1

I am completely inexperienced in any technical areas. However, I need a small motor for a larger art project and was hoping that someone here might be able to help me.

I would like to build a flower that can open and close its petals with the help of a motor.

Does anyone have an idea for this? Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time conducting an effective online search because I simply don't have the terminology or the knowledge.

Greenonline
  • 1,508
  • 4
  • 18
  • 32
Lucy
  • 11
  • 1
  • 1
    micro servo ... – jsotola Mar 23 '24 at 16:04
  • Welcome to Robotics Lucy, but I'm afraid that Unbounded Design Questions are off-topic because there are many ways to solve any given design problem. We prefer practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face, so questions which ask for a list of approaches or a subjective recommendation on a method (for how to build something, how to accomplish something, what something is capable of, etc.) are off-topic. Please take a look at [ask] & [about] for more information on how stack exchange works. – Chuck Mar 26 '24 at 15:10
  • As @jsotola mentions above, the device you're probably looking for is called a "servo." I did a quick search online and it looks like there's a similar-sounding project here on Instructables that would walk you through the parts, software, etc. – Chuck Mar 26 '24 at 15:11

1 Answers1

0

Type of motor

As jsotola has mentioned, you are probably looking for a micro servo.

Something like a Tower Pro SG90 (weighs 9 grams):

Micro servo SG90

Or maybe even smaller.

The size and power of the servo that you will require depends upon your design:

  • If all of the petals are connected, via some mechanism, and they are all meant to open at the same time then one servo will probably suffice.

    However, depending upon the load of all of the petals and the material that they are made of, i.e. weight, you may require something more substantial, like a MG995 or MG996

  • If the petals are to open independently, then you would probably need a servo per petal, which would increase the weight (if the servos are mounted next to the petals up on a stalk), and so maybe something smaller than a SG90 would be required. Obviously, if the petals are connected to the servos via a rod, and the servos are mounted in the base, then weight will not be such a major factor.

Control mechanism

You don't say whether you have the controller already figured out, but in case you do not, then you'd probably want something like an Arduino with a servo shield, and then a simple sketch running on the Arduino that just sweeps the servo arm from side to side.

For what it is worth, a previous post of mine, Overheating/Jamming MG996R servo, shows the Arduino shield and a sketch that provides a simple sweep action.

However, there are loads of example out there, and the Servo library (by Michael Margolis) for the Arduino IDE even comes with an example sketch (actually a suite of examples) for servos.

However, this is beyond the scope what you asked (just about the motor), so I will not elaborate.

Greenonline
  • 1,508
  • 4
  • 18
  • 32