Gyroscopic precession

Question

My question is about a school project I am working on; a beam can rotate freely on the horizontal axis. If one motor (or multiple) is attached far from the pivot the beam should rotate.

I am trying to do this with two BLDC motors on either end of the beam run by a 7.4 volt 2000 mAh battery. i saw a Veritasium video regarding gyroscopic precession and am trying to use that concept. I have used two motors that rotate in the same direction hence they are both made to face opposite directions are shown in the image below. the beam (light in weight made of PVC) is attached to a ball bearing at the middle allowing it to rotate freely. I have tried powering one motor and both, tried both series and parallel configuration(series did not work as voltage was too little), attempted this with a standard 9 V battery and small coreless motors and, I tried to give it a push in either direct as a kickstart a What should I do?

Answer 1

Consider the mass of the rotating components of your assembly. The other aspect to assist in the precession is the moment arm of those rotating components. The axle is fairly small diameter and could be considered insignificant. The rotor of the motor isn't much heavier and not much larger. It may contribute, but bearing friction could absorb that as well.

Add a disk of substantial diameter to the motor shafts. It need not be of a particular thickness, other than to contribute to the rotating mass and structural strength.

Picture having a single motor on the center bearing, axle placed ninety degrees to the beam, similar in orientation as the current motors. Spinning a disk on the motor shaft, with force applied to the top or bottom of the disk will cause the disk to precess in the desired direction. The precession force "pivots" on the center of the motor shaft.

The current design merely tries to twist ends of the beam, not rotate it on the bearing.