Any experience with actuators to raise a light rack?

Dudester

Dudester

Premium Member
Greetings to all you engineering and techno experts out there (of which I am not!). I'm planning a new tank, 72 x 48 x 26. This will be an in-wall corner tank with a small equipment room behind. My plan is to have an aluminum light rack suspended above the tank in the equipment room. I know that a pulley system could be rigged to raise and lower the rack, but I thought it would be cool to have a linear actuator to raise and lower the light rack at the touch of a button. Does anybody know of any systems out there that utilize this type of system, or any actuators that would be recommended for this application? Of course I'm a little leary about the durability and added complexity that would come with using an actuator, but if there are good options out there I'm sure interested. Any advice or direction would be appreciated.
 
dudester, cool idea, but depending on the weight that a canopy can account for, you would need a pretty stout motor and pulley system. I was thinking a little outside of the box and thought of a garage door opener, but it would need to be modified in many ways and it sounds as though a bit bulky for a room behind the tank. Now I have used a pulley system of sorts(not powered) that employs rope and 4 laundry line tightners. The tightners are sold as exactly that at Lowes and you can hook them to each corner of canopy and when needed you lift the canopy, pull on the tightners and tada canopy can be placed at any height to work inside of tank. The tightners work by using the weight of the canopy to keep the rope tight and secure. This was helpful to me in the past when bringing in several stonies. I would raise the lights for a period of time to acclimate the corals to my system.
Hope this helps.
 
I have a linear actuator that I use on my canopy lift. It is set up so the canopy raises straight off the tank with everything being held in place by some heavy duty slide rails.

Here is a short video of it in action:Canopy lift Video w/ sound 3.55MB Windows Media :D

I kinda got the idea from this TV Lift. Most of the parts including the actuator also came from Firgelli Automations (same link).

Here you can see the slide rails on each side and the actuator in the middle.
new-lights.jpg


I have a momentary rocker switch that I can use to start/stop the motor to position the canopy anywhere on the travel path this allows me to open just a little to feed the fish or I can lift it 2 feet off the tank to easily get in for heavy duty maintenance.

This is with the top off during recent lighting upgrade.
lighting-upgrade-2008.jpg


You can see the 1x6 boards reinforcing the top of the canopy. Behind the tank on the wall are the slide rails with the oversized shelf mounts. This is what holds the canopy in place as it moves up and down. I mounted the bottom of the actuator to a small wood frame behind the tank. Here is more detail about the canopy lift on my website. :cool:
 
seflreefer - Thanks for the input. Since I will have an in-wall system there won't be a canopy per se, so the only thing that will need to be raised and lowered is the light rack and the affixed lights. This shouldn't be too heavy. I like your idea with the rope and pulleys and I'll use that if I decide not to go high-tech.

sammy33 - Great information, and exactly what I'm looking for. When I google'd "linear actuator" I came across the Firgelli Automations site and I figured they'd be the way to go. How long have you been using that system and has it been reliable? Do you think it will be a durable, long-term solution? Will the motor/actuator withstand the added humidity and salt creep that are invariably present? Thanks again, and your video is AWESOME!!

Mike
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11912800#post11912800 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dudester
sammy33 - Great information, and exactly what I'm looking for. When I google'd "linear actuator" I came across the Firgelli Automations site and I figured they'd be the way to go. How long have you been using that system and has it been reliable? Do you think it will be a durable, long-term solution? Will the motor/actuator withstand the added humidity and salt creep that are invariably present? Thanks again, and your video is AWESOME!!
Mike [/B]
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words on the video. I have been using the canopy lift almost daily for a year now and it has worked great. The reliability seems good and the build/quality is also good. I have the tube design 150lb force motor that is a bit larger than the other style motor but the whole thing is cased in aluminum housing. The shaft of the motor descends into the housing when the canopy is down keeping it fairly well protected from any splash from the tank.

The only parts that are showing any weardown is the shelf brackets and screws in the canopy. I see signs of rust on these from the salt/humidity. Everything else is working great.
 
I'll add a fourth to the list of people using Firgelli Automations.

Here's some images of the what I ended up building. I have often said that the light lift was likely the best single thing I did right on this tank build.

My original plan was to build it in aluminum, but I could never diagram it accurately enough to have someone else build it. In the end, I made it from 1x1.

The engineering trick was to use pulleys to redirect the horizontal force of the actuator into vertical pull, while keeping everything level throughout the pull.

The entire contraption is also hung from rails so that it can be slid off the tank, as well as raised up and down.

Lightframe.jpg

100_0079.jpg

100_0085.jpg
 
GreshamH - Thanks for the extra nod and don't worry about the lack'o pics. It's great to hear all of the positive experiences with this company.

sammy - Thanks for the follow-up answers, much appreciated.

Untamed12 - Extremely helpful and, as I mentioned to you, I plan on copying your setup almost exactly since my install will be nearly identical to yours. My tank has the same dimensions and will also be an in-wall corner.

If others have experiences with actuators I'd always like to hear more.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11926254#post11926254 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Untamed12
I'll add a fourth to the list of people using Firgelli Automations.

Here's some images of the what I ended up building. I have often said that the light lift was likely the best single thing I did right on this tank build.

My original plan was to build it in aluminum, but I could never diagram it accurately enough to have someone else build it. In the end, I made it from 1x1.

The engineering trick was to use pulleys to redirect the horizontal force of the actuator into vertical pull, while keeping everything level throughout the pull.

The entire contraption is also hung from rails so that it can be slid off the tank, as well as raised up and down.
Click to expand...

Oh you so just made my day. My current system is light enough and small enough to work vertical, but my next is much larger and required a better solution of which you just supplied me with :rollface: . Even better, you gave me an excuse to go to the metal shop (recycle&new) and grab some square tubing :D I love going there, I always find insane deals!
 
So how do yall all have the pulleys setup? I am having some trouble in this area. I am wanting to move my light rack a greater distance than my unit will travel. My firgelli has 10" of travel put I am sure that if rigged correctly I can get more travel than that on my light rack....the trade off would be that it takes more force to do it. This would be the opposite of what most folks use pulleys for.
 
If you put the actuator to pull on a pulley instead of the string you double the distance. But this means the line is fixed to the weight and floor. I think you can add another pulley fixed to the weight and run the floor line through that into the ceiling and still get some increased distance by having the actuator on the first pulley.

A simpler option would be a lever the actuator works, a simple straight bar with a 5" arm on one side and a 10" arm on the other. Actuator works the short arm and doubles the throw on the other.
 
Actuator will be mounted to the ceiling there will be 4 pulleys mounted to the ceiling that the cable runs over down to the light rack.
 
I had built this to kind of copy someone else's design but I am just not getting it to work right.

The side with 4 eyes is for each line coming from light rack to connect. The other two on the opposite side is to go back to actuator or anchor or something that's the part I am struggling with.
 
reelredfish said:
I had built this to kind of copy someone else's design but I am just not getting it to work right.

The side with 4 eyes is for each line coming from light rack to connect. The other two on the opposite side is to go back to actuator or anchor or something that's the part I am struggling with.
Click to expand...
Here's a link to the relevant portion of my build thread. It is my modified version of the system posted earlier in this thread. I now have it attached to an actuator, but initially I was just manually raising and lowering the lighting rig.

I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

Lighting Lift Assembly
 
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