Help selecting a electric motor
Help selecting a electric motor
(OP)
I am hoping to get some help from people who know things about electric motors. I know little to almost nothing with respect to electric motors and decided to seek some help on a project I am constructing.
Please forgive the rather mundane nature of this.
My 4 year old has decided she wants Ferris wheel for her barbies. Since I have been completely bored out of my mind of late, I decided to build her one. The further down the road I have progressed with my designs, the more extravagant it has become.
I have decided I want to motorize it. Right now, I have created a 6 seat barbie ferris wheel out of wood. It stands about 3 feet tall. Each seat can accommodate 2 barbies. It’s not overly heavy but being made out of wood it’s fairly substantial.
What kind of motor should I consider for turning it? I know that is a fairly 'general' question and may be hard to answer with the information I am providing. I would prefer something battery powered. It would not have to spin the ferris wheel very fast.
I do feel rather odd posting here but I had trouble finding a form that I felt could provide a decent answer.
It’s been a fun project. I am worried that if it turns out well that I may get other requests. Her favorite ride is the Tilt-a-whirl. Might have to turn down that request.
I have thought about creating a double ferris wheel though. Used to be one of my favorite rides at the county fair. Wonder if I would use 3 motors or 1 motor and gears to drive that sort of monstrosity.
Thanks for any help,
Steve
Please forgive the rather mundane nature of this.
My 4 year old has decided she wants Ferris wheel for her barbies. Since I have been completely bored out of my mind of late, I decided to build her one. The further down the road I have progressed with my designs, the more extravagant it has become.
I have decided I want to motorize it. Right now, I have created a 6 seat barbie ferris wheel out of wood. It stands about 3 feet tall. Each seat can accommodate 2 barbies. It’s not overly heavy but being made out of wood it’s fairly substantial.
What kind of motor should I consider for turning it? I know that is a fairly 'general' question and may be hard to answer with the information I am providing. I would prefer something battery powered. It would not have to spin the ferris wheel very fast.
I do feel rather odd posting here but I had trouble finding a form that I felt could provide a decent answer.
It’s been a fun project. I am worried that if it turns out well that I may get other requests. Her favorite ride is the Tilt-a-whirl. Might have to turn down that request.
I have thought about creating a double ferris wheel though. Used to be one of my favorite rides at the county fair. Wonder if I would use 3 motors or 1 motor and gears to drive that sort of monstrosity.
Thanks for any help,
Steve





RE: Help selecting a electric motor
RE: Help selecting a electric motor
Since you need slow speed and high torque my first thought would be a stepping motor. Simple amplifiers are cheap but you'd need to probably make a simple step generator (variable frequency square wave oscillator). Batteries are not a good choice; low voltage step motors require a fair amount of current but power supplies are cheap and safe.
RE: Help selecting a electric motor
Thanks. I have been looking around for motors to purchase on line. The problem I am running into is I am not sure what to buy. Most of the motors I run across have lots of interesting specs but being electric motor handi-capped, I have no idea what kind of motor can be powered by D cell batteries.
Here are some examples of items I would consider:
http://www.hobbyengineering.com/SectionM.html
http://www.hobbyengineering.com/H2242.html
Can I hook these up to D cell batteries?
RE: Help selecting a electric motor
Cheap stepper motors:
http://www.futurlec.com/StepperMotors.shtml
Which of these do you think would be adequite power wise?
RE: Help selecting a electric motor
http:
I'd select 5 VDC and unipolar. With some clicking you can get to the catalog page that also has a step motor driver.
You can also find powersuplises at Digikey.
RE: Help selecting a electric motor
Speaking from l o n g experience I think you're making a mistake bringing power cords/batteries/switches pinch points into a neat Ferris wheel project for a young child.
But I guess if you are driven to repeat my mistakes what you need is a model gearmotor. Many of them come in different ways. I have one that has 4 planetary gearboxes that you could assemble and stack the gear boxes to change the ratio or final shaft speed. You could go clear down to seconds-hand speeds. I can't remember the name of the kit but here is a an example that would likely work fine for your application.
http:
Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.- http://www.flaminsystems.com
RE: Help selecting a electric motor
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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
RE: Help selecting a electric motor
Cordless drill would also be workable, they can be had fairly inexpensively now and provide inherent rechargeability. Might be a little more difficult to implement IMHO than that hobby gearmotor and a 12-18V drill battery can more easily start a fire than a pair of D cells.
But all in all, I also agree with itsmoked about the hand crank issue. I too had a tendency to apply engineering solutions to things I made for my kids; most of the features and benefits were lost on them because a) they just wanted to fill a basic need and/or b) if it didn't come from a store or have the right label on it, it was "lame" according to my daughter.
RE: Help selecting a electric motor
Sorry, dem's da rulz.