Computerized Coil Winder Takes The Tedium Out Of Actuators

Anyone who’s ever constructed their very own motors is aware of how tedious winding the coils quickly turns into; in [Larry]’s case, the problem was even worse. He’s constructing his personal flip-dot matrix show, and every dot makes use of two electromagnetic coils to flip a magnet within the dot. Rather than wind every of those by hand, due to this fact, he constructed his personal coil-winding machine.

The coil winder makes use of two stepper motors: one to wind wire onto the bobbin, and one to maneuver the wire information carriage backwards and forwards, distributing the wire evenly throughout the bobbin. The bobbin is held in place by a retainer, which doubles as a tie level for the tip of the wire. The spool of wire rotates on a pair of bearings, and the wire is fed between two items of froth to supply adjustable rigidity. The housing is generally 3D-printed, with some metallic rods, bearings, and belt drives fleshing out the construction. On the electronics facet, a Teensy controls the winder, with an OLED show and a rotary encoder for management. Before starting on a coil, it houses the information carriage towards an end-stop swap, then winds on layers, conserving observe of the variety of layers utilized.

We’ve seen a number of coil winders right here in the past, together with a 3D printer tailored to winding stators. For extra on this winder’s software, take a look at [Larry]’s flip-dot design.