Subject:
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Re: Smart Motor
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 9 Sep 2004 20:08:48 GMT
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Viewed:
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1094 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Joe Strout wrote:
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In lugnet.robotics, Mark Riley wrote:
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After reading Dave Koudys’ conversation with fellow RTL’ers about installing a DCC decoder directly
into a Technic motor, I became inspired to actually build such a beast:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=906503
So, why is it a smart motor? Well, the idea is that you can wire many of
these motors in parallel to a single RCX output and still individually
control each of the motors
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Well, you rock! That’s exceedingly cool. Please build more! Indeed, you
might consider building a largish batch of them -- if you set yourself up
assembly-line style, you could probably knock off a couple dozen of them in a
few evenings and sell them for $40 apiece (or more).
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I imagine you could bang them out fairly quickly once you’ve done a few. But,
when I mentioned the US$35 figure, that was $16 for the decoder and ~$17 for the
motor (via BrickLink). That still doesn’t include any taxes and shipping. So,
as a do-it-yourself project, you could do it for around $35. When you consider
the margins of doing something like this commercially, it makes you realize all
the more just how much of a community service it is that companies like
HiTechnic perform.
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Of course I suppose that power would become a problem if you hung more than a
few motors off one RCX output. Any thoughts on what to do about that? E.g.,
would it be possible to rig it so that the motors draw their power from
another source (an RC car battery for example), and just get the command
signals from the RCX? Or is this not an important issue?
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There are several solutions to this. In fact, I mention a few
here in a previous post when
discussing the DCC brick.
Other ideas include building a mini DCC booster. This would take the DCC signal
from an RCX output and amplify the current using an external supply such as a
battery box (or boxes). A small booster that handled 2-3 amps wouldn’t be all
that big, perhaps no larger than a Technic motor. (I’ve already purchased parts
for such a project - just haven’t gotten around to building it yet... :-)
Cheers,
Mark
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Smart Motor
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| (...) Well, you rock! That's exceedingly cool. Please build more! Indeed, you might consider building a largish batch of them -- if you set yourself up assembly-line style, you could probably knock off a couple dozen of them in a few evenings and (...) (20 years ago, 9-Sep-04, to lugnet.robotics, FTX)
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