stepper motor for a chile roaster

[Thumper]

Chile addict, as in capsaicin laden chile peppers from New Mexico. I used to rely on commercial roasters, but they are inconsistent and I like high roaster temp for short time so the skins are easy to remove, but the meat of the chile is still crisp (NOT soggy and overcooked). I freeze a ridiculous amount of roasted peppers in one gallon ziploc bags, defrosting ~2 every week (my son is now an addict as well).

I bought a roaster, but the cage rolls too fast, so I am replacing the electric motor (1725rpm) and the inadequate "repurposed" gear reduction hardware with a stepper motor/controller. The parts consist of a power supply (24/48VDC), stepper motor controller, and the stepper motor. In addition, I am waiting for a pulse width modulator with a speed control knob, direction switch.

The ancient red step down gear reduce has a bad bearing, and the pulleys are held in place with tension bolt on a flattened surface (shafts) instead of a keyed shaft (MUCH more reliable and lower maintenance). Once I wire the thing up to the PWM and verify variable speed control, I will probably get a planetary reduction gearbox and a pulley to replace the red thing.

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Here is the stepper motor, power supply and controller in testing phase.

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[Thumper]

Yay!

Got the stepper working :)
I need 400 to 1000 rpm out of this. I could use 300 to 800 with a bigger output pulley. We'll see.

Final rotation rpm needs to be ~40 to 55 rpm on the roaster. I ordered a worm gear reducer that bolts right on to the stepper motor. So I will need one pulley/belt to get to ~40 to 55 rpm. The pulley on the rolling cage is a 12". Looks like I need a ~5" pulley on the output shaft of the worm gear reducer to get there. Can't wait for the 2023 chile harvest!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5-D3ULYJYA

[AJ22_ChinaRider]

that's awesome!!!

[Thumper]

Here it is jumped for the high speed mode.
https://youtu.be/zjHQwHmvtIo

I got instructions on the wiring from here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21yk2wzId8A&t=3s

I will list the parts. The feedback encoder tells the controller if the stepper has gotten off track (jumped a few steps) which could put the lathe or assembly robot out of calibration. I believe they call this a "closed loop" stepper motor. I don't need that for turning the roasting cage. I should have looked for a stepper motor with only the 4 wire connections. Oh well, this was a good deal anyway. And it doesn't interfere with the speed control, so it's OK.

[2LZ]

Thumper McGuyver, is your actual name????
Sweet job!

[Thumper]

I got the planetary gear reducer (6 to 1) and a sprocket that will reduce ~2.4 at the belt. The sprocket was 5/8" bore, and I cut another 0.1mm to make it fit the 16mm output shaft on the planetary gearset. I also had to work on the key a bit to get the sprocket to fit on the shaft.

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So it is all ready to mount. The sprocket is wider than the stepper motor, so the motor needs to be offset on the mount. But this provides an opportunity to design a belt adjustment platform... I've got some ideas. A 4L belt (53") fit perfectly! There is still at least 5 months until chile harvest, so I am not pannicking yet ;)

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