Thread: Motorized LCD display?

me again . Been thinking about this non stop, and have some more ideas.

I ordered the motor for it here. I think that should give enough power . Going to try to use a single rubber wheel in the middle, riding on a thin rubber sheet to move the whole unit. I think with enough torque and a slow enough speed, it should work. if not some sort of gear/rack system will be needed.

it's going to be controlled somehow by a series of latching relays and micro switches.
http://home.comcast.net/~briangig/lcd34.jpg

alright..here's my crappy drawing.

Green is the LCD, red is the moving unit, with the orange gearbox inside, black wheel, on the outside are the tracks (something similar to a drawer slider, with ball bearings).

Its going to take some work to get the angles correct to lift the LCD, and also to see if the motor/gearbox will want to roll when no power is applied, if so some sort of locking device will be needed.

any input guys?

Any kind of band/cord/chain is a bad plan =) That's going to lead you to problems, and unless you're a really precise machiner or plan to build tiny chain tensioners, the thing will never be the right size.

One idea we scrapped in lieu of our current one (which I can't divulge since its going through patent right now) was to have a lead screw push out a kind of plastic "caddy" which the screen rotated about. Once fully extended, a second motor(solenoid?) could pull the screen up to the desired height. Reverse the motor and the lead screw retracts the screen!

The main issue we had with this was that lead screws aren't as cheap as we'd like (though not THAT expensive) and the threads in the caddy would possibly strip out if the screen were ever obstructed by say...a drink in the cupholder? Its worth a shot though.

[QUOTE=Vicci]Any kind of band/cord/chain is a bad plan =) That's going to lead you to problems, and unless you're a really precise machiner or plan to build tiny chain tensioners, the thing will never be the right size....QUOTE]

Sorry but dont aggree with this, chains are very efficient and can be joined. Correct tension can be achieved without need for tensioners. Tensioners are only needed when one length chain is used on altering sized sprokets ie push bike.