Servo Question: Winch, Anchor, Lift & Drop

[GrimBot]

Hey folks, I'm new and I don't want to mess up my servos by trying this without asking this first. I'm trying to get some basic "Lift" and "Drop" action with a servo..

There is a video here that shows 2 kinds of Anchor Winch systems for a model boat and I think it is close to what I'm looking for: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndi5d5A9OhA


Can't I just alter my servo to have a spool, mount it on top of a pole, have it lift a weight for a determined number of rotations, and then just drop the weight down a guided path to the target of the impact force?

I was going to just give it a whirl and then I thought.. maybe when it would go "neutral" or powered off or whatever will make it get the desired "free fall" effect, that the free fall spinning would spin the servo so fast that it would damage the servo.

What am I looking for? Would this hurt the servo? That boat anchor video is neat but I'd like it to be less "hardware involved".  Maybe I need a specific kind of servo? Maybe I need an additional switch somewhere to tell it to release?

I'm new so I don't know, I just don't want to break my stuff before I get to have some fun with it haha.

Any tips and resources would be helpful.

[bdeuell]

i think you will want some type of clutch mechanism between the servo and spool (i am assuming the servo will include a gearhead). Attempting to backdrive a gearhead would create drag on the system (assuming a high gear ratio this drag can be quite significant). This drag would likely create an undesirably slow drop speed.

As for damaging the servo I believe it depends on many factors such as the loads and how you have supported the spool. in my opinion as long as you do not exceed the servos operating specs (torque, velocity, or radial load) you should be able to backdrive the motor.