lastlight's 225

[banditpowdercoat]

OK,where did you get the actuator from???? I wana play with something too

[lastlight]

http://www.firgelliauto.com/

I was pleased to discover they were Canadian. But my freakin' order shipped from the US so I was dinged at the door today for $40.

[mseepman]

You know we need to see pictures....detailed pictures. You've given me the idea that I need to handle my future lighting so now I gotta see how an expert like yourself did it.

[lastlight]

Still waiting for my power supply and grooved bearings. I'll definitely post step-by-step pics detailing how I did it...if it works!

[lastlight]

I've already built and tested a very rough prototype. I used it to lift a length of pvc pipe to the joists in my basement. I wanted to ensure that my bearing layout would lift the object evenly on both ends and work out any kinks. That first demo had one major problem and that was the pivoting end of the actuator shaft. The shaft itself rotates and the rotating bracket on its end can simply slide and counter the shaft's rotation. The issue was that the bracket was turning a lot too...especially when retracting the actuator. If this happened with my light on wires it could be disastrous!

My final build has a 3-sided channel for the bracket to slide within. This has corrected the issue entirely.

Parts:

- 3/4" maple, screws and glue
- actuator
- 3 grooved bearings
- various brackets, nuts and bolts.

Here is the unit. All that need to be done to it is drill a hole to feed my 12VDC power into it from the ceiling. When I'm done testing it on the ceiling I'll mount my floating cover. It will be a 60 x 18 maple panel...large enough that the ends can be open but from the floor you cannot see the guts above it.



This shows where the two wires will connect. The blue wire runs on 2 bearings and the red on one. Two were needed for the blue wire to turn a pushing movement into a pull. So basically when the actuator extends 24" the light goes up 24". When it retracts the light will rest where it currently does...a few inches from the water's surface.



View of the actuator shaft and bracket.



Close-up of one bearing/bracket.



Just a neat shot down it's length.



You can see the 3-position toggle switch on the back of the stand. It's all wired and ready to go. Thanks for lookin'!

[Dez]

My favourite part of this update was the computer. Glad to see you're an Apple guy

[mseepman]

This is very cool, in spite of the fact that you're an apple guy

How did you calculate how long the blue wire needed to be compared to the red? Can you take a couple of other pictures of how the actuator is attached to your maple base?

Thanks