control big motor like garage door opener?

Projects General Guidance
1

would arduino be good for this?:
i want to build something that can slide a heavy weight slowly back and forth, with a pause at each end. the travel distance needs to be between 4-10 ft. the weight would be all attached to a flat frame that i can hang from heavy duty channels and bearings - so this frame would be supported by other means, but i need a motor that is strong enough to push and pull it along its tracks. (any where between 100-600 lb.)

bonus's would be
*adjustable travel distance
*adjustable speed
*adjustable pause time at each end

i was trying to investigate hacking a garage door opener, thinking i could make a physical switch at each end that could press the button and send it in the other direction... but then i started reading about motor controllers, and stepper motors and servo motors and i'm lost. in way over my head.

do you have any words of wisdom for me? any ideas you think i should explore?

2

You may want to search the old forum for H-bridge. These are used to control DC motors in both speed and direction. As to large DC motors, winches used on trucks and such can move heavy loads.

3

First of all: YES, you totally can do such things with the Arduino.

The downside is though, its not a starters project. Hacking a garage door opener is good idea. Since your motor has to drive over a long distance, you should use a "normal" motor and not a stepper motor. You could use mechanical switches or other sensing like IR to sense the ends.

Perhaps this http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/DCMotorControl will help you to get a better understanding.

There are much more tutorials which explain the use of motors, servos and stepper here Arduino Playground - InterfacingWithHardware in the "Physical/Mechanical" part.