Building a Pulley System

[cdeane44]

I need to build a pulley/conveyor belt system that will move an LED connected to the belt back and forth with the rotation of the belt. The total length needs to be about 1 meter in length and the belt only needs to be as wide as the LED(~1 inch). The other thing is that it needs to be driven by a motor so that it can be calibrated to output the distance of the LED from the edge of the belt. Any suggestions? Premade products??

 

[MikeHalloran]

It's a motion control problem. You can buy programmable motors, or homebrew it with hobby robotics parts.

To get more help, you need to decide how fast you want it to move, what positioning resolution you want for where it stops, and how long you want it to last, among other things.

When you say 'output .. distance', what exactly do you mean?



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[cdeane44]

Thanks Mike,
The belt does not need to move that fast the only main thing is for the motor to output(either to a visual display or through a computer program) the distance that the belt has moved from an initial point. Is there any motors that can output this directly or any you would suggest, Thanks.

Christopher

 

[MikeHalloran]

Basically what you want is a "linear positioner".

Start here:

http://www.motioncontrol.com/products/index.cfm/Parker-Industrial-Positioner-HD-Series

or here:

http://allaboutmotion.com/tables/tableslinear.htm

or here:

http://www.parkermotion.com/

Those are all industrial- strength solutions (that Google found), that could cost you as much as a decent used car, but you get industrial- strength support, too.


To homebrew it, in addition to the belt, pulleys, bearings, display and structure between them, you need a servo or stepping motor, an absolute position sensor to say "I'm here|Somewhere Else" and an incremental position sensor to say "I'm this far from wherever Here was", a small computer to read the sensors, run the motor, run the display, etc.

.. which you can do for the price of a not so great used car, and you'll have to scrounge for parts and do diagnostics yourself when it doesn't work.

.. unless you factor in your labor, in which case homebrewing costs more than commercial solutions.

.. unless you regard the whole project as a learning experience, in which case it's priceless.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA