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Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

JoRatcliffe — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 10:30:12 GMT

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.

Now, after months of planning, creating and making, it is time to announce our winners and recipients of the official Finisher prize. [emoticon:12b4d7d82eab4c9296f4f45657a8e383]

But first, a short reminder of the challenge, the kit and the prizes we are awarding.

The Start A Movement Design Challenge was all about creating a project that incorporates automated movement or kineticism of some kind using the official kit with Challengers receiving an Analog Devices TMC5272-EVAL-KIT, a QSH4218 NEMA 17 stepper motor and PSU.

The Kit

The Sponsored Kit
	TMC5272-EVAL-KIT 2x 2-phase stepper motor up to 0.8 A (RMS) coil current (1.12 A (PEAK)), Supply Voltage 2.1 to 20 V DC, SPI and Single Wire UART, Encoder Interface with alt. functions, 1 to 256 microsteps [embed:2daa3209-d43a-4187-9a01-6e12b1daefd8:a95a93ff-bdab-4f94-91cd-454dfa393c69:btntext=Buy%20Now&btnurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.analog.com%2Fen%2Fresources%2Fevaluation-hardware-and-software%2Fevaluation-boards-kits%2Ftmc5272-eval.html%23eb-overview&btntype=primary&btnsize=large&target=_blank&id=&classes=&onclickcode=&dataName1=&dataVal1=&dataName2=&dataVal2=]
	TRINAMIC / ANALOG DEVICES QSH4218-35-10-027 Stepper Motor, Single Shaft, Hybrid, 42 mm, Bipolar, 1.8 °, 27 N-cm, 1 A [embed:ad4490ac-0ce8-4f2d-a04c-9285646d5689:e6c2c1be-6e6b-4fb9-b4b4-dcc472ebcbc1:text=Buy%20Now&style=buynow&farnell=1010725&newark=24M6626&cpc=&avnetemea=&avnetema=&avnetasia=&comoverride=&cmpoverride=&AreaInteracted=rte-content&bom=]
	MULTICOMP PRO MP001982 AC/DC Power Supply Level VI, ITE, 1 Output, 12 W, 12 VDC, 1 A [embed:ad4490ac-0ce8-4f2d-a04c-9285646d5689:1215caf3-58b3-4d45-9cb0-5290eebdc013:text=Buy%20Now&style=buynow&farnell=3293059&newark=51AH5963&cpc=&avnetemea=&avnetema=&avnetasia=&comoverride=&cmpoverride=&AreaInteracted=rte-content&bom=]

The Prizes

Prizes are subject to change but will be of similar price and style.

Prize

Prize Category

Grand Prize Winner

Approximate Value $1,047 USD*

KELKART 27.5 Inch Electric Bike, Pedal Assist City E Bike with 48V 10.4AH Battery

Runner Up

Approximate Value $1,047 USD*

Fafrees Electric Bike, 20" Folding Electric Bikes for Adults, 36V 16Ah/576Wh Removable Battery Ebike 90KM Mileage Pedal Assist

Finisher Prize**

To be a finisher you must complete 5 forum posts and a project article post and show us testing the resilience of their project.

Approximate Value $30 USD*

MultiComp Pro Multimeter Set

*Or local equivalent
**Grand Prize and Runner Up winners will also earn the finisher prize.

Winners

Now the moment you have all been waiting for. We had several projects of an extremely high caliber all competing for the top spots, making it very difficult to pick the winner of the grand prize. The final decision was extremely close, and here it is...

Grand Prize Winner

taifur’s Accessible Sewing Machine

[mention:5a1cfe9081a4403c8a680a2b4d1abcfe:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] , your build was extremely well executed, well documented. What you have created is highly practical and genuinely helpful for someone with specific needs. Having used sewing machines myself, I know how sensitive the foot pedal can be so you have done a great job of enabling someone to control it precisely using the flex sensor. Really great job!

