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When fixing a small object there isn’t any problem, you just drill a hole of the diameter of the axis of the Stepper-Motor and fix it with hot glue or instant glue. BUT, when it comes to make rotating larger objects it will become unstable!! We need then also a larger support plate to fix the object. I used two techniques, one with a copper-plate of 0.8 mm (was still in my cellar for 30 years…) and/or a single-sided copper-Epoxy plate. Copper-plates are expensive and single-sided copper-Epoxy plates are on a less expensive price. They are about 0.65-1€/piece on Amazon.
For our Xmas project we will use a plastic star with LEDs which will get fixed the following way, check below please.
Single-sided Copper-Epoxy plate
Single-sided Copper-Epoxy plate
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Single-sided Copper-Epoxy plate
Single-sided Copper-Epoxy plate
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Mounting and fixing of the Stepper-Motor
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Mounting and fixing of an object
Support for Xmas decoration
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Support for Xmas decoration
Support for Xmas decoration
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Support for Xmas decoration
Support for Xmas decoration
Click image, please, to enlarge.
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As Xmas star I used one from Amazon, please check below:
Once the Xmas Star fixed together with the Stepper-Motor, cabled and the the Code tested, WE fix our LED matrix with hot-glue, cabling it and running the Code for a last test:
Rotating Xmas Star with Stepper-Motor and Scrolling Text with LED Matrix
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Please, check above image (photo) where you will see the How-To to implement on an easy wiring way the components.
More explanations to come, stay tuned…
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L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure)..
The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
Make objects rotating with a Stepper-Motor | Tips and Tricks
Well, in a previous tutorial <===> https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2018/09/19/halloween-project-with-skull-arduino-blinking-leds-and-scrolling-eyes-maker-makered-makerspaces/ <===> we created a Halloween Skull and it was fix, didn’t rotate. Fun? YES, BUT more fun when it is rotating by using a Stepper-Motor; looks then as it would observe, control the space around it 😉 And it is very easy to create, only a Stepper-Motor, an Arduino NANO and a bit Code; the rest is a bit manual work to fix mechanically the motor. And with the right tools the mechanical work is a piece of cake 😉. We will discuss ONLY the mechanical works and for the the code (Sketch) for the Arduino, please look at the following tutorial:
When fixing a small object there isn’t any problem, you just drill a hole of the diameter of the axis of the Stepper-Motor and fix it with hot glue or instant glue. BUT, when it comes to make rotating larger objects it will become unstable!! We need then also a larger support plate to fix the object. I used two techniques, one with a copper-plate of 0.8 mm (was still in my cellar for 30 years…) and/or a single-sided copper-Epoxy plate. Copper-plates are expensive and single-sided copper-Epoxy plates are on a less expensive price. They are about 0.65-1€/piece on Amazon.
First of all chose on what material you would like to fix the Stepper-Motor: this could be metal, plastic, cardboard or wood. As I like recycling, I ask in the Supermarket to get an empty wooden wine box. The Supermarket sometimes opens a six-pack of wine bottles in a wooden case (box) and they are happy NOT to recycle it themselves 😉 Here below an example for a Halloween project…
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Wooden box front view
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Wooden box rear view
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Mounting and fixing of the Stepper-Motor
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Mounting and fixing of an object
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Skull glued on copperplate with Stepper-Motor
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Skull is fixed on the wooden box – happy-Halloween-rotating-skull
Click image, please, to enlarge.
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Desription:
Drill a hole with a 6 mm drill in your support, then use the 32 mm Step-Drill to make the hole diameter fit to the diameter of the Stepper-Motor. Fix the Stepper-Motor. I used a copper-plate for having a large surface to fix the chosen rotating object. The axis from the Stepper-Motor is made from brass and that fits very well with copper for soldering them together. For the soldering you need an 80 Watt solder iron with a temperature of 430° C (806° F). Before you start soldering: clean the copper-plate, take off the patina first!! Same step for the single-sided Copper-Epoxy plate!!
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Single-sided Copper-Epoxy plate
Single-sided Copper-Epoxy plate
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Single-sided Copper-Epoxy plate
Single-sided Copper-Epoxy plate
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Mounting and fixing of the Stepper-Motor
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Mounting and fixing of an object
Support for Xmas decoration
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Support for Xmas decoration
Support for Xmas decoration
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Support for Xmas decoration
Support for Xmas decoration
Click image, please, to enlarge.
