Help guys! I need ideas! Here's the basic concept. I have a microscope whose stage is controlled by twisting two knobs.
The knobs that need twisting are on the bottom and left side of the image. There is little resistance when turning the knobs by hand. It's just... tedious. Supposedly this is a robotic stage controller, but the controller box is lost so they have to be turned by hand.
I would love to use picaxe to automate the twisting of these knobs, but before I get into the details of the code I'm trying to figure out how to connect a motor to these knobs with minimal interference to the microscope... (it's worth over $100,000 and I'm just a grad student).
Any ideas?? All I've come up with is some type of rubber-band tied around a DC motor and these knobs. Perhaps there's something more elegant??
The knobs that need twisting are on the bottom and left side of the image. There is little resistance when turning the knobs by hand. It's just... tedious. Supposedly this is a robotic stage controller, but the controller box is lost so they have to be turned by hand.
I would love to use picaxe to automate the twisting of these knobs, but before I get into the details of the code I'm trying to figure out how to connect a motor to these knobs with minimal interference to the microscope... (it's worth over $100,000 and I'm just a grad student).
Any ideas?? All I've come up with is some type of rubber-band tied around a DC motor and these knobs. Perhaps there's something more elegant??