It was suggested by the RC store that someone here might be able to help with the product and arrangement to accomplish the goal of linking a pistol grip style RC car remote (low voltage DC) to control the speed and direction on a geared drill motor (AC universal brushed motor). The purpose is for making a high-speed (80mph plus) lure coursing machine for dogs, cheetahs, falcons etc that can run the larger drag lures on a continuous loop system. What that means is instead of the usual 1" wide 8-12" diameter drive wheel we are using one 6" wide and 16" diameter, a lot more weight to move thus the motor choice. I apologize if my posting links of external products violates some policy, not my intent, merely to provide source info on what we are using so far.
The Motor
This is a no bullshit drill motor you don’t find much outside of industrial applications, 120v 60hz 20A (around 3HP, up to 203ftlb torque - an arm ripper), has 4 gear ranges (only two of them that we’ll use). Its stock controls are a reversing switch and a potentiometer. I understand it’s a brushed AC motor, the task here is to control its speed and direction electrically rather than by physical analog devices.
https://www.csunitec.com/drills/drills- … rill-motor
The Fan
Not really a direct issue here, but the motor runs in speed ranges, if running below them it does not get adequate cooling from its built-in fan, so an independent cooling fan will be necessary to cool the motor in the machine housing. I’ve look at several but haven’t picked one yet. A couple examples here, the bigger one though its 2.5 times the flow is around 8x the cost, so more than likely if that much airflow is needed I’d just use two or three of the smaller ones around the housing. The fans would have to draw power from the primary input, there would need to be some means to divert the power to fans, motor and controllers.
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Or … YFiw%3D%3D
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/det … HR/5209709
The Wireless Remote Control
This one is the base model used by two other producers of lure coursing machines, not doing RC myself I suspect it has to do with cost vs reliability vs simplicity. It needs to have a range of several hundred yards so that the operator can run the machine from down field on a large loop (1,000 feet or more) - or from outside the tiger’s cage at the zoo. I have the controller and receiver matched set, the link is from the store but I can’t find technical material from the manufacturer’s site (its made in China/Hong Kong).
https://www.rcmart.com/surpass-hobby-2- … 1-00100918
The Wheel
While not really relevant to the electrical part, for matter of interest it is essentially a Fat Boy motorcycle rim which will be machined down to minimal thickness as a drive pully. We don’t have a final mechanical arrangement settled as of yet, that is whether it will be direct drive off the spindle of the motor, or belt drive to be offset laterally on an elongated frame. The reason the motor was chosen is because it should have more than enough power to turn the beast of a wheel, pull 1,000+ yards of string, a 1# lure - and still hit 80mph+.
#1 - I don’t know if we use a regular ESC to capture that output from the remote receiver or can it go straight to a VFD (or whatever can convert the input signal to the proper output for the motor). The ESC is normally required to power the receiver, or a separate power supply maybe can be added that can power it directly if the receiver output can be used as the input on a VFD/Inverter/whatever without requiring the ESC.
#2 - Most of the VFDs etc I can find for a motor of that power are 220-240v, this needs to be able to run off of a 120v 20A circuit (might require transformer or other device to groom the power to the appropriate type).
I don’t know if Sparkfun makes or can make something that accomplishes the task, I don’t know enough about that to tell what I would need. I originally was going to use a 3HP industrial electric motor, gearbox, VFD etc but after getting the parts that would work for that series it all would weigh over 100#s (and still not having solved the DC remote > AC controller issue). Using the geared drill motor cut over 40#s from the weight of just motor and gearbox so the motor is definitely the one being used (and it cost a shitload, it’s not a Home Depot $99 special). The remote is negotiable, that was $35 and presents challenges to incorporate, if there is a better, easier, and reliable trigger style wireless remote that can do speed and direction I would certainly consider using it.
In the end this is to become the prototype for a commercial product. There is roughly a half dozen companies that make lure machines. Most have a high-end machine, all but one are DC car battery powered (this is a PITA depending on circumstances). When the battery starts to die, it will often degrade the motor, so the machine dies with it; got one of those sitting in my garage, it’s from the UK and too expensive to ship back & forth - though I did buy a power supply for it in hopes of converting it to AC, but that is another project. Only one of the companies makes an AC driven machine, that is the one I use at my business (a dog sports park). No company makes a continuous loop machine for large lures. Once a finalized version is vetted they would probably be the ones to market it, another one already has a lot of zoos as clients but the machines are DC and use drag lines (ie it runs once thru the tiger’s cage and then they draw straws on who gets to pull the string and lure back thru the cage). The owner would be interested in an AC machine as the zoos usually have power available so don’t require a battery powered machine.
So, within reason I’d be willing to pay someone for a robust, cost-effective solution that can be integrated/adapted to make the system work. I mention that because initially I had talked to an engineering firm about designing this and they quoted me the cost of sending a can of Coke to the moon. Elon Musk was too busy, so I had to decline because I just don’t have that kind of scratch.
Thank you in advance for any information or solutions,
Jim Mapes
Fastpaws Dogsports LLC