He said, LET THERE BE MOVEMENT. And there was. (but for some strange and odd reason, I can not figure out how to do it..) I am wondering how I can get a piece of my computer to move up. Basicly, to explain this, I'll just say I want the lid (top of the case) to open. For all purposes, let's say my lid is 1 to 2lbs. Fairly lightweight, but say where it hinges is in the back of the case, so it has 18" of material in front of the hinge it has to open. So, the 1 to 2lbs + the 18" of material and surface gravity and all.. from one point, thus "it's hard to move". Now.. I don't want the lid to open all the way up, I only want it to open in the front 9 inches. So, in the back, I'm not sure what that would be, but not very much. I'd say a 30 degree angle maybe. So, what on earth can I use to basicly push hard right above the hinge? I also want it to stop, (ie. press button, it opens, and stays put. press a 2nd time, it closes) I've looked into pneumatics, but I don't know what I'm looking for. Electric motors are nice, but that doesn't really push me anywhere, and they don't stop at a nice point. I was thinking of using a modded cdrom to push it open, but.. I don't think a cdrom can push 2lbs upward (or can it?). So.. if anyone understands my panic call, please try to explain to me what I can do. I've experimented enough, and I now need to ask for help. (Sorry for the english units... I wish I knew metric better) Thanks, -emu
Well, Having used a couple motors, and done one with a cdrom drive tray motor, I can guarantee that that won't have enough power... My Baybus And My LCD I think a linear drive, or worm gear type motor would give you enough oomph, I know the 12V motor I used in the Baybus would probably give enough force (If used at 12V) to do the lifting you are talking about... just mount the motor and wormgear (Threaded rod) on hinges, and allow the whole assembly to rotate with the opening of the top... Just my 2c
i know somewhere i saw a numatic or hydrolic lan li bus sience hard disk crashes arn't good for long term storage i have misplaced the link, there is a reason you shouldent trust your whole life to a ibm deskstarbut i guess it was cheep Sarry for hijacking your thread a lil but back to the point. If anyone knows ther link please post it. i think if nothing else works a liniar actwiato and tracks might, what case are you using. picks and or a diagram waould be helpful. If you want a cool bit of copring you could hing the front to hide the drive bays and move it with a servo, that looks so cool i will have to do that someday. btw a moter migt work to friction or track drive? good luck on your quest
What your looking for is a solenoid. They come in iehter on/off, or PWM. You would want an on/off push type. Simply put, apply the voltage, it pushes a little rod sticking out of it a certain distance. Shutoff the voltage, it retracts. These are generally alot more powerful than your average turning motors, but also use more amperage. Google solenoids and find out more.
Right... solenoids.. I thought about them, googled them.. and all the datasheets and everything.. my goodness. I'll search again.. do you know how fast it goes out? I don't want it to be super fast and damage something. Thanks, -emu
Solenoids generally move extremely fast. They are just electromagnets with a moving metal slug in the centre. The only thing controlling the speed is the inertia of whatever is connected to the slug. Also need a lot of amps to do what you want. Why not use a servo? There is a huge range of sizes made for RC models. The ones designed as aileron servos for RC aircraft are easily powerful enough for what you want. Mount the lid on hinges, fit the servo to the case, and use a short link to join the servo horn to the lid. RC servos will operate fine on 5V. You can control it with a "servo tester". These are used to check the functionality of RC planes without having to turn on the transmitter. Or, you could have a 2-way switch to apply the power, and a couple of limit switches on the linkage to control the travel of the servo. Cheers
there is actually a few ways of doing this... you could cut up a CDrom and use the guts from there... inside there (under the tray) you'll find a "toothbar" (don't know what it's called) this can be used to push the lid upwards... .then use the gears to make a big gear ratio.. then you'll have a bar moving up and down... to get it to stop at the top you could use a ir-led and a optocoupler at the "toothbar"... to make it go down again the next time you press the button you can use some AND and OR circuits.. i actually have chematics for something similar somewere... not sure where though... BTW: not sure if the "toothbar" from a cd tray is strong enough... but those should be pretty simple to make...
You can do this with a motor for shizzle. I once had a motor (about 3cm x 4cm dimensions) which was geared down enough that it could rotate a small/handheld sledge hammer from the base of the handle. You just need a big and sturdy enough gearbox... Youll want like a 9v or 12v motor to be geared down to less than 5rpm before it has enough torque though. So youll probably need to get a geared-down motor and rig it up to a second gearbox somehow... Either way youre going to need to reduce a 5,000-6,000rpm motor to about 4 or 5rpm before itll work.
Hmm as someone has suggested is it not simpler to raise the lid at the far end as opposed to at the hinge? A "tooth bar" is called a rack btw, "rack and pinion" is the name of the system. You would still need a slow gearbox though.
