I have very little experience with electronics. I want to buy a motor that can lift a 15 lb projector using a cable. When I shop online I get overwhelmed by all of the options.
Is there a place in town where I can buy a motor? Potentially a place with associates that might be able to answer basic questions.
Easiest thing to do is just buy a power drill from the hardware store. Test it out to make sure it’s strong enough for your use case then tear off all the unnecessary plastic or return it and get something bigger if not.
You might consider deciding your input voltage & power output in advance. Would help in getting a good estimate of the motor you need before you buy. You can set your speed/torque trade off by how large you make your cable spool, but there’s no way to safely cheat power output.
Also, bwgrimm has a good suggestion. HFT is one of the cheapest sources of brushed motors.
Or Craigslist/FB Marketplace for used stuff. There are lots of obsolete battery drills for cheap there.
I have an old drill or two you can have if you post a photo of the projector you are going to lift.
I didn’t think about using a motor from a drill. That seems like a great idea! I have a lot of research to understand how to slow the motor down since a drill would be spinning faster than I want the projector to move.
Here is the projector. It is an epson 38000. It weights about 15 lbs, system I’m going to make is probably going to weight an additional 15 lbs.
A not-quite-fill bucket of water is about 40 lbs. Chuck a shaft in the drill and wrap a cord around it. Tie the other end to the bucket handle. Run the drill and see if it works
I recommend using this online calculator.
The questions it asks will prompt you to think about what is important to you.
For example, weigth (as you mentioned) is an important variable. Time is another variable - how fast do you want the movement to take? Also, the radius of the pulley is another variable to consider. At the end it will give an estimated battery size too which will help you plan for a power source.
Long story short, once I ran the calculations, I called the company and they walkd me through some options and I ordered the parts I needed. They were delivered to my doorstep within the week.
You may want a drill with a “variable speed” control. vs the old 2 speeds models with on/off (“Full throttle” or “Dead stop”). I would imagine that the rate of accent and decent is something you would like to have control of … Limiting switches come to mind too.
That makes sense. I think that the variable speed drill would be the way to go since it has all of the controls I need i.e. variable speed and forward/reverse.
Great resource! I’ll start using it to get an idea of what I’ll need. Thanks!
