Resistor between controller and winch

[TheD1ngo]

So I had a thought about how to maybe stop winch creep when using a servo board as a controller but I am not sure if it will work. Maybe someone here with more knowledge on the subject could answer this as it would just be trial and error for me. I was thinking that if you could put a resistor somewhere in between the winch and controller, would it be possible to have a resistor that could keep any small voltage fluctuations from reaching the winch and causing creep but still let the winch operate as usual? If it would work, it would be very easy to just solder in on the wires going to the winch motor.

 

[mikemcE]

You can remove the pot and solder resistors in. Lots of video on YouTube .
Or just get a HeyOK winch controller and plug and play


Hang up and Drive

 

[TheD1ngo]

I understand that is one option but from what I understand putting resistors in place of the pot, they can still creep. What I am asking and curious about is putting a resistor after the controller just before the winch and whether or not it will help stop any creep. Or would using a higher ohm resistors in place of the pot also help creep?

 

[Ditchrat]

Resistors dont work that way. They only let a particular voltage through anything over that and it gets knocked down any thing below that goes through.

You use capacitors to stop stray dc voltage.

 

[micro racer]

Resistors dont work that way. They only let a particular voltage through anything over that and it gets knocked down any thing below that goes through.

You use capacitors to stop stray dc voltage.

That sounds more like a full voltage regulator. A resistor simply burns off a certain amount of voltage dictated by the amperage of the circuit and resistance of the resistor.

D!ngo, from what I understand about how servos work, creep occurs because of the minute resistance difference between two equally-rated resistors. You might install two 500 ohm resistors in place of the potentiometer, but they might actually test at 490 and 510 ohms. They test well within the 5% tolerance most resistors have, but that small difference tells the servo to creep just a little bit. The best way to go around replacing the potentiometer with resistors would be to use very precise resistors, like 1% or 2%, and match two out of the bag as close as possible with meter.

To the original question, a resistor inline with the winch should work exactly like you are thinking, D!ngo. If the resistor reduced the unwanted voltage to an amount too low to move the motor, that would stop winch creep. It would likely have to be a decently high ohm, and that might affect the speed of your winch, but it should also stop the creep.

However, overall I would just follow mikemcE's recommendation and use a Heyok controller. It'll make everything nice and simple.

 

[TheD1ngo]

That sounds more like a full voltage regulator. A resistor simply burns off a certain amount of voltage dictated by the amperage of the circuit and resistance of the resistor.

D!ngo, from what I understand about how servos work, creep occurs because of the minute resistance difference between two equally-rated resistors. You might install two 500 ohm resistors in place of the potentiometer, but they might actually test at 490 and 510 ohms. They test well within the 5% tolerance most resistors have, but that small difference tells the servo to creep just a little bit. The best way to go around replacing the potentiometer with resistors would be to use very precise resistors, like 1% or 2%, and match two out of the bag as close as possible with meter.

To the original question, a resistor inline with the winch should work exactly like you are thinking, D!ngo. If the resistor reduced the unwanted voltage to an amount too low to move the motor, that would stop winch creep. It would likely have to be a decently high ohm, and that might affect the speed of your winch, but it should also stop the creep.

However, overall I would just follow mikemcE's recommendation and use a Heyok controller. It'll make everything nice and simple.

Thanks for the response! Thats exactly what I was wanting to know. So it does seem as though if I wanted to try a resistor after the controller it would be just some trial and error to figure out what would work. From what you are saying though is if I replaced the pot with two very closely matched resistors, that it would stop most of the creep? I understand that its hard to eliminate it completely with a servo board but if I can eliminate most of it then thats fine with me for now. I probably will end up getting the heyok unit soon but I am just looking for a cheap way to help the situation now.

 

[heyok]

Thanks for the response! Thats exactly what I was wanting to know. So it does seem as though if I wanted to try a resistor after the controller it would be just some trial and error to figure out what would work. From what you are saying though is if I replaced the pot with two very closely matched resistors, that it would stop most of the creep? I understand that its hard to eliminate it completely with a servo board but if I can eliminate most of it then thats fine with me for now. I probably will end up getting the heyok unit soon but I am just looking for a cheap way to help the situation now.

What you would find is that if you use a large enough value resistor in series with the servo motor, the winch will stop creeping. The problem is that you would have no winch power either. Any resistance in the feed to the motor will reduce the amount of power it can produce.
If you are going to go to this effort, try this instead:
Connect a switch in series with the servo motor and only turn it on when you need the winch.

 

[Hydrocarbon92]

You can usually add resistors in-line with the existing pot. Most are 5k pot's, meaning 2.5k is centered. If you put 2.5k resistors on each outer leg, it's "precision" will be doubled since each degree of movement on the pot will result in half the movement. Meaning you'd need twice the voltage fluctuation for the same movement. I'm not sure how high you can go up, but it's a voltage divider system so you could potentially (pun unintended) go to 10k or 50k no prob.

I did that a long time ago for a clodbuster servo when I needed more power - I added 1k resistors to increase from 90 degrees movement to 120 degrees (well before end-point adj radios were common) and move the mount on the servo horn for increase torque.

 

[TheD1ngo]

You can usually add resistors in-line with the existing pot. Most are 5k pot's, meaning 2.5k is centered. If you put 2.5k resistors on each outer leg, it's "precision" will be doubled since each degree of movement on the pot will result in half the movement. Meaning you'd need twice the voltage fluctuation for the same movement. I'm not sure how high you can go up, but it's a voltage divider system so you could potentially (pun unintended) go to 10k or 50k no prob.

I did that a long time ago for a clodbuster servo when I needed more power - I added 1k resistors to increase from 90 degrees movement to 120 degrees (well before end-point adj radios were common) and move the mount on the servo horn for increase torque.

So just to clarify, what you are saying is if I put resistors in place of the outer wires on the pot, it would essentially give me a larger, "dead area" you could say, in which would keep the winch from creeping one way or the other?

 

[heyok]

So just to clarify, what you are saying is if I put resistors in place of the outer wires on the pot, it would essentially give me a larger, "dead area" you could say, in which would keep the winch from creeping one way or the other?

What I'm saying is that is a waste of time, and I think I explained it pretty well.
Try it if you want to.