Runner Up

dougw’s Demanding Stepper Motor Applications (Connector Tester and Thread Tapping Machine)

[mention:193ac2434c814a24b46635a2210baec1:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] , your project was also incredibly well documented and both aspects of the build, the connector tester and the thread tapping machine itself, were really impressive. The use of a second stepper motor and the way you have synchronized them so they work together is amazing and really gets to the core of what this Design Challenge was about. Your demonstration video really highlighted the elegance and precision of what you have made.

Next up, please join us in congratulating everyone who was judged as qualifying for the official Finishers prize.

Our Official Finishers

[mention:ef601b47037147bfb9b0b4a3ab63026a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] - Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) by Stepper-Control of a Variac

This was a superbly done project, executed fantastically amidst challenges. It is a great use of the Variac which you already had with a nicely made ‘hat’ for the stepper motor on top. The thermal imagery and videos demonstrate all the work you have done really well.

[mention:ea1cd9d4514b4dc891e01effad128e3c:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] - RangeDetect Rover

A really nicely put together project with lots of images, a flowchart, and short animated clips which brought it to life. The end product was a great-looking rover which I can almost imagine roaming the surface of Mars.

[mention:af9afcdd12d240cc981e22fc1d60c025:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] - Octoscope

Mounting a wireless camera on a ring around a 3D printer was a really interesting premise for a project right from the start and it was fantastic seeing this come to life. I am already picturing this creating lots of great footage of 3D printing in action.

[mention:4f1ca8255f8742cd8649c704f7ea3bc3:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] - Satellite Tracking Ham Radio Antenna Rotator

This project was a very cool continuation of work on other antenna rotor control systems and similar projects. Plus, your forum posts were really rich in content and no doubt helped other Challengers.

Well done again to all of our prize-winners, I know you will all congratulate them on a job well done. Plus, a big thank you to all of our Challengers and our judges! [emoticon:c4563cd7d5574777a71c318021cbbcc8]

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

rsc — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 12:46:13 GMT

Show us some pictures of that....

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

colporteur — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 13:32:30 GMT

Awesome work folks on your projects. taifur & dougw , your winning projects make me green with envy. The knowledge, experience and time to complete the task are what I lack.. Congratulation gentleman on your success and the spoils that come with it. I a good job to all those that threw their hat into the ring in the competition.

The attached link I received from an Adafruit mailing list

https://blog.adafruit.com/2025/02/06/eye-on-npi-tmc5272-dual-axis-stepper-motor-controller-and-driver-ic-eyeonnpi-digikey-digikey-adi_news-adafruit/?utm_source=Adafruit+Products+Newsletter&utm_campaign=29fe40f5f2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_02_10_07_34&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-29fe40f5f2-114450521

It took some memory mining to determine why the knowledge look familiar.I finally realized, it was here in the E14 Community I first saw the kit. I was almost positive the eval-kit was covered on a RoadTest before this challenge but I found no links on our site to support that assertion.

I'm getting a memory recall that the community has looked at this device in a smaller scale or just maybe there is something a miss with my magnetic-core memory.

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

beacon_dave — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 16:01:52 GMT

You'll be building a South-pointing chariot next...

/challenges-projects/project14/rubegoldbergdevice/b/blog/posts/the-quantenkompassinator?CommentId=a42776d5-c75b-4585-b6ee-b90f69bc8a24

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

manojroy123 — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 15:49:41 GMT

Congrats everyone. Very interesting project. Very useful.

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

embeddedguy — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 02:11:59 GMT

Congratulations. Looking like really interesting projects.!

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

ralphjy — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 01:23:24 GMT

Congratulations to the winners and finishers! Interesting projects.

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

robogary — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 00:15:53 GMT

Even funnier - I used that contraption while operating with the radio club providing communications for a Christmas parade.

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

kmikemoo — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 17:37:04 GMT

robogary That is hardcore - and hilarious. 😂👍

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

robogary — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 17:14:51 GMT

congrats ! All impressive projects.

rsc I build something similar, mounting an Arrow antenna on top of a hardhat. It used a compass sensor and the setpoint was fixed to the location of a local repeater. The bad thing was the DC gearmotor was directly mounted on the hardhat , using the hardhat as a resonant speaker :-) I couldnt hear a thing besides the motor running :-) Since I was always moving, so did the antenna. A fun project tho.

