These things cost about $200. Not the projector, the thing on top of it. It’s a projector dowser, and basically what it’s designed to move a paddle in front of a projector to keep it from projecting video black when you don’t want it to. At it’s core, it’s really just a motor that moves a dowel by 90°. And it costs $200.
I wanted to see how I could make one on my own, and possibly make it for cheaper. I wanted to start small, so I ordered some tiny servo motors. I figured that for this project I would use the smallest motor that I could, and use it to douse a tiny pico projector. Hopefully I’ll be able to take what I learn from this project and make my own larger scale dowser that is both cheaper than what’s commercially available and controllable by a switch or through an Arduino.
So I got a servo motor, and a dial that was specifically meant to operate it. The first problem I ran into was that the motor and the controller both ran on 4.8v power. I assumed that it would be fairly easy to convert 9v to 4.8v, but as it turns out…
Only one of these lights is supposed to be on. it’s flashing because, I think, it’s getting too much voltage.
Converting voltage is more complicated than I had thought. So I made the decision to move forward on this project using a power supply.
Ok, that works. Now I need a structure to mount the motor to, which I cut out on the jigsaw.
Ok, that fits in there quite snugly. If I cut this out correctly, it should fit right onto the Pico Projector I’m testing on.
Closed…
Open!
And ok! That’s a functioning motor mount. I’ll just use some corner brackets to mount a side piece for the controller, and then I think we’re good to go.
If I were to do this again, I would prioritize having the correct power supply for my motor, which is something I didn’t consider until too late. I also would have tried to find a way not to have the Servo running