It has taken months to get the Clear Walk mechanics and motors built up and functional, but only one evening to get the motor driver electronics working under Bluetooth control. Finding the H-bridge motor controller card amongst my old projects was quite fortuitous as the module I ordered has not arrived yet. It is proof that hoarding sometimes pays off. The video below is a first power up of a bread-boarded system with one motor under Bluetooth control.
The Bluetooth connection can be run from any Bluetooth terminal or maybe even a Bluetooth keyboard, but I expect to make a proper android app so sun tracking can be automated.
Next I will clean up the wiring and power supplies so it can be connected to the real Clear Walk apparatus for a proper demonstration of the full system rotating mirrors.
I am still planning to connect the Kinetis motor controller and Linix motor to demonstrate that they can easily handle this application. However it turns out they are overkill for this particular application, so I am implementing something more rudimentary first. The permanent magnet synchronous motor algorithms and programming tools from Kinetis are very sophisticated and I have learned a lot from experimenting with them. The main issue right now is building a suitable bracket to rigidly position the big motor and associated gear train while allowing belt tensioning.
Relevant Links
The full set of Clear Walk project blogs can be found here:
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