Home Made Light Mover

I found this way of making a homemade light mover on this forum, but it was an old thread and I cant find it again, anyway he never came up with pics or update to let us know if it worked or not... but I will give it a try...I ordered this small electric motor on ebay : 10RPM Output Speed 12V Rated Voltage DC Gear Motor 37mm and a 12V DC adapter, 25$ total including shipping... I am just hoping the motor will be strong enough to move the wheel around, ,but I will probably use some sort of thick cardboard or thin wood. The light will move like a pendulum about 7'' to the right and 7'' to the left from the center of my scrog ... I am thinking of removing the hood on both light and put them somewhat together with a piece of wood, how close can they be from each other ? (1 HPS and 1 MH) any thoughts comments on this would be appreciated!

nobody^?I heard it can improve yield quite a bit if done right!

10 RPM sounds a little fast to me.that would go from side to side every 3 seconds.might be rough on the bulbs unless the movement was very smooth. you might be able to rig up a gear w/ smaller gear attached to motor and a larger gear to the large wheel. it would also help add torque.
I have considered trying something like that w/ an old school clock, the heavy ones that move smoothly, not the ones that clunk every minute. used to repair them yrs ago & have a few stored away somewhere.
as for how close to put the bulbs,I would be leary of having them less than 8-10 inches apart. a foot would be better

Your gonna need a much bigger motor. FOR SURE.

s0high said:

Your gonna need a much bigger motor. FOR SURE.

Click to expand...

in the original post, the guy was gonna use a 9volt 30 rpm motor... I thought going with 12 volt 10 rpm was going to be sufficient, ... now I ordered it already so I ll try with that one, the 2 bulbs together without reflectors are really light, I dont think I need much power to move those... HOPING


10 rpm, if I look at my hand and move from 0'' to 12'' counting to 3, it's pretty smooth to me!

We'll see how it goes, I ll keep you posted, won't be for another 3 weeks

whats the amps on the motor? 12v @ 5 amp? For 25 bucks I wouldnt get my hopes up to much. Even the above quality motors I use are like 8min on/ 30min off.

hehe .. 0.9 amp ... yeah I guess it will be pretty weak... s0high, are you using a similar system!?


Specifications:
Product Name DC Geared Motor
Rated Voltage DC12V
Rated Current 0.09A
Output Speed 10RPM
Output Shaft Diameter 6mm / 0.236"
Gearbox Diameter 37mm / 1.456"
Total Length(Approx.) 111mm / 4.37"
Material Metal, Electronic Parts
Color As Picture Shown
Weight 317g
Package Content 1 x DC Geared Motor


I thought worst case scenario I ll make a fan out of it ... 10 RPM!!! hehe what else can I do with it!!

LOL sorry I didnt get back to ya. Sometimes these post fall to the archives to fast. I did run a very similar setup a few years back. Basically they same idea but instead of using a motor I used a water pump and filled a 5 gallon bucket up for weight. It worked..... So So.

Now I have a much more fancy setup 8 foot I-Beam with a custom light rack. Then a 120v reversible motor. Its a beast.

nice!! well I will see if there is anything I can do when I get the motor, I think the screen will be plenty bright enough, no need to move any lights now!! if anything, I will put the light mover on the 125W reptile lamp if I can get the motor to move 1 chain or rope. Thanks for the reply!

I have an ice cream mixer motor - I might have to try this. Should be the perfect motor as well; slow and use to resistance.