Re: Automatic Pellet Dispenser

[Marc_F_Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:31:38 -0500, "Robert Green"
<ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
<aI-dnSdv4LaJuHjYnZ2dnUVZ_ruknZ2d@xxxxxxx>:

>"B Fuhrmann" <b-fuhrmann-usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>
><stuff snipped>
>
>> > We'll see.  I'm going to look for toys that might be modifiable on my
>next
>> > trip to Wal-mart.
>>
>> A shaded pole motor makes almost no noise.  There is nothing you are going
>> to find quieter, other than magic.  Deffinately less than the mechanism
>from
>> a toy.  Think of an old electric clock.
>>
>> Deffinately less than the gears in a power screwdriver.
>
>And already AC powered but there's not a one of them in my junkpile!  I
>haven't owned a dial clock in 20 years.

I doubt that you can control the ON time of a motor accurately enough without
periodic recalibration/resetting  with X-10 alone to be able to depend on
having the slot/hole align at each command.

One solution is to use a reversible motor that can tolerate being stalled and
sending an ON that is plenty long enough to get the stopcock/whatever to
fully turn in one direction. Then reverse the motor to reload ( eg,  CW =
load; CCW = unload). The motors can be reversible DC and powered from
wallwarts or battery. There's lottsa low-voltage, geared down DC  motors on
the electronics surplus market that don't make much noise.

Do you have any pictures of the wheelchair turntable that was discussed in
cha at length?

How many watts does your refrigerator use? And what was the solution
implemented after all that discussion?

... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org