Slow down a DC motor?
I would like to be able to pan my webcam via a small DC motor, but all the motors I've found under $5 are high-speed motors(RadioShack/eBay). I want to use a DPDT momentary rocker switch to control it(forward/reverse). My budget for this setup is $5-10. I don't have a lot of experience with soldering, ect.. but I can do small soldering jobs... what should I do to get it to turn my webcam slowly?
Thanks.
If it helps you visualize this at all, I am going to use the webcam as a rearview camera in my car via my CarPC  .
Details on how to do this would be very helpful. I am not very experienced with this sort of thing yet.
If I reduced the voltage, would the motor provide enough torque to turn the webcam?
Trying to put a camera right on a DC motor shaft is a bad idea. The motor has relatively little torque (it's going to need a lot of current to un-stick it) and it also has relatively little drag compared to the inertia of the camera. This means that you're going to have a huge problem moving it by small, precise steps.
You want to do one of two things:
1. Reduce the speed with a gear train or belt/chain speed reducer. This fixes the starting torque and small-step problems.
2. Scrap the DC motor and go with a stepper motor.
A stepper motor will move in discrete jumps. You can build some electronic logic to create the waveforms at any speed you want, and in the direction you want (controlled by the switch). It's not as simple as reversing a DC motor, but it gets rid of lots of mechanicals.
You can probably find a stepper motor in an old printer.
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