Auto traversing mechanisms: ideas and potential problems.

[shawnl]

Hello all,

I'm giving some thought about revamping my homemade pickup winder to include an auto traversing mechanism to make winding a little easier for me. I have an idea for a simple device, although given some of the research I've come across in these forums, I'm suspecting there will be some issues. I was hoping that maybe someone who has tried something like this or has seen anything like it would be able to either prove or disprove my theory. I don't have any schematics drawn up, so I'll do my best to explain.

Imagine, if you will, a simple tensioner device that slides back and forth on a pair of rods that act as rails. There is a connecting rod from the tensioner device to a flywheel. As the flywheel turns it pushes the connecting rod which acts like a piston. The speed of the traverse would either be controlled by the size of the flywheel or the gearing ratios that connect this flywheel to the main power train. However, given what I think I understand about proper traversing, I'm suspecting that the tensioner won't move consistently from left to right. As the tensioner reaches either the left or right side, it will pause for just moment too long causing wire build-up on the ends. I may need to investigate a cam-based system instead using some sort heart-shaped flywheel. Any thoughts?

[Todd Hepler]

I have been mulling over the same thing - I have a couple of ideas:

1. use an open face fishing reel:
- I have a small mitchell that oscillates as it winds the fishing line. Mount this sideways in respect to the bobbin being wound, mount wire guide to the shaft (remove the spool), gear reduce / drive appropriately.

2. Same as your solution. Use an elliptical pulley on one of your final reduction stages to drive the arm/flywheel/piston design.

[shawnl]

I have seen some people use reels as the basis for their winder machines but never really thought about how they could be used for the traverse mechanism. It makes perfect sense. This also proposes another option, in that the entire reel would act as bobbin winder and traverse while the tensioner remained fixed. Although, I like the idea of a seperate traverse in being able to fine tune it in relation to the bobbin.

[copperheadroads]

Hello all,

I'm giving some thought about revamping my homemade pickup winder to include an auto traversing mechanism to make winding a little easier for me. Any thoughts?

YOU JUST NEED MORE PRACTICE handwinding
get confortable , rest you hands & put you feet flat on the floor

[shawnl]

YOU JUST NEED MORE PRACTICE handwinding

Yes, I know what you're saying. It's just that tinkering around and building various machinery is empowering and part of the fun. Sometimes I find myself wanting to build things more so out of curiosity rather than how much I will actually use it. However, it's very true. I should practice more.

[copperheadroads]

Yes, I know what you're saying. It's just that tinkering around and building various machinery is empowering and part of the fun. Sometimes I find myself wanting to build things more so out of curiosity rather than how much I will actually use it. However, it's very true. I should practice more.

An Oscillating Fan for about 20 bucks or less has a oscillating mechanism that has potential for a traverse

[David King]

The fishing reel traverse should work in principal but most fishing reels are much wider than the typical pickup coil so you'd need a way to reduce the travel in a linear way. This is possible using a pantograph design since that's what pantographs do. There must be a special name for the type of spiral threads that cross over each other on a fishing reels traverse -same concepts for a yankee push screwdriver. It's probably possible to buy that mechanism separate if you know what it was called though perhaps one can buy replacement parts for a nicer fishing reel and be done with it.

If the OP doesn't mind adding electricity to the mix then an electro mechanical system based on a $10 RC servo motor and a pulse modulation circuit (aka servo driver/exerciser). You could use any square wave generator including freeware on a PC to drive the servo back and forth at whatever speed you choose or write up a little code that modulates the speed for a more random coil.

Possum recently expounded on his stepper motor traverse which he put together from a $100 CNC course on EBAY that came will all the necessary parts.

[David King]

OK there's a reel company called Abu Garcia out of Sweden /China that is legendary apparently. You can buy upgrade parts for their reels that include the whole mechanism.
Abu Dual Bearing Worm Kit 4000 - 6000 by: Rocket Tuned by Mike's - for $32. You'll have to supply the rest of the gearing which is probably more trouble than it's worth considering you can buy a complete fishing rod kit on amazon for $16.

Here's a cheaper worm shaft kit for a Zebco reel http://www.mikesreelrepair.com/cb407...-p-102607.html Under 5 bucks. You'll still need to fabricate the rest of the gizmo and deal with gearing to get the turns per layer you want along with the pantograph mechanism to set your width.

I think the RC Servo system will be far easier, cheaper and much more versatile.

[Chris Turner]

Has anyone explored the idea of using an arduino board for this? Maybe use the arduino to drive/control a stepper motor? Attach a teflon screw (got the idea from a youtube vid... see below) to the stepper motor axle, and have the wire pass over the screw's threads as a guide.

I'm going to be trying my hand at this sort of setup soon.

[David King]

Arduinios will work but be sure not to overload the stepper driver (they call it something else) with too big a motor. An arduino should be able to snd the pulse info to an RC servo so you can skip the stepper driver. I'm betting that will be cheaper but you might have to write the code. A lot of home robotics use servos instead of steppers because of speed and cost advantages so I'm betting the code is all done.

[Chris Turner]

Yeah, from what I've gathered, I think the stepper motors are really best driven with an additional shield of some sort. I might just try a servo first, like you said. I can probably figure out the code... I'd have to write code for a stepper, too.

[shawnl]

I did come across this video and think it's a fantastic solution, but I really don't have the skill to put together something involving circuit boards and software programming. I have thought about using something with a simple power supply or something that doesn't involve electrocuting myself. Is there a way to still use a motor powered traverse but dummy down the some of the electronics?

What about setup like this?
Traverse mechanism uses a spiral screw device. There are switches on either side of the mechanism. When it reaches the right side something physically presses a switch which reverses the motor direction, sending the traverse back to the left which presses a switch on the left that reverses back the right and so on. The speed could be controlled via a simple potentiometer, although it would require practice to get it right. The computer controlled aspect intimidates me a bit too much.

[David King]

Shawnl,

That sounds totally workable. You may get some wire piling up at the ends of travel if you don't leave a tiny gap at the ends of your bobbin due to the motor inertia. You'll need dpdt micro switches or use a logic board to effect the motor reversal. Go DPDT if you aren't into learning about logic.
Most of the stuff reverenced above is more or less plug and play aside from the programming aspect which is also pretty straightforward from what I understand but I've never done it myself.

[peskywinnets]

I use the helix method on my own (self made) winding machine....it works well.

I use my two axises of my CNC machine; stepper driver card to drive two steppers - dead easy (get youself a copy of gcoil V1.4 - it's free & produces g-code output for user entered bobbin parameters input)

[Kindly Killer]

I am currently hacking my Grizzly mini lathe to run with Arduino control. I am just running the wire through the hole in a stock servo arm. It's hardly even an "application" - I just stuck a servo on a board and mounted in front of the lathe face. For the sketch I press a button to start the software, turn a knob to set left limit of travel, press the button again, set right limit, press button again, and it starts sweeping back and forth and the speed set in the sketch.

Yes you need to power any kind of motor externally. My little servo is running off a 12v, 1A wall wart that is smoothed out with caps and brought down to 5v with a regulator. I'm no expert but I think the Arduino is meant to power just things like sensors, LEDs, control pins on chips - very low current stuf.

When it's done my old laptop will just sit there hooked up to it so I can load sketches for different pickups. My current step is an optical counter but that's on hold now because my basement office flooded Sunday night.