Hank Fletcher
New Member
For my application of building a recorder-playing robot I'm currently using solenoids to simulate the fingers, but after having a crack at it I'm beginning to think that using some small electric motors might be a better way to go.
My idea is to use something like this:
https://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G9331
for each finger by attaching a pulley and string to the motor shaft. The motor shaft will rotate almost 360 degrees before it stalls as the finger presses against its closed position on the recorder. The motor will only have to be powered to rotate one way, because at the other end of the string a spring will return the finger (and the motor) to the starting/open position.
My question is: will stalling the motors damage them? My impression is that this is how the steering mechanisms work in low-budget R/C cars, so I thought it might work. Given the stall current and, let's say, about 6V for the motor, is it fair to say that the motor would be able to safely dissipate the power as heat while it's stalled?
My idea is to use something like this:
https://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G9331
for each finger by attaching a pulley and string to the motor shaft. The motor shaft will rotate almost 360 degrees before it stalls as the finger presses against its closed position on the recorder. The motor will only have to be powered to rotate one way, because at the other end of the string a spring will return the finger (and the motor) to the starting/open position.
My question is: will stalling the motors damage them? My impression is that this is how the steering mechanisms work in low-budget R/C cars, so I thought it might work. Given the stall current and, let's say, about 6V for the motor, is it fair to say that the motor would be able to safely dissipate the power as heat while it's stalled?