Week 3: Stepper Up

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Continuing with last week, we thought of new ideas on how to push the face through the Lycra sheet. We decided to go with a linear actuator (Figure 1). We are hoping that this is more easy to control and build than a crank or screw mechanism. We spent a lot of time looking up different builds, making it easy to build and keeping cost down. Once we finalized the idea and researched the parts, we ordered what we needed. While many of us were working on the linear actuator, Nick Locantore started working with the Arduino, getting an understanding of how to use it for later. Along with this, we started testing the motors and servos provided. We are provided with small DC motors, which do not provide enough power to do what we need. After talking with the professor, he decided he would by some stepper motors for the class (NEMA17 Stepper motor 1.8 degrees step / 4.8 kg/cm). These stepper motors will hopefully provide us with enough power, we will have to test them once we have them.

Figure 1: The linear actuator design we decided to build. Source - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGCxUjjvIBk, video posted by user Arthur Guy.

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