hello! I’m brand new to all of this and I really wanted to use a couple motors in an art piece I’m working on. I’ve been looking around for information everywhere for the past few days and honestly I’m more confused than when I first started. There’s all these things that I’m not sure what they do and I can’t even figure out what I need. All I want is 3 motors to turn one way, hold that position, then turn the other way back to their starting positions. I was thinking I probably need Servo motors but if you guys think something else might be better I’d love to hear. What I really really need is just someone to show me three Servo motors to buy and exactly what I need to purchase to make them work. No matter how much I read or how many tutorials I watch I can’t quite get this stuff into my head. I do a lot of art so I’m very visually driven. I just need to have all the parts in front of me, then I can go from there and learn everything about how each piece works. I’d be extremely grateful if someone could tell me exactly what I need to buy. The more specific the better. Even if they don’t do what I want I honestly just want to learn.

 

Hi,

One way to go that I would suggest is to get a little background under your belt first so that you can better understand and describe what you want to do and how to go about getting it done.

I would suggest a book like this first.

Trying to get the "exact" instructions over an Internet Forum can be problematic because, well, because nobody else knows exactly what you want to do and lacking any experience, there is too much room for misunderstanding. Long story short, it might take longer and be more frustrating.

But, if you can get some better understanding, from "bridge" books, like the one referenced, it could save you a lot of time. There are probably some other books that folks here could recommend.

 

We need more details, like how fast the motion should be, the torque required, the timing between reversal, are they synchronized, and so on.

I’m wondering if you couldn’t just use a rotating cam, with a push rod on the perimeter. This push rod then moves back and forth and could drive an object back and forth. One motor could drive all 3.

 

Honestly I’m not worrying about speed and torque right now. I’ll save all that for once the prototype is built. I love those little kits you can buy at electronic stores just to build and learn but I haven’t found any with motors. All I’m looking for right now is to learn and just mess around with stuff. If I can make a motor move at all I’ll be happy. If anyone knows any kits I can buy that have everything you need to make a motor move I’d love to buy it otherwise I just need to know what to buy that will all work together. I don’t really even care what kind of motor it is, I just want everything I would need to make a motor turn.

 

Please use paragraphs to organize your thoughts.

 

Honestly I’m not worrying about speed and torque right now. I’ll save all that for once the prototype is built. I love those little kits you can buy at electronic stores just to build and learn but I haven’t found any with motors. All I’m looking for right now is to learn and just mess around with stuff. If I can make a motor move at all I’ll be happy. If anyone knows any kits I can buy that have everything you need to make a motor move I’d love to buy it otherwise I just need to know what to buy that will all work together. I don’t really even care what kind of motor it is, I just want everything I would need to make a motor turn.

It’s hard to beat the junkyard. Get some motors such as outside mirror adjusters, windshield wipers, van door openers, door lock actuators, and I’m sure there are more. They all run off a 12V battery. Depending on the junkyard, you could get several for next to nothing. But ask first! Some will try to gouge you.

Another source might be used kids toys. See if Goodwill has any motorized toys you could dissect.

 

It’s hard to beat the junkyard. Get some motors such as outside mirror adjusters, windshield wipers, van door openers, door lock actuators, and I’m sure there are more. They all run off a 12V battery. Depending on the junkyard, you could get several for next to nothing. But ask first! Some will try to gouge you.

Another source might be used kids toys. See if Goodwill has any motorized toys you could dissect.

That’s a great idea! Dissecting things sounds like a great way to learn.

 

Parallax Standard Servo (#900-00005) The Parallax Standard Servo provides 180° range of motion and position control to your project. Great for animatronics and robotics applications.

That is just one of many popular servo motors available for general hobby applications. Unfortunately your application will drive the choice so we really need to define your application and in detail as to exactly what the motors need to do. Once a motor is chosen then we can worry about how to drive it or make it do what you want it to do.

For art projects sometimes a hobby servo motor kit like this one is a good solution as it offers a few levers to play with. Here is another example. These motors are very popular in Robotics applications.

Anyway it all reverts back to what we need the motor to do.

Ron

 

"Art and move sounds like slow and in-sync. which might be the job of a synchonous motor. This would also make it use AC voltages. It's "timing motor basically. Old timers and clocks used them. They are usually geared down. They stay in sync with the power line and will stop quickly.

http://www.hurst-motors.com/permanentmagnetacsynchronous.html

They are reversible and require a capacitor. Three leads like CW, CCW and common with usually an external AC rated capacitor between CW and CCW. Power is applied to Common and (CW or CW)

 

A couple more that you might like:

Electronics for Artists: Adding Light, Motion and Sound to your Artwork.

Motors for Makers: A guide to Steppers, Servos and Other Electrical Machines.