Ttystikk
Member
So the crank arm on my bicycle is about 7". I'll mount the main triangle of the frame upright on the floor, with the crank arm in a vertical plane. I'll mount the counterweight AND the pulley for the mover system on a swiveling pin, or just use the pedal. This gives 14" of direct travel, the diameter of the crank circle.
Since I want three times that much travel, here's how we do dat; with one end of the line tied to the pedal, it travels up to a pulley mounted to the ceiling directly above, goes back down and through a pulley attached to the same pedal, BACK up and then through another pulley to be distributed to all the silos in the room. That's a three for one multiplication of distance- and pulling force, so merely make the counterweight three times as massive to balance. Thus, a 7" radius is effectively transformed into 42" of vertical bulb movement. Voila- one machine moves every light in the room with just a pulley mounted above it, a much simpler and more cost effective solution than one light mover per silo. More reliable, too. Since the motor I plan to use is AC and runs off house 120V, I'll plug it into the same timed outlet that controls the HID lighting relay.
Since I want three times that much travel, here's how we do dat; with one end of the line tied to the pedal, it travels up to a pulley mounted to the ceiling directly above, goes back down and through a pulley attached to the same pedal, BACK up and then through another pulley to be distributed to all the silos in the room. That's a three for one multiplication of distance- and pulling force, so merely make the counterweight three times as massive to balance. Thus, a 7" radius is effectively transformed into 42" of vertical bulb movement. Voila- one machine moves every light in the room with just a pulley mounted above it, a much simpler and more cost effective solution than one light mover per silo. More reliable, too. Since the motor I plan to use is AC and runs off house 120V, I'll plug it into the same timed outlet that controls the HID lighting relay.