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Hey all I am wondering what would be the best items to purchase for me to be able to turn this know (continuous) below:

enter image description here enter image description here

As I mentioned above, I would need the stepper motor to have a continuous rotation in order for it to work with either of these dry food dispensers above.

There is a decent tutorial HERE but really doesn't give much information about how they went about building it and the mentioned Yocto-LatchedRelay seems over priced for something that can be done with just a stepper motor and some logic behind it.

I plan on using a ATMEGA32u4 with this project. I will have a total of 6 of these to control.

So any suggestions on what would be best for this type of project would be great and I look forward in hearing them! :o)

I'm just needing to know what kind of servo torque I would need in order to turn that without issues of it getting stuck mid-ways.

update

i spoke to the original creator of that web site project that i linked to and this is what they had to say about the parts that were used:

We used a  small geared Maxon motor (great but expensive hi-tech stuff).

motor RE-max 13 Ø13 mm, Precious Metal Brushes CLL, 1.2 Watt, with cables Part-No.: 203888

gear Planetary Gearhead GP 13 A Ø13 mm, 0.02 - 0.35 Nm, Metal version Part-No.: 110316

Torque was on the low side: it was enough for regular cornflakes but clearly insufficient for muesli  :-)

The problem is not only about finding a motor with enough torque, it's  also about finding a motor small enough to fit in the dispenser.

Here are the files. The pulleys were 3D printed, but the bracket was laser cut in 3mm acrylic glass.

Are there any servos that have a hole in the middle so that i can slide it over the turning rod and screw down to tighten on it in order to spin it as if you were spinning it yourself with the handle?

Something like this:

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  • adding vibe to the hopper will lower the required torque and increase flow speed. without gearing, about any non-slim nema24 should be able to power it, even a typical nema17 should work on the fruit loops with a vibration, if my muscle memory serves us halfway correct. calculations aside, this is the sort of thing that needs experimentation.
    – dandavis
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 15:28
  • > Are there any servos that have a hole in the middle.. if there is, it would be rare and purpose made. instead, think of a coupler.
    – dannyf
    Commented Mar 23, 2017 at 0:23

1 Answer 1

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Looks to be a screw driven by a motor through a set of greats. It doesnt matter if the motor is a regular (dc) motor or a stepper.

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  • Updated my OP with some other info if that helps.
    – StealthRT
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 12:22
  • Unfortunately it is not possible to tell you with any reasonable degree of confidence what torque is needed. It is a function of your design, materials, and luck. And it is likely that you will not be able to avoid jam at any torque level. Best to develop some jam detection techniques and unjamming strategies.
    – dannyf
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 12:50
  • "Are there any servos that have a hole in the middle so that i can slide it over the turning rod and screw down to tighten on it in order to spin it as if you were spinning it yourself with the handle?" That was the question, this indeed does not seem to provide an answer to that question.
    – Avamander
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 23:58

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