Introduction: Baby Swinger

I have twins (demanding task) and I was searching in Instructables with keywords "baby relax", "baby swing", etc. I found the following post, which is a very good solution:

https://www.instructables.com/Cradle-Swing-Auto-Ro...

This instructable made me think to use what I already had. So, the method I commonly use to relax my babies is to swing them in their car seats. What if I built a motorized 3D printed mechanism to swing one baby for me inside the car seat, while I feed the other?

Step 1: Setup

When i manually swing my babies inside the car seat i usually swing them with frequency ~2Hz (2 times a second). Therefore, what came to my mind was to use a Gearmotor with ~ 60 RPM and, couple its shaft with a 3D printed ellipse disk. This disk will have a guide in which a plastic part of the car seat will slide. The whole motor will be mounted in a 3D printed motor mount, which can be mounted in any table or chair leg, using a 3D printed motor bracket.

Step 2: List of Materials

What you only need is:

  1. A Metal Gearmotor 25mm - 60RPM 6V
  2. A Power Supply 5V 1A
  3. A Shaft Coupler Clamping 5mm to 12mm
  4. 4 x M3 L4mm screws with their nuts for mounting the 3D printed motor mount with its bracket
  5. 2 x M3 L2mm screws with their nuts for fixing the motor inside the motor mount
  6. The three attached 3D printed parts: motorBraket + motorMount + wheel

Step 3: Testing

Once you put all these pieces together, find a plastic part of the car seat in order to slide it into the 3D printed wheel. Plug in the power supply and the car seat will start to swing!

During testing I found that:

  1. Noise of the motor actually calms the babies! But it does not calm you!
  2. Flexible coupler is good choice in order to absorb vibrations caused by the endless moving baby...
  3. Motor's RPM (60) is also a good choice so that it can handle baby's weight (6Kg)

I know... Babies are for hagging... But in extreme cases this instructables is usefull!

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