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Need some help from the auto-rotating monitor experts...

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kahlid74:

--- Quote from: DNA Dan on March 15, 2012, 01:48:15 pm ---For me the real appeal of a stepper motor is you could mount it AS the bearing itself. You'd need a beefy stepper, but the shaft could act directly as the rotation point with the monitor attached directly. You would save time and money on not having to screw around with the rotation parts so much, (lazy susan bearing, axle or whatnot) but the savings alone will not account for the cost of these industrial stepper motors. If mounting directly you'd probably want something 20mm shaft diameter or so and those can run hundreds of dollars. The other issue is the software interface. You'd have to use labview or some other software, something I lack experience with.

I like Ond's idea about a stepper with a gear ratio in there. This way you could have the cost savings of a smaller stepper. The issue again though is you need to create the rotation mech, unless the gearbox can handle this directly.

--- End quote ---

The answer in short to your software interface is Arduino.  Arduino is easily coded and can control stepper motors who talk in "pulses"  It's been done with Arduino and "EasyDriver" which is a sort of small version of power/control for Stepper motors.

For my rotation, I'll be using a 428 oz*in torque motor that uses a 50 volt 5 amp controller with Pulse controls being powered by a 40v 5 amp power supply.  The 50 volt 5 amp controller then connects directly into Arduino.  Arduino tells the controller to execute X pulses and a direction.  Since my "box" will be 42" wide and 30 lbs, I'll have to use a gear ratio, but because gears are such a pain I'll be using a V-Belt to accomplish the same thing.  The V-Belt pulley's are super cheap along with a moderate V-Belt that is adjustable in size.

Ond's project originally was identical in design except where I'll be using the Arduino he used the KTA-190.  The KTA-190 is super simple to control but it's expensive compared to an Arduino and the Arduino can do a heck of a lot more to boot.

I should have all of my parts within the next week where I then will be building a test podium, mounting all of my parts and playing with the rotation.  Based on my success I'll create a new project thread for the machine.

DNA Dan:
Which Arduino board are you using? I thought they were limited to 12-18v? Or is the motor powered separately?

kahlid74:

--- Quote from: DNA Dan on March 15, 2012, 05:13:59 pm ---Which Arduino board are you using? I thought they were limited to 12-18v? Or is the motor powered separately?

--- End quote ---

Motor powered separately by a 40v 5 amp Power Supply specifically rated for Stepper motors involved in CNC operations.  So it will work perfectly.

darthpaul:
I know I'm still relatively new to this forum and no one loves gears and servos more than I do but isn't this all a little overkill, we are talking about an LCD monitor? I have done a rotating 21" CRT monitor using the friction method powered by a windshield wiper motor; simple, cheap and it works flawlessly. To control the speed, I am using PWM that is built into DaOld Man's MRotate plugin, no need for gearing.

Le Chuck:

--- Quote from: darthpaul on March 16, 2012, 10:41:13 pm ---I know I'm still relatively new to this forum and no one loves gears and servos more than I do but isn't this all a little overkill, we are talking about an LCD monitor? I have done a rotating 21" CRT monitor using the friction method powered by a windshield wiper motor; simple, cheap and it works flawlessly. To control the speed, I am using PWM that is built into DaOld Man's MRotate plugin, no need for gearing.

--- End quote ---

Right but if you wanted to spin the monitor at 500 RPMs you probably couldn't... but they could.  That's the difference. 

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