I should have picked express shipping on that controller. But meanwhile, here’s some more random tidbits I am working on in preparation for it.
The next best thing after flangeless pulleys is a hacked-up belt guide/tensioner. Here, I used one of the stock motor cover screw holes to attach an aluminum lever with a shoulder-screw-bushing-washer-collar assembly on one side and another screw on the other side, onto which a deceptively strong tension spring is attached. This pulls directly down, with the other end of the spring attached to another screw. The whole thing keeps the belt from slamming into the frame as well as adds more tension (as if it needs more tension).
This was completely unanticipated and was a midnight engineering hack, which means it looks rather uncouth but functions just fine.
Another view of the tensioner assembly. As fate would have it, turning the motor in the forward direction causes the belt to jam against the frame, grinding the whole thing to a stop, whereas going backwards just bumps the belt against the wheel and lets it be a natural “flange”. Maybe I should just always move backwards!
No matter now, as the tensioner takes care of it.
The beginnings of my controller controller. I was not about to mount a 75mhz transmitter and receiver on this thing, so I have to come up with a way to fake the 1-2ms control pulse that R/C motor controllers take. A quick visit to Google and I found a workable schematic that involves a 555 timer chip, a bunch of random parts, and a 5K variable resistor, which I have a handful of.
When finished, the controller controller will probably have a DC-DC converter attached to it to drive accessories. This is contingent on everything else working.