Solenoid or servo motor usage Help Help Help!

[magic man]

Hello All

I am a retired magician who now wants to manufacture some of the tricks I've designed over the years. One trick that I put together (on paper) requires that the lid of a wooden box open by its self (remote control)

The lid of the box is made of thin ply wood and is only 12"x12" inches.

I have the remote control figured out simply use a wireless door bell they cost about 10 dollars and i don't think i could build one for any cheaper.

My problem is opening the box. Should I use a solenoid (push) or a servo motor? I have room in the box to put either along with up to 8 D cell batteries to operate it. The lid will not be held open any longer then 5 to 10 seconds at any given time.

So is there anyone out there that can help me with this project. If so I would be eternally grateful. I have looked at a number of solenoids and not sure which one to use. I don't want to pay over $20  for one and was hoping to pay a lot less..
then someone suggested servo motors and also made mention of your group,

I will take all the advice i can get as this is making an old man pull out what little hair he has left!

Thanks
Mick Valenti

[SmAsH]

hey mick!
well, the easiest thing i can think of to open the box is a servo mounted on the hinge...
do you require the lid to flip completely open or just open slightly?
a servo will not work without the correct signal, how do you intend to do this if you choose servos?

[Soeren]

Hi,

[...] One trick that I put together (on paper) requires that the lid of a wooden box open by its self (remote control)

The lid of the box is made of thin ply wood and is only 12"x12" inches.

My problem is opening the box. Should I use a solenoid (push) or a servo motor? I have room in the box to put either along with up to 8 D cell batteries to operate it. The lid will not be held open any longer then 5 to 10 seconds at any given time.

Something you'll have to define:

• How fast should the lid open?
• How high should it open?
• Should it close again by remote control?
• What about the noise/sound coming from the mechanism?

Answering the above will help us help you. I have several ideas, but finding the best solution really needs all the parameters to be known.

A wireless doorbell could possibly be a problem, unless it's digitally coded, as noise signals might set it off.

If this is for something that you want to manufacture for sale, you should have a keen eye on possible error modes, to avoid getting angry customers

[magic man]

Smash.. I don't know much about servo motors and didn't realize that they only worked with a controller. I was under the impression that they were simply high torch and slow DC motor. But then I was guessing. When I was studying electronics it was back in the dark ages when transistors were just coming in and we still used slide rules.  So not even sure if the servo is the way to go as I have to keep this thing in some sort of budget.

Soeren sorry i didn't give a better description.

I need the lid to hinge open to approx 4 to 6 inches.
after staying open for 5 to 10 seconds it can close with a bang or descend at a slower rate up to 3 or 4 seconds

Yes it can close by remote or lack of power via remote
As for noise I am not worried about that

one other concern is that it cant be real expensive, the cheaper the better that is why i was thinking of the solenoid

[amando96]

Servos can be modified to gearboxes, and i think a small picaxe 08M can control a servo, just needs some coding

[SmAsH]

Any microcontroller that can be programmed to ourput a square wave can drive a servo, even a 555 timer can do it!

[Soeren]

Hi,

Amando96 <- Please look at the date of a post before answering, or pretty soon you have awakened a lot of dead posts.

Hmm, seems we kinda forgot magic man though and never helped him out - wonder if he still lurks around, alrhough I doubt it by now.