Where to find small steppingmotors for DIY instruments?

[Jan737]

Hi,

I like to build my own OH 737 instruments with steppermotors.
Servo's are not smooth enough and give a lot of noise when moving.

I'm looking for small motors like the one Flight illusion is using, but they are hard to find.
Anybody an idea?

Best regards

Jan Geurtsen

[skino]

Maybe the motors from old floppy or CD Drive?

[kermit]

Hi Jan
Try Quartell Pynacker
greetz

[IanH1960]

Hi,

I've bought steppers from this company without problems. I don't know if their smallest motor is too big for you.

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Stepper-Motors/Stepper-Motors

Ian

[Perik]

Hello Jan

Go to the nearest dump for printers. Look for any Laserprinter from HP, Canon etc.
Usually you will find 3 - 6 steppers inside and a lot of other nice stuff - like gears, springs,
DC motors, clutches, solenoids etc. Scanner devices do also have some steppers.
In the beginning of my project I ripped apart approx. 10 printers and I now have a huge
stack of misc. parts.:D

[twisted8]

I used these from ebay. They worked good. Small and cheap.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Miniature-Stepper-Motor-5V-Driver-Circuit-Schematic_W0QQitemZ330269997954QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4ce5a03b82

seller store
http://stores.ebay.com/MPS-Electric

[Jan737]

I used these from ebay. They worked good. Small and cheap.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Miniature-Stepper-Motor-5V-Driver-Circuit-Schematic_W0QQitemZ330269997954QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4ce5a03b82

seller store
http://stores.ebay.com/MPS-Electric


Hi thanks

there are 20 steps pro rev. that means 18 degrees/step.
Will that work for an accurate instrument?

Jan

[twisted8]

No problem!
It depends on the gears you use. Check out my video. I don't think is the smoothest but it's good enough for now. Eventually I'd probably try to redo it with a higher ratio gear. I think I have something like 1:10 so that's 180 at half steps gives me 360
maybe 1:20 would be best.

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[cscotthendry]

Hi,

I like to build my own OH 737 instruments with steppermotors.
Servo's are not smooth enough and give a lot of noise when moving.

I'm looking for small motors like the one Flight illusion is using, but they are hard to find.
Anybody an idea?

Best regards

Jan Geurtsen

Also, have a look at these

http://www.futurlec.com.au/StepperMotors.jsp

I collected a lot of steppers from old printers and floppies as other have suggested, but then went and bought a bunch of these small steppers. The reason being, that all the salvaged steppers were different from each other so every gauge was a one-off different design. If you have a bunch of steppers the same it's easier to do one design for a set of gauges and make all the parts together.

[Jan737]

Thanks guys, this helps a lot


Jan

[Steve Andrew]

Hi

These steppers should be small enough and most are 1.8 deg/step: www.pololu.com/catalog/category/87

A very good range of small plastic gears can be found at www.gizmoszone.com/shopping/agora.cgi?

Hope this helps..

Best regards... Steve

[jaspar]

Twisted8
thats a smooth running wet compass.
im looking to start learning to build some instruments myself and learn how to interface and program for them.

looking to start simple with a compass ASI and N2 tach meter all based on stepper motors.

do you have any tutorials or drawings for your compass that you are willing to share with us.( i already have mike powels book for insperation )

[twisted8]

Thank you! I'll put more info together but here is basics.
Parts needed:
- 1 Opencockpits stepper motor USB card (http://www.opencockpits.com/catalog/stepper-motors-card-p-49.html)
- 1 Small Stepper Motor
- 1 Optical Sensor (HOA2001-001 (http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?id=10M5207&Ntt=HOA2001-001))
- 1 set of gears (i used these (http://www.speedierc.com/Traxxas_2053_p/tra2053.htm))
- Plexiglass, spacers, a rod and bolts

I used the opencockpits stepper motor cards so that takes care of all the electronics. As far as the mechanical part I used 3 layers of plexi glass being held together with spacers. I have a small gear attached to stepper motor and a bigger gear with a rod attached going all the way down to the wet compass (or to your gauge needle). The picture should explan it better. On the base part I made a simple needle out of thin plastic to trigger the optic sensor (not visible on the picture), this is required with the opencockpit cards. When the rod spins, it spins the needle that trigges the sensor.
The only hard part is aligning the gears so they move smoothly, but it just basic meassurements and drilling the right holes.
http://www.mycockpit.org/photopost/data/536/SI851850.JPG



This is the system for the flaps gauge, same thing but flipped around. Here you can see how the optical sensor works
http://www.mycockpit.org/photopost/data/536/photo.jpg


Hope this helps!

[jaspar]

thanks twisted8
just looked up the opencockpits board and it looks like you just pointed me to the place to solve my biggest headache. was not looking forward to having to prototype PCB's for mike powell's circuits. so it looks like i'll gow with the mechanical assy from mikes book but use OC stepper and servo cards for the interfacing.

jaspar

[twisted8]

Not a problem, I agree that's the way to go!