I have a bracket mounted stepper that I need to install on the wall. Im replacing the manual clutch on a rollup curtain with the stepper. Ive got the coupler made from the stepper shaft to the rollup tube. The problem is that I need to have the same distance from the wall to the stepper shaft as I did from the wall to the clutch mechanism.

Ive measured from the wall to the clutch mechanism center and its 4.7cm. Ive measured the distance from my stepper shaft to the stepper-bracket edge and its 3.0 cm. So I need to add a spacer between the bracket and the wall of 1.7cm. What can you guys suggest for this? What should I use to make the spacer, if that indeed is the solution? And do I just make it the same size as the base of the stepper?

I tried making a diagram of it but its not so great:

 

Wouldn't it be better to mount it to the blind itself? Or at least to the bracket that mount the blind to the wall? Having the blind and stepper mounted separate doesn't, from a mechanical point of view sound very good. Maybe instead of your drawing show the parts involved as a kind of 'exploded view', as how they would be assembled?

 

Wouldn't it be better to mount it to the blind itself? Or at least to the bracket that mount the blind to the wall? Having the blind and stepper mounted separate doesn't, from a mechanical point of view sound very good. Maybe instead of your drawing show the parts involved as a kind of 'exploded view', as how they would be assembled?

This is what I have:


B is actually 2 pieces; the fitting (to which B actually points to) and the mechanism which is housed with the sprocket.

I took just the fitting B, and connected to a stepper shaft. But the original wall bracket A cannot house the stepper, so I bought the nena 17 stepper bracket which I was hoping to fix to the wall.

So like this:

 

I guess you will need to use a geared motor for this as it will be a bit hard work for the stepper motor otherwise.
But could you mount the motor to the original bracket? It would make life easy for you.

 

If you want to mount it to the wall, you have to fill a gap of 1.7 or 0.67.

Do you have access to sheet metal tools, such as a sheet metal brake? You can make a secondary mount out of sheet metal.

Or if you are more comfortable with wood, cut a block from 3/4” stock and take off 0.08”. Easy to do with a table or radial arm saw (multiple cuts) and a sander. Or a planer.

Personally, I’d also consider thick styrene. Evergreen Scale Models sells a variety of sizes. This is their site.

Or a hybrid solution. 1/2” pine, poplar, maple or oak stock with two pieces of 0.080 styrene laminated to the block.

 

I guess you will need to use a geared motor for this as it will be a bit hard work for the stepper motor otherwise.
But could you mount the motor to the original bracket? It would make life easy for you.

What I got from comments was that mounting the stepper on the original bracket would result in a wobbly solution.

 

You should never trust any of the comments on here.
It would depend how good the bracket was fixed to the wall really.

 

Hahaha! Well I agreed because that bracket seems quite flimsy, not so much the material but the thickness. It's in the image above, bracket A.

It's base (the area that touches the wall itself) is quite slender. I don't know if you can tell by the picture but it only measures about 1 cm wide.

 

Sounds like a job for a 3D printer

 

What I got from comments was that mounting the stepper on the original bracket would result in a wobbly solution.

Personally if doing this for myself, I would make a new wall bracket to match the original but out of thicker material. And drill the holes in it to match the motor. Even if you had to pay a shop to bend up a heavier sheet metal bracket, it shouldn't cost much, a pretty simple job. But then I've done this type thing all of my adult life.

Having the motor mounted separately is usually not a good idea, unless there is a belt or some other type of power transmission involved. If I remember correctly from your much earlier postings about this project, most of the blind mechanism is pretty flimsy or plastic. hard mounting the motor to the wall would make it the strongest part/mounting point. Then any movement of the much longer blind itself would tend to break or destroy that end of the blind. Where if the motor is part of the whole assembly they would tend to move together.

I come from the old time era of, "when in doubt make it stout".

 

OK so you're saying make a sturdier but identical bracket but attach the stepper to it.

One doubt about that is what the new bracket design should be. So I should drill a large hole for the shaft of the stepper (blue) to come through and then all 4 front-facing holes (red) for the stepper as well, right?

So something like this:

But wait, this won't work because the stepper shaft needs to line up somewhere on that lip. The lip on the bottom that sticks out of the wall bracket towards the curtain goes into the star shaped sprocket of the mechanism. So it would line up like so:

 

Here are the real images...

 

Hmm well you could chop off the "Lip" and just mount the motor with 2 screws. I think I would try this even though it might not be so stable, as, as I say I think that the motor on its own may struggle with direct drive of the blind.
Ultimately if it was not sturdy enough I would carve a new bracket out of a solid block of plastic.

 

Do the holes on the right line up? Or can you drill two holes in the metal lips?

I’m thinking of simple nylon spacers to line up the shaft. Nylon spacers can be easily cut to the proper size. You can add a slightly longer one or two along the other edge of the motor mounting bracket. The spacers are readily available at hardware stores or home improvement centers.

 

But wait, this won't work because the stepper shaft needs to line up somewhere on that lip. The lip on the bottom that sticks out of the wall bracket towards the curtain goes into the star shaped sprocket of the mechanism.

This is why doing something long distance is hard. Yes you need to make the new bracket so it puts the shaft in line where it belongs. And I'd mount the motor using it's front screws, in other words the new bracket would be between the motor and the adapter.

 

The spacers are readily available at hardware stores or home improvement centers.

Do they have them in Honduras like we do he in the US? Never been there so don't know.

 

So I need to add a spacer between the bracket and the wall of 1.7cm. What can you guys suggest for this?

A block of wood 1.7cm thick.

 

Do we have what in Honduras? Whatever you're thinking of Ill probably have to make locally or buy online. I think Id rather make it. So yes, ill keep my current bracket-mounted-stepper with adapter and Ill make a new plate to mount it all on. Not sure how much ill be able to get on the WAF scale though

 

A block of wood 1.7cm thick.

See post #5...

Do we have what in Honduras? Whatever you're thinking of Ill probably have to make locally or buy online. I think Id rather make it. So yes, ill keep my current bracket-mounted-stepper with adapter and Ill make a new plate to mount it all on. Not sure how much ill be able to get on the WAF scale though

Do you have nylon spacers, readily available in the US at any hardware store?

 

Do we have what in Honduras?

I was answering DJ, I don't know what kind of hardware or home improvement places. We here in the US are very spoiled in that regard, we have places like ACE hardware or Home Depot that have just about every thing and anything.