Kate Mytty

How to Make (Almost) Anything

Project 11: Output Devices

The goal for this week was to make a unipolar motor. I based it off the beginnings of Neil’s design as a beginning step towards a stepper motor that’s more advance.

  • Project 11: Output Devices
  • What: Power and control a stepper motor with a PCB

Project 11a

Project 11b

Project 11c

Project 11d

Step 1: Make the Board.

Notes: I had to make the board have thinner lines than normal - at 0.01 rather than the usual 0.016 thickness as there were so many lines squeezing into small places. The first version I had to recut certain paths by hand with an exacto blade — which may have messed up some of the traces.

Project 11e

Project 11f

Project 11g

Step 2: Test partially stuffed board

For some reason, when I use a battery to power it - even thought the voltage meter reads the right amount of power, the green light on the AVRISP doesn’t come on until after I compile and send the code. This is the error I got. Now I’m trying to troubleshoot this more before building a different board.



Here’s the code I used from Neil:
Code link
Code link 2

I stuffed the rest of the board and then when attempting to code the board when powered by the battery, my computer gave me the screen of death.

Project 11j

I spoke with a number of TAs about this. When batteries were suggested as a power source, there was no conversation in class about the issues around batteries as a source of power while programming the board. I was using an AVRISP mkII to program the the board and when I hit send, suddenly the screen popped up. The TAs said the AVRISP should have protected the power from going back into my laptop - but apparently it didn't. This was a really, really, really, really frustrating error. It is another point where I feel that some of the basics are glossed over. In this case, that meant a $300 error. Urgh

Project 11i

Step 3: Try a similar project on a bread board to test the output
I returned to the output motor and tested a stepper motor on a breadboard. Jose and I took turns devleoping a stepper motor board. My goal was to see if I could make an output device more simply. The electronics section has been challenging for me as I haven't had experience with designing and programming circuit boards before.

I need to understand more of the basics which are at a level that would help me understand some the general rules that govern circuit board designs.

It worked! The stepper motor moved and responded.

2014 Kate Mytty. This is under Creative Commons. Please do let me know if you use something.

Powered by Type & Grids