WOT: mechanical engineering question Options

[TonyAKAVW]

I'm building a "roto-lok" system http://www.roto-lok.com/tech/technology.html

for the rotation of an antenna for amateur (ham) radio purposes.

I'm trying to find an equation that relates the radius of a pulley/drum to the total friction. Basically I want to make sure that I put sufficient turns of wire around the drive shaft so that it does not slip. I've been searching on the web and I can't even really find equations relating tension to friction, etc.

Any advice on where to look?

-Tony

[TonyAKAVW]

Thanks! I'll do some searching with those terms.


I would think though that tension, cable diameter and other constants (coefficients of friction are the same since in both cases its stainless steel against aluminum) would fall out of the equations when making a ratio of two equations to obtain N, a ratio of turns on capstan to turns on the driven drum.

Just trying it out is probably the best way to go, probably wouldn't be too hard to setup something to test that, but being an engineer (albeit electrical) I just feel compelled to find the optimal solution.

-Tony