DIY 3D Printable Axial Flux Stepper Motor

Proto G Engineering designed a partially 3D printable axial flux stepper motor.




Instructables page with detailed guides:

https://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printed-Stepper-Motor-V11/

How to reduce rattling noise on your 3d printer

Tech2C, an Aussi 3d printing youtube, made this video where he shows how to eliminate and reduce the noise, vibration or rattling for his 3d printer.

He uses a HyperCube 3D Printer but his guide is applicable for almost any machine. Used upgrades are rubber feet, foam insulation, stepper motor dampeners or shock absorbers and TMC 2100 stepper drivers with stealthChop mode.






There is a great comment thread under that video with many additional ideas.

Tech2C YouTube channel link:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_scf0U4iSELX22nC60WDSg


Astrosyn shock absorber for NEMA17 used:

Introduction to Stepper Motors

Here is a great video that explains everything you wanted to know about stepper motors but were afraid to ask :-)



Great work GreatScott! Thanks for the content!

Functional 3D Printed Stepper Motor

Proto G published his detailed guide on how to build a 3d printed stepper motor. It is probably not as good as standard ones but it looks very usable for simpler projects.

You will need an Arduino, copper wire, magnets and other non-printable parts but you probably guessed that part.


Here is a video introduction:





Detailed build guide and all the files needed:

http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printed-Stepper-Motor/

Great work Proto G!

Powerful 3d printable robot arm for your future home manufacturing robotic cell

If you thought that 3d printed robots are just toys, think again! Here is a strong and powerful 3d printed robotic arm with gripper that is based on well-known (I'm not sure which :-)) industrial version.
It is well documented and constantly updated. It comes in "blue" and "orange" version, the blue uses stepper motors, the orange DC-motors. Encoders provide 12 bit resolution with an arm length of some 500mm. That results in less than 1mm accuracy (more realistic is 2mm).

The arm is developed by Andreas Hölldorfer, a master student at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Great work Andreas! You rule!

Definitely not a toy. Power and strength. I wonder is it precise and fast.  Is it durable and serviceable. Source: hackaday.io

Your coffee is served master. Source: hackaday.io

Here is a video playlist that goes trough development process stages:



Hackaday.io project page with additional information, build log and updates:

http://hackaday.io/project/3800-3d-printable-robot-arm

Thingiverse and GitHub with all the files:

http://www.thingiverse.com/4ndreas/collections/printable-robot-arm

https://github.com/4ndreas/BetaBots-Robot-Arm-Project

Project blog:

http://chaozlabs.blogspot.de/2015/01/3d-printable-robot-arm.html

Since the design is publicly available and looks relatively easy to make, I can see it as a part of future home manufacturing cells. Or as a personal assistant. You choose ...

Update:

Here is the latest development of this arm with many improvements.



Update 2:

Here is a new design of the robotic arm: the Mantis arm.

Here is the video of the robotic gripper:


Here is the parts list, more information and files for download:

http://chaozlabs.blogspot.com/2016/04/mantis-robot-arm-part-1-gripper.html

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1480408

Using DC motors to replace steppers on x and y axis

Here is a new project of running a 3d printer with cheap DC servo motors. It was developed by misan from Spain and he used it successfully on x and y axis of his Prusa I3. Dc motors are controlled by Arduino Uno and the project is based on "servostrap" project. DC motors are cheap and can be found and salvaged in recyclable or scrap electronic device such as paper printers and others.

He made the code and bracket designs available. Thnx misan!

DC servo motor powering y axis of Prusa I3

You can find all the files and code here:

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/dc-motor-closed-loop-control-software

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:618042

Here are the files for y-axis DC motor drive:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:620183


Here is video of stepper motor and servo running together:




Here is a video of DC servo motor powering the x-axis:



Here is a video of DC servo motors powering the x- and y-axis:



Project description:

This program uses an Arduino for a closed-loop control of a DC-motor.

• Motor motion is detected by a quadrature encoder.

• Two inputs named STEP and DIR allow changing the target position.

• Serial port prints current position and target position every second.

