Is there a small electric motor that winds and unwinds for bulb in a vertical set up?

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Duhh

Active Member
Hello does anyone know of such a thing? A small quiet electric motor to wind and unwind, raise and lower one bulb and a batwing reflector about 2.5 meters, in a vertical grow.

Thank you!
 
Hook Daddy

Hook Daddy

Well-Known Member
What about using a light rail and a simple pulley or something similar? Just thinking of what I have sitting around, Seems like it should work.
 
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Duhh

Active Member
I have a lightrail, how would that need to be set up tho? Pulleys yeah OK I get that, but I can't picture what would need to be done. It would have to be the downward force to keep the wheels on the track, how would that be able to be set up?
 
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Duhh

Active Member
Yeah I've seen some winches but to make it go up and down like a lightrail, like regularly, only vertical. Winches wouldn't do that do they?
 
Hook Daddy

Hook Daddy

Well-Known Member
Duhh said:
I have a lightrail, how would that need to be set up tho? Pulleys yeah OK I get that, but I can't picture what would need to be done. It would have to be the downward force to keep the wheels on the track, how would that be able to be set up?
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I don’t think it would take much downward force to keep the wheels on track, at least mine has rubber wheels on both sides hugging the rail. Just hang a small weight of any type to keep the wheels on the rail, and the pulley where you want the light to go up and down. Then hook a small cable from the rail motor to your light through the pulley.

A small winch with a cycle timer or two could be made to work as well, or wire a switch similar to the one on the light rail to reverse direction.
 
Hook Daddy

Hook Daddy

Well-Known Member
You could also use a worm drive motor and a 12vdc power supply, something like this one https://amzn.to/3q7KS9Q but to your specs. Then you just rig something to switch the polarity of the power supply to reverse the direction of the motor.
 
D

Duhh

Active Member
Hook Daddy said:
I don’t think it would take much downward force to keep the wheels on track, at least mine has rubber wheels on both sides hugging the rail. Just hang a small weight of any type to keep the wheels on the rail, and the pulley where you want the light to go up and down. Then hook a small cable from the rail motor to your light through the pulley.

A small winch with a cycle timer or two could be made to work as well, or wire a switch similar to the one on the light rail to reverse direction.
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The weight and the pulley yes that's a good way to try it, I thought of the pulley under the motor but the the weight would be the way to keep the downward force. Very good man thank you.
 
D

Duhh

Active Member
Hook Daddy said:
You could also use a worm drive motor and a 12vdc power supply, something like this one https://amzn.to/3q7KS9Q but to your specs. Then you just rig something to switch the polarity of the power supply to reverse the direction of the motor.
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Yeah I also saw the torque motors, why are they called worm drives?

Does switching the polarity reverse the direction it would be turning?
 
smoke and coke

smoke and coke

Well-Known Member
I think @ttystikk had some kind of vertical light mover set up for hps. i read his thread years ago. I just went back and skimmed through but couldn’t find what I was looking for. It’s a long thread lol Maybe he will stop in and confirm about a light mover.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
smoke and coke said:
I think @ttystikk had some kind of vertical light mover set up for hps. i read his thread years ago. I just went back and skimmed through but couldn’t find what I was looking for. It’s a long thread lol Maybe he will stop in and confirm about a light mover.
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No, Sir. I met the guy who did, though.

I did build light movers; one was built on a mountain bike frame and made the light go around a 5' diameter circle every 3 1/2 minutes. It worked great but just spread the yield out over a big area.

The other one was back when COB LED lights were silly expensive. This one was going to be baller; we had built a frame for 24 of my water cooled modular LED fixtures and we were going to put it on a track to go through a light tight door and run two rooms on a flip! We had the plumbing, power and everything worked out but gave up because by the time we worked out the kind of overhead rail we'd need, it was clear that chips were going to drop in price.

Guys, I've built and tried some CRAZY shit in my time, so when I say I've developed something worthwhile, you can take it to the fucking bank.

And by all means, keep going through my thread; it's almost ten years of iterations, blind alleys, broken parts and making things better and better! In this era of instant gratification, who even does that anymore?
 
D

Duhh

Active Member
ttystikk said:
No, Sir. I met the guy who did, though.

I did build light movers; one was built on a mountain bike frame and made the light go around a 5' diameter circle every 3 1/2 minutes. It worked great but just spread the yield out over a big area.

The other one was back when COB LED lights were silly expensive. This one was going to be baller; we had built a frame for 24 of my water cooled modular LED fixtures and we were going to put it on a track to go through a light tight door and run two rooms on a flip! We had the plumbing, power and everything worked out but gave up because by the time we worked out the kind of overhead rail we'd need, it was clear that chips were going to drop in price.

Guys, I've built and tried some CRAZY shit in my time, so when I say I've developed something worthwhile, you can take it to the fucking bank.

And by all means, keep going through my thread; it's almost ten years of iterations, blind alleys, broken parts and making things better and better! In this era of instant gratification, who even does that anymore?
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So no vertical wind/unwind ones? The idea of using a standard light rail is a good one but I don't have the space, the wind/unwind would be how I'd have to do it.

That water cooled thing sounded nice, shame you didn't build it.
 
D

Duhh

Active Member
Isawthelight said:
Good suggestion. The light rail motor should work if a balancing counterweight is added to ease the load on the motor & traction wheel.
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Yes it's a good idea and I have a lightrail but I need to make everything vertical now for the space I need.
 
MidnightSun72

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
hotrodharley said:
Any small electric winch should be able to handle that. They cost though. Check Harbor Freight.
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Winches don't do well when they continuously work. They are only usually rated to run for around 1-2minutes before they want to overheat etc

a light rail could be adapted to convert the horizontal movement into vertical you would probably have to put a weight in the cable down to the bulb to maintain smoothness.
IMG_9598.jpeg

also there's probably an easier way to do it with a stepper motor. But that would involve custom everything.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Duhh said:
So no vertical wind/unwind ones? The idea of using a standard light rail is a good one but I don't have the space, the wind/unwind would be how I'd have to do it.

That water cooled thing sounded nice, shame you didn't build it.
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LOL who said I didn't?

Back to the vertical light mover; the setup I saw was where the grower had two vertical grows next to each other, each with a light and the light mover moved back and forth raising and lowering both lights, since they were in balance.
 
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