I've got an idea for a case design that would incorporate a spinning ring of metal. Imagine a 14 inch coin spinning on edge; something like that. I want it to spin fast enough that an led on the edge of the ring would look like a streak of light. I realize that this will take a fairly powerful motor, but I haven't seen any articles about using a motor that size. I was thinking maybe I could use an electric drill motor or something, but I have no idea how to go about powering or controlling something like that. I did , but couldn't find anything. Same with Google. Any ideas, suggestions or links to applicable articles would be much appreciated. I do realize the safety hazard involved with having that much metal spinning that fast, so the whole thing will be shrouded to protect the fingers. Also, I was planning to power the motor seperately from the computer, either by seperate power source or a second psu if applicable. Thanks!
Hell you shouldnt nead a drill motor, besides that would be to slow. You want a motor out of a cd drive or floppy drive.
well an electric drill would work within reason... but can you imagine the sound thats going to make? Any fans uve changed to make ur computer silent will be useless. More to the point you would something like a fan controller but for a lot bigger wattage. Or use a dremel
gettting it turning is easy.. getting a motor that will do it is easy, getting the gearing to keep the heat down and speed up will take some trick... but you should be able to use a motor from an rc car or something like that without much problem.
Ummm how bout you just take a cheapo fan and glue the coin on the end of the fan and cut the wings off allow only the coin to be seen. That way no major modding has to be done just connecting another fan. I would use the smallest fan I could find. Why do I get the feeling your going to take somthing like a 14 inch fake spinner wheel for a car and make it spin on its own. That would be odd...
you could use motors made for rc Cars they are fast and can be fairly cheap, or just use one from a case fan
Hmm. Good point about the noise. I'm just afraid that if I use a smaller motor it won't have the torque to spin that much aluminum. The idea is to put lights around the edge of the ring so that when it spins you get the optical illusion of a sphere of light. Kind of like this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/6490/ only bigger. Also, I'm planning on making it either belt or chain driven rather than gear driven, so that could help make it easier on the motor. Maybe an electric screwdriver motor?
Screwdriver is far FAR too slow. you dont NEED a disk either, just a strip of metal. Have it as long as the whole diameter, not just the radius, that way it wont be off balance too much.. Becarefull not to stick your finger in it though... For motor, rapidelectronics do quite a few, and they also sell some gear and pully/belt stuff aswell
Anyone got the link to the custom PC that had a ring spinning around the motherboard? That would be a useful link for Ryno.
Actually I was hoping not to give away my secret plan too soon, but that is exactly what I was trying to do. A spinning ring around the motherboard made out of aluminum and plexi, but I also have a few other ideas to take that design and, umm, improve it a little. I haven't been able to find that site by the other guy who did it though (I saw it a long time ago), so if anyone sees it, please post the url. How about a windshield wiper motor without the gearbox?
Everyone says that an electric drill motor is too slow...ever heard of gear reduction? Assuming the drill spins at 1000 RPMs, and you have a gear reduction of 5:1 (50 tooth gear attached to drill motor, 10 tooth gear attached to ring), then you have a resulting speed of 5000 RPMs. Again, remember this little piece of knowledge: "Any motor can move any thing...it's all in how you gear it down." Anyway, sounds like a good project. (Pick yourself up some cheap plastic gears)
Well IMO you already gave away what your doing to some degree. You obviously are doing somthing that will appear to be one of those silly rim spinning wheels. I mean cmon 14inches and aluminum Coin? Needs to spin? If I were you I would be less concered about it spinning fast enough and more worried about the mounting of it. Regardless to what you use as a motor if the extension like a screwdriver extension ends up trying to hold 25lbs. Its going to do a lot of shaking and bouncing moving etc... and make lots of noise. Soooooo Again I would use a fan motor the bigger and faster it needs to spin would tell me to get a bigger fan. There have been some good suggestions but overall minimal modding is best.
thats not entirely true... a tiny motor couldnt move a huge truck because it simply doesnt have enough power. A fan motor probably could move the wheel, but it would take a while to spin up to full speed. It depends how much the wheel weighs and how well you gear it up.
You'll also have to think about sheilding it. Electric motors put out a heck of a lot of EM radiatiion, which a modern PC will not like. Next time you're watching TV, stick a running motor near the aerial, and check the amount of interference it causes. Just my 2c. _C
Thanks for the warning; I plan on having the motor inside the case with the drives, and the motherboard outside the case. I should probably enclose the motor in something anyway to protect data in any cables that run past... To Kongen: Actually I wasn't even thinking of spinner rims. I got the inspiration from the X-Men movie, where it shows Magneto sitting in his doomsday machine with a metal ring spinning around him. That's sorta what I want to do, but with my motherboard in the middle.
