# easiest wiper motor?



## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

what's the easiest wiper motor to use for animating props?


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## Richie (Jan 4, 2007)

Hi Sickie,

I've used the Dewert brand and the Saturn motors. The Dewert is extremely quiet and turns slower, which was perfect for me, but may cost about $35.00. The Saturn motor is much less money and turns faster with a bit more noise. Both are easy as pie to connect to power. In fact, in the past I've simply hooked them up to a small 12 volt battery. The batteries I used were from those computer UPS devices.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

how long do the batteries last for a continually running wiper motor?


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## Richie (Jan 4, 2007)

Sickie...I don't recall how long the battery held up for, only that it was worth while doing so. Naturally, depending on the battery and condition makes a difference. You can even use the battery from a car as long as you have a way to top it back off prior to reinstalling it. The upside is that it makes a 12 volt prop self contained because there are no electrical cords running to it. Hope this helps.


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## BlinkyTheHouse Elf (Apr 2, 2007)

Richie; I am in the same boat with Sickie I know very little about wiring up stuff can you write a small How To on this subject Thanks


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## Evil Bob (Sep 1, 2005)

I like this one... http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=16762+MD
Only $9.95 and a little slower than the Saturn wiper. But MUCH easier to mount it!!


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Okay, here's a really stupid question, but I need to ask. If it's 12 volts, how come I can't use 12 AA batteries?


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## Severin (Aug 5, 2007)

Not stupid at all. 12 AA would be 18 volts 1.5v * 12 = 18v  You could use 8 AA batteries, but I doubt they would store enough current to turn the motor for very long, if at all. Thats where the size of the battery comes in. AAA AA C & D are all 1.5 volts. The difference is how much current they store. D's are the largest so they store the most. Since the wiper motors draw lots of current, it will exhaust whats stored in the AA very quickly.

Thats why you need a car or tractor battery which stores lots of current, or a wall wart which is suppling continuous current from AC household power and converting it to DC.


For my possessed girl prop, I used a small tractor battery. I think PepBoys had one on sale for around $10. It ran my wiper motor, air solenoid & two controllers continuously for 10 hours with any problem. The battery still has plenty of juice.

For my witch, I bought a 5v 3.7 amp DC power adapter for $5.75 from allelectronics.


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## harryhood (Oct 30, 2007)

*Wiper Motor*

This is a great, cheap Saturn motor. Very quiet and has a lot of torque. This site tells you how to attach to a few different power supplies but the radioshack DC one mentioned below is easiest.
http://www.scary-terry.com/wipmtr/wipmtr.htm

Then run by radioshack and pick up this, and the crimp connectors mentioned on the site above, or just use a soldering iron.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...r+supply&kw=dc+power+supply&parentPage=family

This power supply allows you to chance the voltage for the motor, thus changing the speed. Only a few work of course, but it lets you change the speed.

I used this to run a rocking chair and it worked great.


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## Richie (Jan 4, 2007)

HarryHood,

I forgot about that link. Great useful information for Sickie and Blinky. Thanks for posting it.


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

Bob Andrews said:


> I like this one... http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=16762+MD
> Only $9.95 and a little slower than the Saturn wiper. But MUCH easier to mount it!!


I've got two of those motors in use... I thought they were a little tricky to mount but they work great. (<$10 is hard to beat!) I think they use a planetary set rather than a worm gear because you can turn the arm and move it if you need to without powering up the motor. I wound up mounting them by cutting out a profile of the motor housing and "surface mounting" (?) them w/ 2 long #64 bolts and some zip ties:


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Man, this is a great thread! Wonderful information! Thanks, guys!


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

oh, btw I'm running my motors withPC power sources - the MIB is using a 12v lead rated @ 8amps, the witch cauldron is running 5v on a [email protected] circuit iirc. I got those from MPJA for $10 each too - just look through the list and pick ones w/ good amperage ratings @ 12v. You may need to do a slight hack to get them to "power up" depending on what type it of power supply it is.


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## uncle (Sep 26, 2007)

You really can't go wrong with either motor. The MPJA motor is a good motor, but finicky about voltage if left unmodified. The Saturn has gotten a little harder to find and is commonly a bit pricier. Here is a good link on how to mount them (I haven't checked to see if the MPJA will fit, but this is a really easy way to mount the Saturn):

http://www.my-mania.com/halloween/wipermotor.html

I don't use the hot glue, I just wrap some masking tape around the motor and the cinching bites in and doesn't let the motor turn.


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## gmacted (Jan 18, 2006)

I've used this wiper motor in the past. The nice feature of this one is that it stops in the same position every time.


