[Noisebridge-discuss] Vertical bike storage - quiet/small winch and track?

Anders Nelson anders.k.nelson at gmail.com
Wed May 20 20:40:09 UTC 2015


Ahh guys thank you so much for the ideas and vendor suggestions! Here's a
schizophrenic list of what I've looked at thus far:

http://www.pbclinear.com/Pages/AllProducts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoimuJAi4EI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDjUn1ZxcRU

http://openbuildspartstore.com/

https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/112763/GROW-710180.html

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/PMI-Square-Linear-Bearing-Block-Guide_1108536250.html

http://www.unistrut.us/index.php?WP=show&GRP=Trolley

http://www.monsterguts.com/store/product.php?productid=17685

The main things I've come away with thus far:

   - A windshield washer motor is a good lifting mechanism as it contains a
   worm gear which provides an inherent measure of safety, i.e. the cable
   won't move unless the motor moves it.
   - Many linear bearing slides are NOT meant to handle vertical loads.
   - A single pipe-like rail probably won't steady the torque of a
   potentially large lateral load like a bike if not perfectly centered
   regarding the rail.
   - Nearly all the low-profile solutions I've seen are insanely expensive.

This guy though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDjUn1ZxcRU

That looks to be exactly what I prefer - the rail is low-profile and
already has mounting holes. Since this project doesn't need to support much
weight I imagine this type of rail is ok.

My next quandary is whether to use a belt (what minimum width will support
the weight?) or a cable/rope. For a cable I'll have to install a roller to
line it up with the track as the cable spirals out within the pulley. For a
belt I'll have an additional line going to the slide platform but
everything will be intrinsically aligned and easier to build. Hmmm.

I very much like the idea of the garage door opener but it's gonna be way
too big for the areas i'm putting this in - essentially a stairwell.

For the motor control I'm imagining

   - a simple MCU connected to a fat third-party motor driver or h-bridge
   with a current-sense resistor to detect stalls
   - Optical limit switches like hyah:
   http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G20375B
   -
   http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/BoosterB24V2A5Brushed-DC-Motor-ControllerDual-Hbridge-p-2259.html
   - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5FB1XG6349

   <http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/BoosterB24V2A5Brushed-DC-Motor-ControllerDual-Hbridge-p-2259.html>
   - There are R/C electronic speed controllers too which are ubiquitous
   and cheap - all you need to do is drive them with an MCU emulating the
   servo-position protocol.

This email is long and I'm hungry, bye for now!

=]

--
Anders Nelson

+1 (517) 775-6129

www.erogear.com

On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 4:17 PM, Anders Nelson <anders.k.nelson at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear smart people, I want to make something.
>
> I have really high ceilings in my flat and I'd like to store/display my
> and my roommates' bikes vertically along the wall. I need to have them
> raised up above the floor higher than anyone can reach though if this is to
> be useful.
>
> So I'd like to make a motorized system where I can hook my front tire on a
> relatively standard tire hook, press a button and have the bike winched up
> along a track to arrive high on the wall near the ceiling.
>
> Does anyone know of supplier(s) for ball-bearing tracks along which I can
> bolt a bicycle storage hook? Next, is there a good solution for a quiet,
> >50lb winch or gearhead motor you know of?
>
> I've just started looking for parts, surplus is fine as is new stuff.
>
> Any help is appreciated!
>
> --
> Anders Nelson
>
> +1 (517) 775-6129
>
> www.erogear.com
>
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