GIANT Servo setup

Projects & Topics Robotics
#1

This should not be a topic that has been covered before, or at least not in this way.

I have a 24 volt dc motor geared down to 16rpm. I have a small rc servo that I have taken apart.

My plan is to put a gear on the motor, replace the potentiometer in the servo, add a gear to the top of it, and connect it to the gear on the dc motor.

In my understanding, this will give me a giant 24volt servo.

If all the above is correct then here is my issue:

I will need a motor controller to operate the motor. I will run the 3 wires from the servo motor to the arduino pins of +5v, grnd, and digital pin 7. The other end if the positive and ground wires will run to a motor controller.

The motor controller will be connected to a seperate power supply that drives the dc motor.

will this setup work the way I am expecting it to or am I missing some key component?

All feedback is greatly appreciated. Flame away if you will. If this topic has been posted before, I apologize. I spent about a week researching to come up with this design.

The reason the servo needs to be so large is it will be rotating about 100 pounds of steel with large resistances.

#2

If this topic has been posted before, I apologize. I spent about a week researching to come up with this design.

The idea of using the guts of a servo (servo pot at the point of movement and servo motor leads driving the large motor h-bridge) comes around fairly often. The usual slowing down issue is the cost of the large h-bridge to operate the big motor (which should not be a factor in weather the setup will work or not). I've got this particular plan for a giant servo (below) on the back burner while looking for the h-bridge solution.

#3

The usual slowing down issue is the cost of the large h-bridge to operate the big motor

This is the part that is completely foreign to me. I am trying to figure out exactly what I need to do for this, but im still unsure.

I was hoping that by using the motor controller that this wouldnt be an issue.

#4

I was hoping that by using the motor controller that this wouldnt be an issue.

An appropriate motor controller (which usually contain an h-bridge) for the motor could work. What is the size of the motor and the motor controller you want to use?

#5

The size of the motor is 24vdc. I am not sure what the amp usage is.

I am actually thinking of purchasing a new motor so that It can be 12v and known amps below 10.

I understand that the arduino motor controller only goes up to 2 amps so I have downloaded a tutorial for building an h bridge that I will use with it.

I am not sure that the one I downloaded will work though because it has 3 inputs from the microcontroller with seperate spots for forwar and revers which wont work for me.

I am still working on finding a hbridge design to build.

#6

so I have downloaded a tutorial for building an h bridge that I will use with it.

Be aware that many "intrenet H-bridges" just don't work in the real world. Below are previous post on DIY h-bridges that might be worth reading.

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php?topic=53425.0

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=h-bridge+build&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Farduino.cc%2Fforum%2F&as_occt=any&safe=off&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=