Elevator for upper/lower deck

[nkalanaga]

There is a way to have the elevator move, perfectly level, every time, with a DC motor, if one likes to work with mechanical rather than electronic devices.

Four nuts, one at each corner.  For threaded rods, one for each nut.  Gears on the rods, with a chain drive to a single motor.  Limit switch and physical stop top and bottom.

It would probably be noisy, but it would stay level, as all four rods would have to move together.

[mark dance]

Cables and pulleys will work as well.  I use them on a horizontal indexing table to assure both ends always move together so the tracks line up at both ends and the table doesn't jam no matter how it is pulled.

Md

[freedj]

...my early thinking is to have have a reset program that has all 4 motors go down until the elevator hits a microswitch  below the bottom level on each.  The microswitch would then interrupt that screw's motor.

This is called homing the machine.  You’ll find all kinds of info on this maneuver if you look for that term, or limit switch.  If your using a microcontroller you'll want to simply stop the motor, not use the switch itself to cut power.

[freedj]

Cables and pulleys will work as well.  I use them on a horizontal indexing table to assure both ends always move together so the tracks line up at both ends and the table doesn't jam no matter how it is pulled.

Md

Cable diagram: https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/FOL/8NN6/IH6O4H8U/FOL8NN6IH6O4H8U.png?auto=webp&frame=1&fit=bounds&md=3cdc6192c1e26ef5b8baa6ebe6732090

I had forgotten about this mechanism.  You can even get parts kits to fix the old parallel bar drafting tables.  I imagine it could be scaled up to handle quite a bit of weight / force.

[mark dance]

Cable diagram: https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/FOL/8NN6/IH6O4H8U/FOL8NN6IH6O4H8U.png?auto=webp&frame=1&fit=bounds&md=3cdc6192c1e26ef5b8baa6ebe6732090

And easy to power one of the pulleys or any convenient place intermediate along the cable with a single wrap around the drive pulley.

Simple mechanically though I would still lean towards John Geddes' approach and forget having to do all the location detection, wiring, rehoming, programming, etc.

My $0.02

Md

[nkalanaga]

Mark:  Yes, cables and pulleys would also work, and would probably be easier for some people.  Both would require mechanical skills, but wouldn't be technically difficult.

[Peavine]

 Here is a helix I built for my layout. It is built on an automobile scissor jack and casters, and can be unplugged and moved underneath the layout for storage. Takes about five minutes start to finish. These pictures were taken when I was doing the final fitting of it, everything is done now and it works great

[MK]

Very nice!  Such a neat train room!  Jealous!

[johnb]

Yet another version of John Armstrong's dehydrated canal lock

[CRL]

Just curious... why the single track helix in lieu of double track?

[Peavine]

It goes through the bookcase, around the wall, around a balloon track, and into an 11 track staging yard. The trains are turned on the balloon and are the correct direction to come back on the layout. A single track was more compact behind where the helix is stored and it seemed pretty simple to me to have one switch- “inbound/outbound” for the polarity.  What would be the advantage of a double track besides having one train in each direction on the helix?

[CRL]

Simple is always good. Using a double track simply cuts down on the dead time it takes for a train to transit the helix, allowing inbound & outbound trains from staging at the same time.

[ednadolski]

Here is a helix I built for my layout. It is built on an automobile scissor jack and casters, and can be unplugged and moved underneath the layout for storage.

Oho that is totally awesome!   Never saw a mobile helix before!

Ed

[dnhouston]

I've been thinking about trying one of these new electric standing desk converters as an elevator.
It has memory settings for Min & Max, runs smooth and slow and has a separate keypad for activation.

https://www.upliftdesk.com/e7-electric-standing-desk-converter/

Should be fairly easy to convert.