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Rotating monitor construction *Project finished*

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DaOld Man:
That sounds great Koz319!!
I am going to modify my isolator board to bring inputs to ground.
I plan to use a 100 ohm resistor to tie the input to ground through the opto isolator.
Please post your plugin as soon as you can. I am interested in the command line version too. This might be what GLaunch users need. (I wont need the PWM version).

I went by Radio Shack today, and they have a 10 amp relay which is DPDT for about 10 bucks. The one I looked at comes with a socket too.
A DPDT relay will work for the relay drive, but you wont be able to use a braking resistor.
So for around 25-35 bucks (including cost of opto isolators, resistors, and printer cable), you can build a relay drive.
I started to go ahead and buy the relays and start a new thread showing how to build a relay drive using those relays, but I dont really need it, and I didnt want to throw the money away.
But if someone would like to pay me back for what I have in it, I can do it, and whoever buys it will have a ready made drive.
I may go ahead and make the thread anyway, using information on the relays from the radio shack website. (Warning... more crappy paint pictures ahead! :) )

DaOld Man:
OK, here is a very simple drawing I threw together using two radio shack DPDT relays.
Model: 275-218  |  Catalog #: 275-218
These relays have solder lugs on them, so you can solder directly to the relay, but I highly suggest you use a socket. Attach your wires to the socket, then if something happens to the relay 5 years down the road, just unplug and plug in a new one.
Heres the socket: Model: 275-220  |  Catalog #: 275-220
(On the website, I couldnt find the relay/socket combo they have at my store.)
Anyway, the picture is not as complicated as it may first appear.
The drawing on top is the schematic, with pin numbers that are on the relays. (As best as I can tell from the picture anyway).
The bottom part shows the relays wired in real life. I used different colors for the wires to help you distinguish between them.
I highly suggest you use the diodes D1 and D2. These can be just about any general purpose 1 amp diodes (Radio Shack Model: 1N4003  |  Catalog #: 276-1102)
I am not showing the circuit that turns these relays on, but if you touch the CCW signal wire to power supply + the motor will turn CCW (if not reverse the motor leads). If you touch the CW signal wire to + the motor will turn in opposite direction.
Touch both signal wires to + and the motor does nothing.
You can use a SPDT switch or pushbuttons to turn these on.
You can also interface these to your printer port, but not directly.
They will need to be turned on through opto isolators, or transistors. If you go this route then diodes D1 and D2 are a must.
Or you could use a SPST N.O. solid state relay. It will take two. The printer port signal turns on the solid state relay, and the solid state relay turns on CWR or CCWR.

DaOld Man:
I hope everyones having a great weekend.
I got the new parts for my H Drive from mouser.com yesterday. That was super fast shipping.
I plan to repair the H Drive tomorrow afternoon. The place that pays me to show up required that I show up this weekend, 12 hours yesterday and 12 hours today.
Once I get the H drive back online, I plan to throughly test it.
Then I can begin to decide what mechanism I am going to use to transfer motion from motor to monitor.
There are a lot of good ideas on this forum. I am studying them.
Also, I plan on using a 21" CRT monitor, but Im not 100% sure that I have enough room in my cabinet.
I have a 19" CRT I can fall back on if I have to.
I plan to place my CRT on my bar (since its too cold outside now) and play around with it. Turn it, measure it, hook it to a spare PC and see how it all feels.
I will try to post more pictures soon.

DaOld Man:
Here is drotate.exe in zipped form.
I think I got all the bugs worked out.
I also added an option on the I/O section.
You can choose whether to look for inputs going high or low. (Thanks for the idea, Koz319).
Remember, you might be able to look at in windows, but it will only act right with the printer port in DOS.
Please let me know if you find any bugs or discrepancies..

Edited: 01/11/08... Moved drotate.exe screen shots and download file to this thread.

DaOld Man:
I installed the two transistors on my H drive.
Everything seemed to be working good, until I tried to turn on both directions at once. (This should just brake the motor.)
The other two transistors (not the ones I just changed), got extremely hot and shorted out.
I am just about ready to go with the relay drives. This part of the project is taking a lot longer than I had planned.
Anyone got any ideas as to what is going on with my H drive?
I double checked my wiring, it looks good.

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