[Oak Lane Cemetery]

Just ordered a wiper motor from Monster Guts for my current project (Grave digger skelly) I ordered the motor only with no power supply, mainly because I'm a cheap bastard and didn't want to spend money on something I could scrounge for free. Looking through my tote full of computer curds, power blocks and adaptors I came up with an old computer supply, which I'm sure would work, but is clunky, no where near being even remotely weatherproof, and is gonna have a lot of unused wires. I also found a power supply from an old printer or something (not sure what) that I'd much rather use due to being easier to weatherproof, easier to wire, and much smaller and easier to conceal. I'm just not at all familiar with what it takes to power a wiper motor and get a slow movement that will look good. Here is a pic of the specs of the second supply I'm hoping will work. I'm sure one of you more familiar with using wipers will be able to tell me if I'm good to go or not.

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

I guess my real question is - Is 3a enough to drive the Monster Guts wiper motor? 5a is in the specs for 15rpm. I would not mind at all if the 3a were to slow it down a bit more. I just don't want to damage the motor.

 

[cmerli]

The wiper motor runs on 12 V DC or 5 V DC with 5 amps it runs faster with the 12 V and slower with the 5 V. My experience has been that it needs 5 amps for either one.

 

[J-Man]

Nightfisher,
If the rating on that PS is correct (and sometimes they're not) you should be fine. The Grave Digger I built last year runs on a 5V 3A supply perfectly. If the amperage is insufficient it just won't run, it won't hurt the motor.

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

Nightfisher,
If the rating on that PS is correct (and sometimes they're not) you should be fine. The Grave Digger I built last year runs on a 5V 3A supply perfectly. If the amperage is insufficient it just won't run, it won't hurt the motor.

I figured it would not run if amps were too low, but worried amps that were a little low might still run it, but overheat the motor trying to pull enough power to move the load. I feel more confident that it will be fine now after input here and on Facebook from those that are actually running 5v 3a on a wiper motor. As long as it won't damage the motor I'll try it and see if it works. Seems like that's the only way to be 100% sure.

 

[Mapleton Manor]

I have all my wiper motors on PC power supplies. I run them all on the 3V wires in the power supplies as it slows them down even more than the 5V wire and i still have plenty of torque. Mine are all outside and I made boxes that i weather proofed but do have a couple holes in the sides of the boxes with mesh over them to allow for air movement so the PC power supplies dont overheat.

 

[Scary Papa]

, I have tried all kinds of power arrangements for wiper motors from computer power supplies to 12 v batteries. This is the absolute best setup I have found and I use it on all my wiper motor powered props. I use wiper motors from Monster Guts, a 12v 5 a power supply purchased from ebay for $7.95 including shipping, a 12 v motor controller also from ebay $9.95 including shipping and mini pin connectors to hook it all together. It works great, low cost and no waste of time trying to make something work.

 

[Yorkshire Ghost]

Thanks for the post Scary papa, but i do have one question - can you please give us a link to the motor controller so i can try and source something similar. i am from the uk so things are slightly different, but if i have an idea of what to look for then i should be able to sort it out. Thanks

 

[J-Man]

Thanks for the post Scary papa, but i do have one question - can you please give us a link to the motor controller so i can try and source something similar. i am from the uk so things are slightly different, but if i have an idea of what to look for then i should be able to sort it out. Thanks

Here's the PWM speed control I use.
http://m.ebay.com/itm/New-12V-40V-1...eed-Control-Switch-Governor-/191140676364?nav

 

[jbaum]

That looks like the PWM I use. I tried the 5v 5a power supplies and didn't like the speed. The 12v power supply and PWM work the best as there is a variable speed control but note that you can't use that PWM with a 5v power supply. I attach the PWM to my power supply after coating the solder pins with liquid electrical tape and for the grave diggers and zombies tie it to the legs under the pants.

 

[Scary Papa]

dagzill, This is the motor controller I used in my video. I use this with all my wiper motor driven props along with the power supply also in the video. It is the very best setup I have found. It is cheap, quick and easy to assemble.



http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...A+12-24+volt+13KHZ+controller+switch&_sacat=0

And I totally agree with jbaun about the power supply. Wiper motors are designed to work on 12 v automobile systems. Don't us 5 v supplies as they just won't provide the proper power. I strongly suggest using this:



http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...X141439295190.TRS0&_nkw=141439295190&_sacat=0


And connect the power supply to the motor controller / wiper motor with this:




http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...female+DC+poer+socket+jack+connector&_sacat=0

I am no expert but I hope this helps.

 

[David_AVD]

One thing to note when using PWM controllers on motors. Make sure you get one that's specified suitable for motors. The cheaper ones only meant for dimming lights are easily damaged by motors. Been there, done that.

 

[Scary Papa]

David_AVD, the motor controllers mentioned in both my post and J-Man's are specifically designed for 12 - 24v DC motors so either will work perfectly with a wiper motor. I actually have tried in the past to use a light dimmer controller like you mentioned because I already had one and just wanted to see if it would work; but of course it didn't work. But not because it burned out the motor. The motor did not suffer any damage. It didn't work because light dimmer controllers are not motor controllers and they don't operate on the same current power as a wiper motor. They are designed to for use to dim household lighting and they are designed to operate on 110-120v AC not 12v DC so when they are wired to a 12v DC power supply like I did to power the 12v DC wiper motor they just do not deliver any 12v DC power to the wiper motor. Now I can see that if you hooked the light dimmer up to 110v AC current and then tried to use it to operate 12v DC wiper motor it would likely burn out the 12v DC wiring system of the wiper motor. If the controller you use states it is a "12 V DC motor controller" as long as you use a 12v DC power supply and not a 110 - 120v AC supply it will not harm the wiper motor and should work ok to control the motor speed. If you would hook the 12v DC motor controller to a 110-120v power supply it would most likely burn out the 12v DC motor controller before it did any harm to the wiper motor. The motor controllers that J-man and I use are not very expensive. The ones I buy from ebay were only $9.95 including shipping and I have them on probably at least a dozen wiper motor animated props including everything from Creepy Creations animated rowboat and grave digger to my animated pirate ship helm and many others. I guess the take back from this is if you are wanting to power a 12v DC wiper motor be sure to use a 12v DC motor controller and wire it to a 12v DC power supply.

 

[David_AVD]

The light dimmers I was talking about are DC PWM, not phase controlled AC ones. They are only a couple of dollars (eBay example), but as I said they are not suitable for motors.

I wasn't saying that the failure when using them was the motor. On the contrary it's the switching FET in the dimmer that goes shorted, resulting in full speed no matter the knob position.

Hope that clarifies.

 

[Scary Papa]

Oops...my bad. I'm old and sometimes the synapses in my brain don't fire in the correct order. I thought you were indicating you burned out the wiper motor. Sorry.

 

[David_AVD]

No problem. Just thought it worth mentioning so that people don't buy the cheapest thing they think may work.

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

Got my motor today and tried the 5v 3a supply straight to the motor an lo and behold it worked perfectly! Too well as a matter of fact. Looks like I'm gonna possibly be ordering one of dem there fancy speed control thingamabobs to slow it down a tad. Please excuse all the slop in the animation on this. I had barely assembled it at this point and done little to no adjustment to clean up the motion...

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

I've ran it non stop for around 2 hours straight and neither the motor or power supply are even warm. Gonna go ahead and call this a success and button this project up. On to the fun stuff - detailing!

 

[J-Man]

Looks great!

 

[DaveintheGrave]

That's a super looking prop, Nightfisher!

I've got all my parts to build a skelly grave digger for next Halloween.

Thanks for the video!