Which motor should I use to operate vents

[Joey1558]

Hey everyone! I want to do what SXRguyinMA did and make vents on the top of my case that open as the heat rises...My question is which type of motor should I use...


Should I use a stepper motor, a DC...Brushless? would a old slot car motor work....how powerful should it be? what is the most quiet? and I also want a motor to slide a panel up and down on the front of my case...again same questions??? Keep in mind my vents are made out of 1mm thick steel!

[x88x]

A servo would be easiest. They're more expensive than plain motors, but much better suited for an application like this where you want to move [x] degrees, not just go for a while. You could accomplish the same thing with a stepper motor but the ones I've looked at are usually at least as much as a similarly powered servo, and iirc are more complicated to control.

[Joey1558]

would a hard drive stepper motor work???

[Joey1558]

right now I have 2 hard drive motors(i guess there servos) and a slot car DC motor??? I'm just worried that the slot car motor is gunna be to loud :\

[x88x]

It looks like a stepper motor should be able to do it. I would not recommend a normal DC motor if you want to be able to adjust the position of the vents as getting any sort of angle control will be much more complicated. For the front panel, however, a normal motor would work as long as you put a switch at each end to provide feedback (ex, a normally open reed switch that is closed by the door being fully open, and a similar thing at the other end for when the door is fully closed.

Have you thought yet about how you will be controlling them? If you use an Arduino-based system, here's some info on controlling motors, steppers, and servos.
http://www.ladyada.net/make/mshield/use.html

The benefit of a servo for the vents is that it gives you much more control over the position.

[Joey1558]

Ya I'm going to use an Arduino....btw is a stepper going to be quieter than a DC?

[Joey1558]

I take that back I only have 2 spindle motors :\ I doubt these will be strong enough to power the vents on top, what do you guys think

[x88x]

Modern stepper motors are actually specialized brushless DC motors, so they're generally pretty quiet.

[SXRguyinMA]

just found these while browsing the Trossen Robotics site:

Robot servos:
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/c/robotis-dynamixel-robot-servos.aspx

50mm linear actuator (other strokes available)
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/p/figelli-L12-50mm-100-1-Linear-Actuator.aspx

[Joey1558]

niceeee thx...sooo I think im gunna try the BLDC motor off my hard drives first, i just need an arm