Using small motors in displays

[Danny]

Hello, I am very new (noobie) as it were. I have done a lot of research into light o rama, sequencing etc. I have purchased my first basic 32 channel with software upgrade plus an additional 16 channel box. My plans though I believe to be ambitious. I have been working on halloween props. I have built 3 pumpkin frames with a total of 6 talking pumpkins. A wooden 5 ft coffin and some additional items I've made. My question is I would like to place a motor in the coffin to simulate a person/skeleton trying to pry open the lid. All I see online is people using wiper motors. Any suggestions as to an alternative more economical motor substitute.

[plasmadrive]

That would be a good motor to use and you could possibly find one at a junk yard pretty cheap.  Other than that, try searching the web for some surplus gear motors.. All Electronics and others might have what you need.

[George Simmons]

A guy by the name of Dan Ancona (a member here at least until they raise the standards ) is your go-to guy for anything regarding wiper motors.

[1983ss454]

Hello, I am very new (noobie) as it were. I have done a lot of research into light o rama, sequencing etc. I have purchased my first basic 32 channel with software upgrade plus an additional 16 channel box. My plans though I believe to be ambitious. I have been working on halloween props. I have built 3 pumpkin frames with a total of 6 talking pumpkins. A wooden 5 ft coffin and some additional items I've made. My question is I would like to place a motor in the coffin to simulate a person/skeleton trying to pry open the lid. All I see online is people using wiper motors. Any suggestions as to an alternative more economical motor substitute.

Wiper motors work great, and the nice thing is they are readily available and built to run for extended periods of time. You also have the ability to hook up the power supply to different terminals on the motor to achieve the motor spinning in either direction and also 2 different speeds, you can also control the speed by the voltage of your power supply, 5V will run slower then 12V buy has a lot less torque, so depends on the weight of the coffin lid you plan on moving.

Are you planning on using a channel of LOR to start and stop the motor?

[Danny]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll look into a wiper motor for my project. I'm fiddling with the idea o using an LOR channel or just a simple timer switch.

[1983ss454]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll look into a wiper motor for my project. I'm fiddling with the idea o using an LOR channel or just a simple timer switch.

It's generally not recommended to run motors of the light O Rama boards. There is normally a spike In power during the start up of the motor that is thought to be able to cause damage to the boards. Could use a relay thou

[bphynes]

We ran an entire haunted house on LOR controllers in 2011...Including our possessed elevator. A lot of haunted props use compressed air rather than motors. We used air bags and pistons controlled by solenoid valves that were in turn controlled by LOR (some were 110V, some were low-voltage). If you want the coffin to shake, bang, rattle (someone/something breaking out), that would probably be easier with air than with a wiper motor; alternatively, a slow, creaking opening lid (the Count rising for the night) might be easier with a wiper motor.

 

- bph