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Help with homemade pickup winder electronics!

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  • Help with homemade pickup winder electronics!

    Hi there how ya going peeps!

    First out ill say im an amateur with electronics, i have rewired a few guitars and resoldered a few wires to repair a few things, but nothing to the extent of making my pickup winder out of an electric fan motor, i know a tiny bit about capacitors, potentiometers, currents, voltage and resistance but not enough to really brag about. basicly i have ripped open a bedroom fan and pulled all the electrical guts out of it leaving me with the motor, the speed selector switchs and some other weird attachment that was connected to the push/pull plastic shaft that makes the fan cycle left and right (didnt know if i should disconnect it or not, thought id leave it until i get some advice.) it still works all ripped out of the housing i play with it a little bit on my table but i expected it to work as i didnt disconnect anything except for some plastic, but i do believe it could work as a winder. im not to keen on paying $400 for a winder from stewmac.com

    pretty much i know how im gonna bracket and house this motor, i just cant get my head around changing up the electronics a bit. for example i want to remove the stock selector switch the fan came with and replace it with like a light dimmer or something but in saying that will i have to add a on/off switch if i have a dimmer?
    also i am going to need to know how many times my pickups have been spun, and i was hoping to wire in an electronic counter to solve that issue but once again i just dont know how i should go about wiring it up.

    i have been thinking of 2 different methods for the actuall counting process when the pickups are being spun ive been looking at magnetic reed switches and im not %100 sure on them i dont know to much but optical sensors?? i am unsure on really what to get it seems the magnetic reed switch is a popular idea but seems it can be a pain adjusting the magnets etc to the right heigh/width away from each other to get accurate counting, but i wouldnt mind playing around with something like that if i had to.

    i like the idea on the optical sensors, as it probably would be more accurate wouldnt it?

    attached is a very very very very sad and dodgy picture i drew up in paint, its basicly how the fan guts look on my table to the best i could do in a moderate amount of time, it may help with explaining things better on how to rewire a counter, light dimmer etc etc. basicly id love to hear the advice dumbed down a bit :S:S

    Im open to any counters, magnetic reed switches, optical sensors, light dimmers, dead switches or other parts people recommend as long as its within reason, i got about $150 leverage on this project, maybe a bit more if needed but i would love to stay under the $150 mark as ill have change for pickup parts for winding etc.

    sorry for writing an essay, just really scratching me head here..... but i thank yas in advance any tips or advice would be awesome,
    cheers heaps.

    Fender lad1122
    Attached Files

  • #2
    Can i disconnect the 3 positive wires for the speeds 3 , 2 and 1 on the fan and pretty much twist them together and put them into the + side of a light dimmer? and with the remaining earth/ground (brown wire) i just put that in the negative side of the dimmer switch, will this work?

    if that works great, but from there how would i wire in a optical sensor or reed switch with an electronic counter and would i have to have an on/off switch as some dimmers dont fully turn off?

    quite unsure and any advice would be great!

    thanks muchly in advance

    fenderlad1122

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    • #3
      I think a fan will make a OK winder & you could utilize the 3 speeds.
      Dimmer switches are not always a good choice ,i find they start to change speed ,mine mostly slows down a little
      a router control is a much better control.
      Router Speed Control
      which ever way you decide to make a counter ,which i think the optic sensor is the best ,even though i went the proximity sensor way
      You will need to attach a disc to the shaft for the optic sensor or a proximity sensor
      This thread should of been in the Tools n winder section ,Which i might add, has a bunch of info & resources to help you with your winder
      Tools and Coil Winding Gear
      happy winding
      "UP here in the Canada we shoot things we don't understand"

      Comment


      • #4
        awesome i am convinced for the router speed control... how do i go about wiring one of them up? would it be similar to how a stock fan switch would be wired up?

        i had a thought that optical sensors may be better, ill have to look into them
        they would be pretty simple to wire up to a digital counter wouldnt they?

        cheers for your advice and i realised last night after i posted there was an appropiate section for it, just a noobie to these forums still learning
        cheers again mate

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by fenderlad1122 View Post
          awesome i am convinced for the router speed control... how do i go about wiring one of them up? would it be similar to how a stock fan switch would be wired up?
          The router control ??? you just plug the chord of the winder/fan into the receptacle of the router speed control
          "UP here in the Canada we shoot things we don't understand"

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          • #6
            yeh i just watched the video and seen that, the plugs looked weird though so ill have to get one for australian powerpoints.

            so i would just push in the highest setting on the fan and then use the variable control on the router remote?

            Comment


            • #7
              Thats something for you to figure out after you start winding & after your winder is built
              What speed you like & what speed yields the best results .....higher speed can=more asymmetrical wire build or looser tension
              "UP here in the Canada we shoot things we don't understand"

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by copperheadroads View Post
                a router control is a much better control.
                Router Speed Control

                hey mate this router control switch is not going to work for me ive spoken to a few various people about trying to get one and it will not work in my country as the adapters are different and the voltages are different. is there any other sort of control that is good for variable speed control from anyones experience that i could use?

                thanks guys yous are ledgends.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Fan motors are induction motors, which makes them pretty much resistant to speed control by any low-cost method. Your best bet would probably have been to keep the four speed buttons from the original fan circuit.
                  "Enzo, I see that you replied parasitic oscillations. Is that a hypothesis? Or is that your amazing metal band I should check out?"

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I thought I'd answered this a couple of days ago, apparently it didn't post. No way to control the speed on an induction motor without using pulleys and a belt. Some sort of slip-clutch would be very handy here as well. You have three speeds so you can use those. If you want full speed control then ditch this motor and get a universal type motor like those found in sewing machines, you can then use a pedal, rheostat control or pulse width modulation (PWM) circuit.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Hey guys cheers,for the tips ive ditched the fan idea what a headcase that way could of been , I got an old sewing machine from my mother in law that she had sitting under her bed for the last ten years collecting dust so I brang it home bought a new pulley belt , adjusted the tension, gave it a little bit of an oil (the thing hadnt been started in ten years) gave it a few hand turns and its working great the best thing about this old machine is it has a circular round plate on the side that my bobbins stick to great! so no modifications! Well accept for having to add a counter but im going simple with the calculator and magnetic switch Im only learning at slow speed theres no way ill out run a calculator any time soon.

                      Ive spun a single coil pickup with string and it went on perfect, I just gotta throw on a counter!
                      A video is below of it running for a short while dont mind the shit speed control im still getting use to the footswitch.

                      Cheers fellas

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                      • #12
                        ohh having troubles uploading the video i think it may be to big??

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                        • #13
                          i just uploaded to youtube, heres the link:

                          Pickup winder from old sewing machine, no mods! Laughing!. - YouTube

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                          • #14
                            fenderlad, I love the noir lighting of your film, very affecting.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by David King View Post
                              fenderlad, I love the noir lighting of your film, very affecting.
                              hey there, cheerslol just my girlfriend holding a maglight torch to light it up, my phone camera is pretty crappy so I had to do it so everyone could see.

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