• Serial input can be used to feed a new location for the servo (no CR LF).

Pins used:

• Digital inputs 2 & 8 are connected to the two encoder signals (AB).

• Digital input 3 is the STEP input.

• Analog input 0 is the DIR input.

• Digital outputs 5 & 6 control the PWM outputs for the motor (I am using half L298 here).

• Please note PID gains kp, ki, kd need to be tuned to each different setup.

RAMBo electronics DIY 3d printable testing jig

Youness Alaoui constructed this very useful 3d printable testing jig for RAMBo boards and stepper motors that enables you to run diagnostic and testing of your system before building it in a 3d printer.

It is designed for RAMBo 1.1B and 1.3L boards but since the files are available it could be probably customized for other controller boards.

Great work Youness!

Here is a demonstration video:




Here is the assembly video:




Detailed build guide and all the files can be found here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-custom-bed-of-nails-tester-for-your/?ALLSTEPS

https://github.com/kakaroto/RAMBO-Test-Jig

How to 3d print a brushless DC motor

Patrick Eells designed and printed fully functional brushless DC motor. You can use any FDM DIY 3d printer, but you will need magnets and wind some copper wire coils.
The motor was designed as a 3-phase, 4-pole brushless DC motor with 4 - N52 neodymium magnets on the rotor, and 3 wire wrapped solenoids connected to the stator. The motor is controlled by Arduino. The total cost to build this motor without the Arduino micro controller and the batteries was 27,71 USD.

Excellent project!

Very detailed guide can be found here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printed-DC-Motor/?ALLSTEPS

All the files and guide in PDF format can be downloaded here: http://pitt.edu/~pfe3/3DPrintedMotor.zip

There was a stepper motor printed in the past, but it was printed on commercial grade printer:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/11/working-3d-printed-diy-programmable.html

Working 3d printed DIY programmable stepper motor by Christopher Hawkins

Christopher Hawkins posted a video with 3d printable stepper motor. It's a step closer to self-replicating machines. It is printed by Shapeways in WSF material (White Strong and Flexible). It seems that design is not released to public. Hopefully it will get open sourced in the future. Lot of people could finde many uses for a stepper like this and could contribute to development. Remember people: sharing is caring!

From his video description:

This is a programmable stepper motor and driver that I made out of some nails, magnet wire, neodymium magnets, a digispark microcontroller, and a 3D printed piece that I designed around these things.

My goal was to make something about the size of a business card that moved. You can't exactly fit it in your wallet but it does indeed move. It just a first draft- there's lots of room for improvement. It has a step angle of 15 degrees (although the way I'm driving it, it is 7.5 degrees.) I saw a schematic diagram explaining how a stepper works with eight electromagnets and six permanent magnets in the center and I thought that layout might look cool. It also does illustrate well how stepper motors work.

The white parts were designed in a CAD program, made from WSF material and printed at Shapeways. The ends of the shaft are cone shaped and pointy. They are held in place by slightly wider conical indents. The shaft was slightly longer than the space and I got it in there by pulling it open a little bit. The material needed to be flexible for this. The magnets are held in place by epoxy. (It's not fun working with strong little tiny magnets that want to stick together but are also covered with epoxy. It was a mess and there was swearing. It was also important that they all be oriented with the same polarity facing out.)

The driver chip is a uln2003 transistor array and it is being controlled by a digispark which is a little arduino compatable microcontroller. It can be programmed by plugging it in the usb, but it needs an external 20V source to run it. (I know 20V is high but I just kind of guessed with the electromagnets and that's what they needed to run. Originally, I had it work with12V with the electromagnets repelling the rotor instead of attracting it, but I think that began to demagnetize the rotor magnets and it gradually stopped working.)

In this video, I just have it run through a series of movements to show that it really works. I find it's best to shoot your project videos soon before you fry something and it doesn't work anymore. Not that that is going to happen here ...

Update (29.7.2014.):

Here is a project of 3d printed brushless DC motor:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/07/how-to-3d-print-brushless-dc-motor.html