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Posts Tagged ‘Arduino’

Soldering up the speed controller board

Posted by Henrique Monnerat on May 15th, 2009

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Last weekend I started building the Velleman K8004 DC to pulse Width Modulator which will act as the speed controller board for the throttle and the electric motor for the first test model. It’s my first soldered circuit board! I am very happy with =) It was easy an fun to do it, kind of “meditational” also. My soldering skills dated back to 1995 when I was building R/C Cars with my Grand father…so before starting the soldering I watched this really helpful film from the Make guys, a video tutorial on soldering, so good!

Finished circuit board with external potentiometer for the throttle

Finished circuit board with external potentiometer for the throttle

My goal is to use Arduino for controlling of the motor, to stay open source, but I still don’t know much about it so I decided to start with the Velleman board instead. I don’t know if it functions yet, but I just wanted to post the pictures of the process here, more updates soon.

First sketch of a test model for the electronics

Posted by Henrique Monnerat on April 15th, 2009

Here are my quick thoughts on paper, for a scale model, a platform to understand the electronics of a basic electric vehicle. Even at a small scale, working on the main components will make a lot of the terms and specifications of the electronics more clear to understand.  My goal with this exercise will be to build from scratch the electronics needed to accelerate the motor when a potentiometer is turned. For that I will choose one of the tiny motors Kees have given me.

For the controller, Kees also suggested me to use a building kit like the DC to pulse modulator K8004 from Velleman. But I know that the open source boards from Arduino could also do the job, i just don’t have clue which one of them. Does Anyone one know the Arduino board model that could be indicated for controlling this little model I want to build?

In order to hold everything together, I am thinking of making a little frame resembling a frame of a motorcycle, with the rear wheel turning. The frame shall be cnc lasered from a 2mm thick plexiglass/metal/wood sheet of about 200 by 300 milimeters (the exact measurements may vary slightly from that)

Any company willing to sponsor the laser cut parts?