Dual Shaft Stepper Motors - Do They Exist?
James Fowkes wrote 03/14/2017 at 14:30 • 0 pointsI'm interested in the making behind these displays: http://gizmodo.com/5987214/this-amazing-digital-clock-is-made-up-of-288-different-analog-clocks
Not entirely clear if they're using "normal" clocks and driving the mechanism or whether they've built something from scratch, or found some kind of dual shaft motor.
Dual-shaft steppers exist for car speedos/tachos etc. but have a limited range of motion.
Any thoughts on the best way to accomplish this kind of motion? I've thrown together a CAD model of a dual shaft system using two small steppers, but making loads of them will be fiddly and time consuming. I can do PCBs and software, but mechanical things aren't that high in my skill set yet.
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You could use a hollow shaft stepper motor with another motor feeding through the center: http://www.linengineering.com/products/stepper-motors/zh417-series-hollow-shaft-stepper-motor/
It will probably be much cheaper to put the motors off-axis and use gearing similar to a mechanical clock. Or two stacked acrylic circles with hands painted on which is what the installation looks to be using.
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They do exist, I got a lot of dual shaft steppers by pulling apart big office printers. A lot of them are dual shaft and have what looks to be a fly wheel type thing on the back shaft that can be cut/puled off.
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Use one normal stepper for the central shaft. Put the lower disk/hand over this shaft with a gear or pulley that drives it from the second motor.
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