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Desription:
Above you see an example for a Xmas project, tutorial will follow soon, stay tuned 😉
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L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure)..
The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
Xmas Star with NeoPixels WS2812B made from cardboard
Soon there will be Christmas and decorations are getting put around the house worldwide as it is tradition since ages to do so. That’s also the time for tinkerers, makers to GET some new ideas. Well, I thought on a project which everybody could do without having a 3D-Printer NOR a Laser cutter at home and not having access to them on other places. SO, I tried out to create a Xmas-Star from cardboard using an Arduino UNO and Neopixels…
I recently bought 1 Meter of Neopixels WS2812B with 60 LEDs and tried it out while wife was looking at it and she told me if that wouldn’t be an idea for making a Christmas-Decoration, e.g. a star. I took that challenge and a day later it was working, LOL 😉 I used a 3,5 mm thick cardboard from a red wine box which was stable enough to create the project.
The measures are 160 mm x 160 mm and there are 8 segments with an angle of 45° (8 x 45 = 360°). This is quiet easy to draw on cardboard… Once the lines drawn, up from the middle line draw a 1 cm to the left and to the right so that it makes a 2 cm width of each segment. On the middle cut out a square hole from 1,6 cm. That is the perfect outfit for the Christmas-Star. Cut it out with a sharp cutter and paint it with the color of your choice, I used green… NOW take the 1 meter long ribbon and cut off 8 x 4 LEDs. THEN take off the protection paper from the Neopixels WS2812B ribbon and glue them on the cardboard, see PIC please.
Find below, please, a drawing with the dimensions and where to cut out:
You may have a look on this Tutorial to know a bit more about the handling of Neopixel LEDS, please:
The project itself by cabling is actually VERY easy, ONLY 3 wires, the MOST work is on the mechanical part by cutting the cardboard, painting, soldering the Neopixels WS2812B strip and to put everything into a box with the necessary parts, while drilling, etc. WE will see this in detail by following PICS… But first let us solder and interconnecting the 8 x 4 Neopixels LEDs strips, you need to follow the arrows on the strips to connect each of the 8 x 4 LED strips, thus meaning: see PICs please:
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Please have a look on how this will look in our project; we use color flat cable to make the connections.
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Back side view of the Xmas star: click image, please, to enlarge.
The flat cable will get fixed with hot-glue on the cardboard.
Front side view of the Xmas star: click image, please, to enlarge.
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Once the 8 x 4 LED strips are interconnected, you can connect the other 28 LEDs to the point marked with “START” and connect them to the ARDUINO UNO board through a screw terminal to make the first tests.Please check the tutorial below with the code for the How-To:
IF everything is working, hopefully, we can go for the integration of the components into a housing. TIP: prepare the ARDUINO UNO (NANO) already with the code uploaded and test after each 4 LED strips connected to make sure it will work!! it’s BETTER to invest time for NOT later having trouble and NOT knowing from where the fault comes 😉
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Housing (case) for Xmas Star
Click image, please, to enlarge
Housing (case) for Xmas Star
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Housing (case) for Xmas Star
Housing (case) for Xmas Star
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Soldering inside the housing (case) for Xmas star
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Soldering inside the housing (case) for Xmas star
Click image, please, to enlarge.
Well, you have seen NOW the different mechanical steps and the soldering inside the housing, that’s the preparation, now we have to connect as well the Xmas star to the Arduino… We will use a 3 x 0.75 mm² cable to do so, find below, please, some PICs which show you the How-To, as well as the components with links to purchase them (I used AMAZON.DE), feel FREE to purchase them where you want:
L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure). L’auteur était aussi gagnant d’un concours en électronique en 1979 ( Pays germaniques ) et voyait son projet publié dans le magazine électronique “ELO”.
The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
The author was also a winner of an electronics contest (Germanic countries) in 1979 and got his project published in the “Electronics Magazine ELO”.
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Keywords necessary for me to create this blog post: Arduino UNO R3, Arduino NANO, UNO R3 Project, Xmas Star, WM2812B RGB LEDs, Heatshrinking-Tube, coding, learning to learn, learning by doing,
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