Making some assemblies

I didn’t really have a end use case envisioned when i started making these motor driver boards, i just wanted to learn about them from an electronics perspective. The thing about motor drivers is that to use and test them you need a motor, and if you want to stay sane you need something to hold your motor down. Further more if you want motor feed back (via magnetic encoders in my case) you need to think carefully about how you mount them as they are very sensitive to the mechanical setup. With all this in mind I have created a few jigs to hold some of my motor driver boards as well as hold motors/encoders so i can test them.

Above is my V3 Motor driver board with a few mechanic bits to allow it to function as a self contained motor driver/encoder assembly. The AS500 magnetic encoder is mounted on the underside of the PCB and requires that the magnet sit between 0.1mm to 0.5mm from the surface of the IC, in the past i’ve made a few jigs which hold the encoder chip over the magnet however vibration and alignment issues always lead to inconsistent readings. This latest assembly resolves much of these issues by having all the mechanical parts securely aligned and attached directly to the PCB of the motor driver with a combination of 3d printed parts and a bearing.

Above is a simple mount for a random geared brushed motor i had in my spare parts box. Both the driver/motor mounts are designed to be compatible with MOC brick building toy attachment system (which i believe is a clone of Lego technic), this allows me to easily play around with the mounting, gearing etc.