Motorised Curtains :-(

["Keith Doxey" <keith.doxey@xxxxxxx>]

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Hi All,

Tonight I thought I would dig some curtain motors out of the garage. They
were salvaged from a refurbishment at work and are seriously heavy duty.
The
curtains they used to operate were heavy blackout curtains about 8 foot
drop
across windows about 20 feet wide so it was a heavy pull of about 10 feet
to
open or close them.

I successfully figured out the connections for the motor and had it
operating in both directions......
then did some calculations.......

pulley circumference is about 8 inches
pulley rotates about 1.5 revs per second

cord will move at approx 1 foot per second.

My house is a tiny 2 up 2 down terrace and the window is only 3 feet wide.
The existing cord only needs to be pulled by 18 inches so the curtains
would
open or close almost instantly !!!

Hey....thats Digital Curtains !
there certainly wouldnt be any chance of partially opening or closing them
and I reckon the motor is strong enough to draw the curtains for all 8
houses in the terrace at the same time.

Looks like its back to adapting a cordless screwdriver or windscreen wiper
motor. Still, when I eventually move to a bigger house and have a proper
Home Cinema at least I will be able to have Cinema style curtains across
the
screen :-))

Keith

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