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

balajivan1995 — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 11:58:05 GMT

Homepage Banner looks good!

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

DAB — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 18:59:00 GMT

Well done everyone.

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

Christopher678 — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 16:23:52 GMT

Congratulations to all

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

amgalbu — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 06:51:23 GMT

congratulations taifur and dougw ! well done!

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

taifur — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 03:34:20 GMT

Thank you and Congratulations dougw . I am eagerly waiting for the Bike. Let's see when it arrives.

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

taifur — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 03:28:31 GMT

Thank you kmikemoo

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

dougw — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 19:02:41 GMT

Congratulations taifur on a great project and all other participants for their excellent projects. I am absolutely stoked about the prize, particularly because the folding bike is the best prize in my circumstances. Thanks to the judges for wading through the projects expeditiously and not keeping us in suspense. ☺

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

kmikemoo — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 17:32:26 GMT

Congratulations taifur ! I love how practical your project is. Well done.

Congratulations dougw ! Fantastic projects.

RE: Winners Announcement – Start A Movement Design Challenge

svanderwolf — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 10:33:42 GMT

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all that participated. We enjoyed seeing all the work progressing throughout the challenge. Well done!

The Wrap-Up – Start A Movement Design Challenge

JoRatcliffe — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 16:45:36 GMT

Hi everyone, I hope you have had a good week. I will be announcing our Design Challenge winners on Monday but ahead of that I wanted to share a wrap-up of everyone’s hard work over the past weeks and months.

Firstly, congratulations again to everyone who took part in the Start A Movement Design Challenge. It has been amazing to see initial ideas turn into fully-functioning projects. Everyone has really pushed to make the most of the kit, overcome different challenges, bring their plans to life, and support their fellow Challengers.

So, let’s just take a moment to appreciate all the work that everyone has put in. I’ve written a short summary of each project in the group and linked over to the full project or the latest update whenever I can. Just in case if you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out each of these in full :) In no particular order, let’s kick off with…

Rsc – Satellite Tracking Ham Radio Antenna Rotator

Rsc has worked on several different antenna rotor control systems for ham radio and used the kit from this challenge to make a mini antenna rotor that interfaces with satellite tracking software and automatically points a direction antenna at a chosen satellite. Take a look!

RParkerE – Pick N Place Machine

RParkerE wanted to build an affordable, small scale, pick and place machine that has a customizable frame which could be taken by hobbyists to build and use themselves. An Nvidia Jetson Nana connected to a Pi Camera will enable object recognition and detection as well as ensuring parts are properly aligned. They have the motor controls and vision system working and hope to soon integrate these together and start testing.

dougw – Connector Tester and Thread Tapping Machines

Dougw first created a connector and cable tester system that can perform cycle testing on connectors to determine their wear characteristics by mechanically connecting and disconnecting connectors repeatedly and accurately until failures start to occur. Then, a thread tapping machine was created to save time and tedious thread tapping activity when 3D printing. The builds required using two, precisely synchronized stepper motors so that the tap screws into a hole without applying any axial force to the threads. Very cool and well worth watching the video demonstrating this taking place!

taifur – Accessible Sewing Machine

This is an assistive tech project to enable someone who cannot use a sewing machine with a standard foot pedal to instead control it using one of their hands. Instead, a flex sensor fitted to a finger with 3D-printed rings controls the stepper motor which turns and presses a wedge onto the pedal - speeding up, slowing down or stopping the sewing machine as needed. Have a watch of the demo video if you haven’t already, it is great seeing it all in action.

fyaocn – RangeDetect Rover

The rover is capable of avoiding obstacles and changing direction to find a path forwards to make its way from one place to another. Very cool project and the sensors on the front really give it that ‘Mars Rover’ look.

crisdeodates – Automated Star Tracker

Speaking of other planets, crisdeodates looked to the skies and used the kit to build an automated star-tracking module, consisting of a pan-and-tilt system that can accurately focus a telescope to the right azimuth and elevation of a known heavenly body. I’ve been informed a project post will be coming soon including more detail on their build.

