So my attempt to create a ratcheting belt tensioner failed. Most of the vital parts were to small, I’ll have to scale it up a bit and try again.
I have an idea for one that uses an internal wheel that has teeth on one side with a spring pushing the toothed side into a correspondingly toothed inner surface - the tooth profile is such that you can rotate the wheel in 1 direction just by turning it but you have to push it away from the inner toothed surface to get it to rotate in the other direction. Does that make sense? I don’t have time to refine it right now but if you wanted to have a go, I could knock up a quick 3d representation as a starting point…
sure ill give it a shot.