I've been working on a design for a motorized masking system (in my head) for quite some time now and I know that others here have done similar things so I wondered if anyone here minds talking about how they built their motorized masking system.

My thinking is to use 4 stepper motors hooked to a stepper motor controller and some leadscrews in much the same way that you build a CNC. This would pull the masking to whichever length was needed. A PIC microprocessor (and project board) should be able to drive the motor controller and is fairly simple to program with some of the free tools that exist.

I'm sure that will work but I'd be very interested in hearing how other people here have managed to automate masking out their screens for the various aspect ratios.

Thanks,
WH

I know there are some great ones in the archives somewhere here. hopefully someone can direct you to them.

I know there are some great ones in the archives somewhere here. hopefully someone can direct you to them.

I've found some in the archives that were motorized. Infact, they're linked off one of the big FAQ's but the info seems really outdated. I know that I've seen some talk of more recent ones but I have yet to see a real detailed discussion on what people did. Usually, it seems like it's just a few pictures but very little on the construction, parts used, etc.

As I figure it out, I want to make sure the details are actually included so that someone else can take it and do it themselves. That's a lot of the problem that I see with some of these DIY projects. The knowledge isn't shared so it cannot be improved upon as easily.

WH