pot and connecting the two together with the normal linkage.
Only problem I can see is the speed of the machine.br
Donald