lost_and_confused:
The problem is the brake mechanisum wearing out too quickly.
A simple friction brake seems like the obvious solution here. Does your comment above imply that you've got this working? Because I'd have thought that brake wear issues would be far easier to address than creating a new powered spool mechanism. If you plan to start/stop winding abruptly then it might help to loop the rope round a sprung pulley so that the main pulley does not have to instantaneously match changes in the unspooling speed.