Subject:
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running motors underwater
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Sun, 2 Jul 2000 22:45:06 GMT
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Original-From:
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Rama Hoetzlein <rch8@cornellSAYNOTOSPAM.edu>
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Viewed:
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487 times
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I haven't tried this myself, but I was just thinking that there could
be many reasons why the motor heats up after running underwater.
But first, do we know for sure that they are heating up more than
they normally would? It would be interesting to try and run a
lego-motor out of the water (that has never been in the water), as a
control, and a lego-motor underwater at the same time... Starting both
from
a room-temp situation, and running them for a set amount of time.
Then you could test the rise in temperature exactly.
I was also thinking that there could be many reasons for the
rise in temp.One is the reason you give. Two, the water entering
the motor could degrade the performance of any oil that was placed
in the motor housing and allow friction of the motor to heat the
motor up more quickly. Three, depending on what you're doing, the
motor will have to do more work because moving water is
more difficult than moving air (turning gears, wheels, etc. would be
more difficult). All of the above probably apply to varying degrees.
I was doing a little brainstorming for a solution too. You could fix
the first two problems by gluing lego tubing from one hole to the
next. Two tubes would connect to four holes. If it is flexible enough,
you could create a small coil of tubing. Air flowing through
the tubes would be cooled from the water outside the tubing. This
would only work if the tubes were properly connected so that
the rotation of the motor would caused air to flow through
the tubes. Or, you could simply run the tubes all the way to the
surface (kinda like breathing hoses). Wrapping the motor in
a glad bad would work too.. why not just avoid the shaft altogether?
just cut a small hole in the bag for the shaft, and glue the
hole directly to the outside of the motor housing (perhaps using
a couple washers to make it easier to attach).
___bag
/ __
\| motor housing
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=== shaft
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/|__
\___
(side view)
Hope this helps solve the lego-underwater-problem. Sounds like a new
generation of underwater lego kits is in the works.
Rama
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: running motors underwater
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| (...) This sounds like a great application for temp sensors. :) I don't know if this has been brought up on this site before (it probabably has), but it might work pretty well to place a temp sensor directly against a motor's case, to measure the (...) (24 years ago, 3-Jul-00, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: running motors underwater
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| (...) It depends alot on what kind of water it's in. Pure distilled water doesn't conduct very well. Water with any kind of ions (salt chlorine, flourine etc) will conduct much better and cause more heating. In addition, the electrolisis that occurs (...) (24 years ago, 3-Jul-00, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: running motors underwater
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| Cool Idea, but take it to it's logical extension ... Use the technic pnuematic elements to maintain positive air pressure in the motor housing. If you pump air into the tubes that you mentioned at a pressure higher than the water pressure, it will (...) (24 years ago, 3-Jul-00, to lugnet.robotics)
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