Electronic Dead Bolt

The goal of this project was to make a dead bolt for the server closet that could be controlled electronically and even through the internet. A prototype was constructed that demonstrated the concept:

A small high-speed DC motor is mounted inside a plastic cylinder with a track holding the orientation constant. A metal adapter is screwed into the axle of the motor and superglued to a long bolt with threading. The bolt is fed through a wall mount bracket that acts as a fixed orientation nut. When power is applied to the motor, the bolt spins quickly, winding through the bracket and pulling both the bolt and motor so that the bolt sticks out the end. By reversing the polarity of the incoming power, the bolt can be made to retract.

The dead bolt has not gone into operation due to the unresolved problem of getting stuck at either end. The motor drives the bolt so fast that it gets twisted and jammed when it reaches the end. Possible solutions are: short the power when it gets close to the end, padding, and time the power perfectly.