Gough Lui – Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) by Stepper-Control of a Variac

Using the kit, Gough Lui made an Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) by creating a computer-controlled adaptation of an old Yamabishi electric Variac, attaching the stepper motor on top via a 3D-printed ‘hat’. A fantastic project which was achieved in spite of challenges and includes really neat videos and thermal imagery for you. If you haven’t already, definitely make sure you check this out.

amgalbu – Octoscope

For this project, amgalbu mounted a wireless camera on a slip ring driven by the stepper motor and controlled by the TMC5272 controller, over and around a 3D printer. The integrated camera provides a 360-degrees view of objects as they are being printed. Take a look at the full project post for plenty of references and links on how they accomplished this :)

pandoramc – Metallurgical Image Acquisition Stage Design

Pandoramc created a mobile stage for XY movements in a metallurgical microscope for capturing high-quality images. It consists of a one axis stage controlled by the TMCL-IDE for displacement and the camera software for acquisition. Check out the full project post for images galore, videos and to see how they incorporated a second stepper motor.

sunnyiut – MicroDose-Efficient Syringe Pump for Controlled Fluid Delivery

Infusion pumps are critical for administering precise amounts of medication or fluids but purchasing them can be cost-prohibitive for rural and low-resource healthcare settings. Sunnyiut aimed to create a low-cost, simplified, easy-to-use version of a syringe pump.

meera_hussien – Smart Conveyor Belt for Sorting System
meera_hussien began working on a small-scale, modular replica of an industrial conveyor belt system, using IR sensors to detect objects on the conveyor and diverting them into designated bins with servos.

vpvypham1994 – VitalTrack: Adaptive Radar-Based Health Monitoring System

Vpvypham1994 started developing a compact radar system for vital sign tracking, utilizing the TMC5272 motor control technology to ensure precise radar movement for continuous and uninterrupted measurements, using a 9V battery for enhanced portability.

mariodl99

mariodl99 developed a 3D-printed exoskeleton assisted device for individuals, inspired by other exoskeletons that rely on myoelectric sensors. Be sure to check out the videos included in this project summary!

So there we are! I’ve done my best to provide a wrap-up of as many projects as possible but I’m conscious that some folks are still working on theirs which is amazing. If I have missed the latest update on your work, DM me and I’ll be happy to update this post :)

A big congratulations again to all of our Challengers. It won’t be long until the announcement of our prize-winners. Have a great weekend!

RE: The Wrap-Up – Start A Movement Design Challenge

maxpowerr — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 17:46:20 GMT

Very cool projects, I took note of some ideas.

RE: The Wrap-Up – Start A Movement Design Challenge

DAB — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 21:47:21 GMT

Great projects, I look forward to seeing the results.

RE: The Wrap-Up – Start A Movement Design Challenge

svanderwolf — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 16:58:08 GMT

Thanks to everyone for participating in this challenge. Amazing work!

RE: Don't forget to get your final updates in before the deadline! (and Happy New Year!)

JoRatcliffe — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 16:36:48 GMT

Hi there, hope everyone has had a good week. With the Design Challenge over, I just wanted to say very well done to all our Challengers who took part, it's been amazing seeing everyone's projects come to life and I know there have indeed been challenges along the way for many of you. Plus, a thank you to everyone who's liked, commented, and got involved in the discussions on this Design Challenge.

I'll be doing a wrap-up post of all our projects next week. Even though the competition itself is over, I will make sure to include any additional progress updates which are added over the weekend so your hard work can be appreciated by everyone. Have a great weekend!

Don't forget to get your final updates in before the deadline! (and Happy New Year!)

JoRatcliffe — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:41:45 GMT

Happy new year, everyone!

Projects are due at the end of the day today, 6th January, so don't forget to get your final updates in [emoticon:44a8a53ad3364ea78a16c5a3229f75bb]

As my colleague [mention:e533a280d27446f88d5eca64e725a4fb:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] said in a previous thread here, when you are doing your final write-ups you are completely free to message me and clarify what you have posted and where, if needed.