11-23-2010, 10:28 PM
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 | | | Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA
Posts: 756
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Teaching my 13yo 'trons: He built a Linistepper as his first project! | |
So I'm proud (twice) because my 13 year old son, with ONE lesson, ONE practice board, and a really cheap Chinese soldering iron, built a /working/ Linistepper motor driver! LOL... I got a great kid AND a great driver!
It was a bit touch and go at the end, but after I helped him correct a couple of resistors he had soldered in the wrong places, it fired up and ran just fine driving the big axis on my little CNC table at 2 amps and 12 volts. I'm going to double it up to 24 soon, but for now, it hauls the table around nicely and the drivers are just warm with the CPU fan cooler I helped him drill and tap.
Notice the goggles, safety first right? I told him exactly how I figured he would burn himself when he started, which is how I did it when I started soldering: Drop the iron and catch it on the hot end. I have a permanent scar from that. I figured for sure he was going to get hurt, because his hand/eye coordination is not one of his strong points... Turns out he is so klutzy he never even tried to catch the iron when he dropped it! His fine motor problems actually worked /for/ him on that! LOL...
Now I just need to figure out a way to teach him more about how it works. The theory of operation is posted on the site, along with the schematic and code, but it's a bit more complex than what he can manage at this point. He knows logic gates, basic electronics (resistors, batteries, transistors), but not so much power drive, current sensing / regulation, etc... and programming is right out. I'm looking for a good but simple tutorial on drive electronics, if anyone knows of one.
Anyway, just had to share and I figured you all would appreciate it more than my (very non-technical) family. |
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