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## Troy (Oct 14, 2006)

It won't stop in the same position every time when useing it with a motion sensor at least i couldn't get it too...also that motor is a bear to mount, i like the saturn motors, I used them on my witches and seesaw skeletons, I also use a 3-12 vdc wallwart to power them, makes it very easy to speed up/slow down.


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## gmacted (Jan 18, 2006)

Troy said:


> It won't stop in the same position every time when useing it with a motion sensor at least i couldn't get it too...also that motor is a bear to mount, i like the saturn motors, I used them on my witches and seesaw skeletons, I also use a 3-12 vdc wallwart to power them, makes it very easy to speed up/slow down.


I used it in my creature crate and it stops in the same place every time. If you disconnect power from it, it will not stop in the same place, but it is understandable why it wouldn't.

I agree that it wasn't the easiest to mount, but it does work very well. If and when I need another one, I will not hesitate to buy this one.


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## tuck (Oct 27, 2007)

If going with a car battery to power your wiper motor would it be smarter to get one of those deep cycle marine batteries used to power trolling motors on boats?


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

NickG said:


> I've got two of those motors in use... I thought they were a little tricky to mount but they work great. (<$10 is hard to beat!) I think they use a planetary set rather than a worm gear because you can turn the arm and move it if you need to without powering up the motor. I wound up mounting them by cutting out a profile of the motor housing and "surface mounting" (?) them w/ 2 long #64 bolts and some zip ties:


I bought that wiper motor, do you have a close up pic of how you attached the wires to it, and on what pins?


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

tuck said:


> If going with a car battery to power your wiper motor would it be smarter to get one of those deep cycle marine batteries used to power trolling motors on boats?


It's definitely a good investment to get deepcycle batteries. Regular ones will work fine but when you run them down repeatedly it eats the life out of them. Deepcycles are more expensive but they make up for it in replacement savings.


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

Sickie Ickie said:


> I bought that wiper motor, do you have a close up pic of how you attached the wires to it, and on what pins?


nope... that is my close-up pic.  I just hacked off the outter "shell" of the connector so I could get at the pins and soldered the wires to them. I don't remember which pins... one will be a ground, one will be slow, one will be fast, and one will be park. I just poked around at them with a battery until I found the combination that worked. (don't use your power supply or you could accidentally short it out damage it.

I didn't need to use the park circuit for my creature crate - the lid was heavy enough so it closed the lid w/ the roller cam.


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## harryhood (Oct 30, 2007)

revisit my last post and check the website i mentioned. it has instructions on there.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Bob Andrews said:


> I like this one... http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=16762+MD
> Only $9.95 and a little slower than the Saturn wiper. But MUCH easier to mount it!!


Hmmm.... the website said they had only 1 in stock. And I bought it! But the website still says that they have 1 in stock... maybe it's the mysterious dandelion motor; you pull it out and it immediately grows back...


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## Evil Bob (Sep 1, 2005)

Revenant said:


> Hmmm.... the website said they had only 1 in stock. And I bought it! But the website still says that they have 1 in stock... maybe it's the mysterious dandelion motor; you pull it out and it immediately grows back...


lol dandelion motor!


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

DAMMIT!!!!

They don't keep their website updated... they have _*none*_ of those motors. Grrrrrrrrrr........... guess I'll have to see if there's any of those Trico Saturn motors that Terry likes left... if it turns out I gotta pay 35 bucks for a motor, I'll ditch my plans to play with animations this winter and stick with statics.


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## randyaz (May 26, 2006)

did you check...

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/DCM-249/400/POWERFUL_WINDSHIELD_WIPER_MOTOR_.html

$17 + shipping


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Already bought the Saturn motor. Dunno how the shipping charges compare, but the motor itself is the same price.

Just tired of dikkinaround. I want a motor to experiment and play with. I've never built anything that moves on its own and I need to start.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

rev, hit the thrift store. there's cheap motors everwhere. I've found rottiserie motors for under $3, record players for under $5, and more.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Wohoo! UPS brought my Saturn motor today. Now I need to see what I need to buy to convert my ATX power supply so I can power it. Slow but sure... I'm getting there...


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

Why do you need to convert it? I don't have a Saturn motor, but my experience with ATX and wipers is you don't need anything.


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## harryhood (Oct 30, 2007)

you can just pickup a DC power supply at radio shack, cut the end piece and wire it to the motor.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Granted that would be an easy way to go but with money as tight as it is if I can make do with what I have on hand I'd *really* like to avoid sinking another 20 bucks into this.


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