Servo vs stepper motors

I am building a moving target for my kids slingshot… it is a simple design, a post a spinning arm that moves fairly slow and potentially stops at certain positions. It never goes a complete 360, it hit 6 on a clock goes the other way…

I am trying to figure out what motor is best to use with the Arduino controlling it.

Motors are not my skill set at all.

Just excited the sun wants to work on the project with me.. he is 9

Bar with target weighs about 20lbs. Looking at 2-10RPM and stopping at 8,9,10,12,2,3,4 on clock

Most servos made for hobby use turn only 180 degrees (if that).

Stepper motors are made for precise positioning. They could do what you want. There would need to be at least one position sensor so the motor can "home" on start up.

You could use a regular gear motor with sensors at each stopping point.

My biggest concerns are controlling the speed (I want it to vary) and the total weight of arm being 20-ish pounds

Any suggestions to find one that doesn’t break the bank?

That is entirely a mechanical problem in how you design the connection between the stepper motor and you target device.

Is the arm rotating about a horizontal axis? If so, you could add a counter-balancing weight. This would reduce the torque needed. You will still need torque to start and stop the motion, but less than before. Especially since your rotational speed is pretty low.

The size of the motor would also depend on how you support the shaft carrying the arm: plain bearings would need more power but be less complicated than using say ball bearings.

Was going to use a shaft that goes through two posts with ball bearings that the shaft goes through…

Was thinking about using a bike chain sprocket system from the motor to the shaft for the arm.

Definitely going to use a sensor at the 6 o’clock position for calibration and stopping of the arm.

I don’t want the arm to fully spin, because I will have some wires from post to target arm.

For the balance, I am actually having the arm have a target on each side so I have no counter balance

Then you can make a gear reduction to give any movement speed you want! Be sure to include a chain tension adjustment method.

I want to control the speed with the raspberry pi? Can’t a servo or stepper be controlled by pi?

Speed has be reduced by gears? Can’t it becontrolled by Pi and directly to motor?

Yes.

Yes, the ultimate speed can always be changed by gears. The control of the increments is in the motor/controller.

The stepper speed is controlled by the frequency of the pulses sent to the stepper driver step input. Stepper Motor Basics

The speed of a DC gear motor is controlled by a PWM signal sent to the motor driver.

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