Collaborate Disseminate
One of the best things to come from the growing drone industry is the development of compact and powerful brushless motors. We’ve seen several multi-rotors capable of carrying a human, but electric helicopters are rare. [OskarRDA] decided to experiment with …read more
Continue reading Manned Electric Helicopter With 7 Tail Rotors
It may have been designed for a sewing machine, but [Haris Andrianakis] found his imported DC brushed motor was more than up to the challenge of powering his mini lathe. Of course there’s always room for improvement, so he set …read more
Continue reading Motor Controller Reverse Engineering Releases Smoke
The convergence of mechanics and electronics in robotics brings with it a lot of challenges. Thanks to 3D printing and low cost components, it’s possible to quickly and easily experiment with a variety of robotics mechanism for various use cases. [Paul Gould] has been doing exactly this, and is giving …read more
Continue reading Ten Robot Mechanisms For Your Design Toolbox
Brushless motors can offer impressive torque-to-size ratios, and when combined with complex drive control and sensor feedback, exciting things become possible that expand the usual ideas of what motors can accomplish. For example, to use a DC motor in a robot leg, one might expect to need a gearbox, a …read more
Continue reading How To Improve a Smart Motor? Make It Bigger!
It used to be a staple of junior high physics class to build some sort of motor with paperclips or wire. A coil creates a magnetic field that makes the rotor move. In the process of moving, brushes that connect the coil to the rest of the circuit will reverse …read more
Continue reading Take a 3D Printed Brushless Motor Demo for a Spin
If you need to drill metal in tight places, the magnetic drill press, or mag drill is your BFF. The idea here is that a drill press with an electromagnetic base can go anywhere, and even drill horizontally if need be. If you don’t need to use one often, but …read more
Continue reading Hoverboard Grows Up, Becomes Magnetic Drill Press
The humble automotive alternator hides an interesting secret. Known as the part that converts power from internal combustion into the electricity needed to run everything else, they can also themselves be used as an electric motor.
These devices almost always take the form of a 3-phase alternator with the magnetic …read more
Continue reading Car Alternators Make Great Electric Motors; Here’s How
[Ben Katz] posted about bringing the Mini Cheetah (center, above) robot to the 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) held in Montréal, where it shared the floor with others for a workshop focusing on real-world deployment of legged robots. Those of you who haven’t been keeping up with …read more
Continue reading Watch Legged Robot Run Circles Around Its Bigger Brethren
These days, brushless motors are the go-to for applications requiring high power in a compact package. It’s possible to buy motors in all manner of different configurations off the shelf, and the range available is only getting better. However, sometimes getting something truly optimal requires a bit of customization. With …read more
Continue reading Testing Brushless Motors With A Little Help From The ESC
For something basic like a brushed DC motor, speed control can be quite simple, and powering up the motor is a simple matter of just applying voltage. Brushless motors are much more demanding in their requirements however, and won’t spin unless driven just right. [Electronoobs] has been exploring the …read more