Hi,
I would love to use motorized faders to a project. I can get some Behringer ones for cheap, but I can't find any documentation on pinout or motor voltage... Any way to figure it out?
No one? Alright, I ordered a bunch, hopefully I figure it out.
It should be easy to work out what what the pins do using a multimeter.
The two motor pins are obvious.
If the motor voltage isn't marked then start off low and gradually work your way up until it operates at a reasonable speed.
I assume you will be using an H bridge motor driver so that you can move the slider in both directions and at varying speeds.
One of the other 4 pins might be a second potentiometer that can be used to determine the slider's position.
Good luck, and ask any further questions when you get them.
1 Like
Yeah, the 4 pins for control is not a big concern, I just don't want to fry too many motors before I get it right. There's no markers on the motor (that I can see without desoldering it (and ruin it) anyways).
So you suggest I start with, lets say, 3V DC and slowly work my way up? Will the motor lifespan decrease when using too low voltage?
An abandoned draft popped up:
The motor:
Max. Operating Voltage: motor 10V DC
Rated Power: 10V DC 800mA
As for the potentiometer part, how hard will it be to find the ends and wiper?
now: looks like I found some datasheet or info googling.
HTH
a7
I also found some hints about 10V, but not sure how trustworthy the information is... What motor driver would be favorable? HG7881? I think I have a few L298N laying around, would they do the job?
Did some testing, I believe the picture above is correct. Pin2 is a touch sensor. But the potentiometer gives strange results connected to A0 on a ESP8266. It starts with a value of around 7, and increase very slowly (and may I say, unreliable) to 10 at 1/2, 20 at 3/4, 30 at 4/5 - and reach about 320 at max. Just 1 mm movement downward reduces this to 200... Here's the sketch I tried for the potentiometer:
int potmeterPin = A0; // Slide potentiometer on pin A0
int potmeterVal = 0; // Slide potentiometer value
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); // Initialise the serial monitor
}
void loop() {
potmeterVal = analogRead(potmeterPin); // Read the analog value of the slide potentiometer
Serial.println(potmeterVal); // Show the value on the serial monitor
delay(100); // Pause 100ms
}
Ideas? Not tested motor yet, since I'm unsure about motor driver choice.
How is this known? Seems unusual at least.
And
the potentiometer gives strange results
Do you have a ohmmeter of any kind? The code lloks plausible but there are too many ways for that method to go wrong, if you could just use a meter to simlplify would be best.
Your results are unusual. What is the nominal value of the pot?
a7
It's probably an audio taper pot, The maximum doesn't seem right but I don't know anything about the ADC in the ESP version.
I wouldn't worry too much about the motor voltage unless it's constantly running. If you are just making occasional automated adjustments the motor will probably be OK even if it's slightly over-voltage.
Because our ears hear logarithmically, if you use a regular linear pot as a volume control it's way to loud at the half-way point.
How is this known? Seems unusual at least.
Well, the description of the fader says touch sensible. If I connect pin2 on the fader (green, labeled "TOUCH" on the picture) to A0, it reads numbers between 6 and 15. As soon as I touch the fader controller pin (the one to slide up and down), the values increase to about 100. Or stable 0. It only happens when touching it with my finger, a piece of paper or plastic gives no result. Strange, but even if this is not the purpose of the pin, I may use it for touch detection 
Will pick up my multimeter after work tonight.
It's probably an audio taper pot
Look at the numbers. I know about audio pots. If this was a volume pot, there would be almost no sound all the way up to 90%. Then all hell would break loose, blowing the speakers at 94%. That's not it...
It is highly likely.
Adafruit have one on theirs: https://learn.adafruit.com/flying-faders
Quote:
"They consist of a slide potentiometer, and a motor that can convert rotational motion to linear motion, and either a capacitive touch sensor or current sensor to allow interaction with the fader while it is moving (the sensing prevents motor stalling or stripping of gears)."
IC THX. I understand the desirability of providing that.
It's a bit like calling an antenna a transmitter though.
BTW are schematics going out of style? The Adafruit page, didn't look that hard, but it seems to want us to read where all the wires go… and/or look at the pictures.
a7
Well, I didn't by the Adafruit ones. Got Behringer's for cheap, they're notorious for not publishing schematics (or any details at all really).
I wrecked one for assurance. For those curious, the motor is:
Mabuchi Ff-050sb-0925
Nominal voltage: 9V (27mA)
Accepted voltage: 5V - 11.5V
Speed: 7900 RPM
Hi!
I purchased the MOTOR61 keyboard and got tired of it (never worked as I wanted it to). So I stripped it for parts, the motor faders being among the most interesting ones. I am pretty sure that the faders are these ones: 60mm Motorized Slide Potentiometer-60mm Slide Potentiometer-Motorized Slide Potentiometer Data Sheet Pdf-Soundwell Electronic China . The pinout in post #7 seems to be incorrect. It should read, from left to right:
- Potentiometer fixed end 1 (e.g. GND)
- Touch
- Potentiometer fixed end 2 (e.g. 3.3V)
- Potentiometer wiper (what is called "POT" in the picture)
Hope this helps
/sciphert
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