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  • Author Author: tariq.ahmad
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Project14 | Winners Announcement: Motor Projects that Set the World in Motion!

tariq.ahmad

Congratulations to  for Duratool Cabinet Storage Box Upgrade!   You are the grand prize winner and you win a $200 shopping cart.   

Congratulations to  for Wheels of Illusion - A hypnotic nomad robot,   for Creating a cable Supported and Driven Camera with 3D Printing and a GoPro - Cablecam , and  for Pulse Width Modulation a Speed Equalizer!   You are the first place winners and a $100 shopping cart.

The World in Motion competition challenged you to do any project that involves a motor and some type of mechanical motion.   Your project could involve anything that causes things to move or shake such as ones that use servo motors, stepper motors, vibration motors, solenoids, mechatronics, levers, and linkages.   You were free to use whatever components you like to build the project.    This was a great opportunity to explore motors and think about how they convert electrical energy into mechanical energy,  while having fun in the process. 

Special thanks to our community judges:   ,   , and !

Without further ado here are your winners...

Grand Prize:

Duratool Cabinet Storage Box Upgrade by 

won a Duratool Storage Kit during a giveaway and decided that it was time to upgrade it by adding an ethernet connected device which automatically opens boxes based on searched parts. The project is built using a mechanical building set, two motors, one solenoid, Renesas EK-RA6M4 devboard featuring Renesas microcontroller with Ethernet connectivity, two ST VL53L0X time of flight sensors, custom Arduino shield designed by me, FreeRTOS based firmware enabling controlling device over ethernet and simple component database PC application allowing to automatically open box containing searched part. Device operates in a way that move in horizontal and vertical direction using electromotors and use solenoid for pushing storage cabinet from the back. This cause storage box to open.  

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First Place Winners:

Wheels of Illusion - A hypnotic nomad robot by 

This Raspberry Pi Pico robot is built with subtle and not so subtle optical effects. The rear wheels spin opposite the direction of travel. The tires have hubcaps with the "Twilight Zone Spiral of Madness" to make them appear off center. The spiral on the right hand side will make you really dizzy if you stare at it for long and then look away. The black & white wheel (Benham's Disc) on the back will show colors when it rotates at the proper speed, which fixed in the code, found by experiments using a power supply. A rotating warning beacon spins and lights when the robot is moving forward. For motional content, the Wheels of Illusion has qty 4 servos and 4 DC motors controlled  by a Raspberry Pi Pico. The control is by bumper switches on the front, and a ping sensor on the rear. All my gear motors on hand have different gear ratios and each optical pattern were effective at different speeds. Each motor was run with a power supply to find their best sweet spot rpm and running volts. The value was noted, and set into the PWM duty, tweaked a bit while running on battery. Python makes the PWM really easy.

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Creating a cable Supported and Driven Camera with 3D Printing and a GoPro - Cablecam by 

For this project14,  built a camera that travels along a cable and take videos using a first edition GoPro. The starting point is the TMC2300-IOT-REF board, that will be used to drive the motor that makes the camera move along a rope. There's a 3D-printed base to host all the components,  a stepper motor, and two pulleys to support the weight and stabilize the whole assembly as it moves along the rope. A servo is added to make an action cam rotate while the Cablecam moves. A battery holder is glued on the back. There's a TMC2300 board and all the components are connected.  

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Pulse Width Modulation a Speed Equalizer by 

Finally,  used this Project14 to document a project that he is working on.  As a hobby he creates animation in model railroad layouts.  His plan is to use PWM to control the speed of the train.  The speed and direction of a Direct Control (DC) HO scale model train locomotive is determined by the voltage level and polarity applied to the tracks. The tracks act as the conductor to the locomotive motor. Increasing the voltage, the locomotive goes faster, decreasing the voltage, and the locomotive goes slower. The polarity of the voltage applied to the track sends the locomotive forward or backward. Pulse width modulation (PWM) is a modulation technique that generates variable-width pulses that can be used to control the amplitude of an analog signal. The average value of the analog signal fed to the load can be controlled by adjusting the pulse width of the signal being delivered to a controller. The controller output is on more of the time for a longer pulse width and off more of the time for a short pulse width.  Follow along with this project to learn a little about PWM, examine the bill of materials for a practical design application, and see the technique in action on an HO scale model train locomotive.

 

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