Motorizing the new small robotic shed.

[ollypenrice]

 

We  now have the small, single scope, fully remote shed motorized very painlessly. In the pictures the motor unit attached to the roof and the control box on the end of the alloy channel need to be boxed in against the weather and the channel itself given a little more support, but this shows how it works. (The channel will be left flexible within a fixed range so that there won't be a conflict between the motor, its channel and the roof as things inevitably flex and settle.

The mechanism is a garage door opener. Inside the alloy channel is a bike chain, up and down which the motor drives itself, current (24V) coming through the channel itself and the chain. One press on the remote and the motor heads off down the rail. A nylon projection ramps down and stops the motor at the end of its trip. A second hit on the remote and it goes the opposite way. A length of threaded bar goes throgh the motor to the roof.

It is working perfectly and without signs of strain. So far the modifications to the the garage door opener are easy to identify: there are none whatever! The south flap raises and lowers using our preferred 12th century seige catapult technology! (We can use it to pelt the village with plague-infested horse carcasses in times of war.)

In remote use the electronics will need modding so that, in case of power outage, a battery can take over. For this to work the system will need to know which way the roof needs to go, so it will read the polarity. I say all this as if I understood it. Per and the Italian guest observers who requested the shed will take over from here. What fun, though, pressing that button and seeing it work. (He's easy to please, bless 'im!)

Olly

 

 

[saac]

Olly you might be lucky and find that the door opener has a mechanism already built in that senses which way it needs to go in event of recovering from a power failure.  I may be talking nonsense here but I'm sure my garage door opener does this - I think there is a kind of programmable option to return it to what is effectively a home position.  Like I say, I may be havering but I'll check it out tomorrow to confirm.

Oh, good bit of work - any chance of a video showing it opening remotely, these type of things always look so cool when automated.

Jim