2dof rig. (Hopefully very cheap)

Hello everyone starting to build my first motion platform this week. Can't wait. My supplies should be here tomorrow .

My plan is to build one on a small budget. £240 without a rig. £380 with building a full aluminium rig.

Will post regular updates and hopefully a tutorial and guild on how I did it.

Thanks for the awesome forum and resources

Matt

We look forward to your progress, good luck

First parts have arrived. I'll have other motor tomorrow and 10 gauge wire.

Going to install software and do a basic test soon before I assemble it all.

It is always good to make a first contact with the electronics and if everything works, build the platform.

Remember to completely isolate the mass of the motors

So got myself a prototype board
And soldered 2 strips of wire on the back so that I can have a positive and ground rail.



Then iv started wiring up the wires I will need to the front.



My plan is to leave space in the center for the arduino board and install it on top of the prototype board the. I can wire it up.

Cost so far
£52 becuase I already had some old parts lying around.
Without them it would be £92

You can put arduino in the center connected female pins so that you can remove arduino without desoldering anything from the circuit

So got my first motor connected to the potentiometer via a pulley. Seams to work well.

Actually got the test working and motors running

However the pulley idea not so good. There is way to much sponge and that causes an oscillation. Was going to upload a video but blew the only fuse I had

I have a solution that should work which I will test when I get my fuses

Got a new mounting solution



Plan to have a friend 3d print a bespoke part but do far so good.

First problem. Like an fool if accidentally flipped the polarity to the h bridge!

Boom! Blew capacitor, scared the living daylights out of me lol

So tested both motors all working good.

Mounted them to the base.



Now I have broken 4 potentiometers though. They seem to fail stupidly easily!

Do hall effect sensor fail as easy or are they more reliable?

I plan to upgrade to them in the future just when for potentiometers as I come to grip with the rig

3 failed after soldering. Must have been to much heat, even though I was careful.

They can't over rotate as it's not physically possible.

The latest failure must be due to movement installing the mount in the rig.

But still that's 4? Ether that or they are just crap ones.

Yep, looks like too much heat...
These things are internally somewhat vulnerable.... So How I do it, first some solder on all parts....make a bit warm...and than put them together, where it only needs 1 sec to connect properly

And also check if you did not drop some solder between one of the 3 legs.... can also create a short circuit

The correct thing is to have the soldering iron preheated, add a little tin to the pins of the potentiometer, tin is applied to the cables and then they are soldered to the potentiometer, this last step is very fast and the potentiometer should not be damaged internally

Yea I got a new tip for my iron, as my old one was warm and heating unevenly.

New tip is way better and gets hot in under 10 seconds

I'll move over to hall effects when I have the build working

The hall sensor is much more durable

Progress .

Also tinkered with some coding to better understand the board. Made a motor controller to run on with a button press accelerate up to speed etc and have an emergency stop button.

Next up attached to the rig