I want to motorize my grand curtain (I get bored sometimes)... It's currently manually operated with ropes.. pretty [-]generic[/-] reliable.
There, fixed it for ya
There are kits to motorize
curtains, but they aren't cheap. The biggest thing you would have to worry about with motorizing a grand drape is setting up reliable limit switches and gearing the motor appropriately. It's unlikely that a motor
fed straight to the drape lines would give you the appropriate torque and speed control for a smoothly operated drape (or a happy motor). You'd also likely burn up the rope lines due to the sudden motor start-up, and likely mis-matched drums.
You'd also want a way to control the drum's tension on said pull lines.
I find that when I am on curtain duty, I use different speeds depending on the act, and usually I will vary the speed during the actual operation (slowing it down right before it closes to reduce the "
snap" of it coming to an abrupt stop is a good example; same for when it opens). You mentioned your hesitation, but for
DMX control, you would not want to use "
intensity" to control the motor. (50% from a
dimmer won't translate to half-speed for a motor, if it translates at all). You'd really want the
DMX signal to directly feed some type of motor control device, which will take the
DMX values and turn them in to readable instructions for the motor
circuit. A simple on/off wall
switch doesn't sound like it would work -- you'd get one speed (full blast), and I'm not sure how you'd reverse it. Sounds like a cool experiment (as long as it is your drape, your motor,
etc), but make sure that the
system can be overridden.