Inspired from my pcb motor project, this project is aimed to make a very thin low-torque linear pcb actuator.
The coils of this motors are made from 5/5mil coreless pcb windings.A 3d-printed rig with magnets is used to slide across the pcb and is actuated by the winding's magnetic field.
All design files for this project are also open source.
Thank you oshpark.com for supporting this project.
RAR Archive - 864.30 kB - 06/11/2018 at 20:23
Carl Bugeja • 08/09/2018 at 21:20 • 0 comments
In this video, I have tested my Flexible PCB actuator and also compared it to my Linear PCB Motor which has the same dimensions but different layer count.
The measured data is shown bellow:
The flex PCB has half the turns, so its resistance is lower. This means that more current can pass through it, so obviously it gets a little hotter. This means that this flexible pcb actuator can be used with lower voltages. The thin dielectric of this pcb also improves the coupling of the magnetic field.
Carl Bugeja • 07/24/2018 at 17:48 • 0 comments
Ok so lets be honest. I did not expected this thing to work. I was afraid that its resistance is going to be too small that it will over heat. But it actually didn't.
The pcb is dual layer and is 0.13mm thick. Although it only has 70 turns, the thin dielectric will improve the coupling. The flex PCB is made from a polyimide material which is highly resistant to heat, which makes the surface barely hot.
In the video I am driving with a 5V voltage supply and it is drawing around 600mA.
Comparison with the Linear PCB Motor prototype:
Carl Bugeja • 07/09/2018 at 16:56 • 0 comments
I have just ordered a flexible pcb prototype for this project!
The pcb is dual layer and is 0.13mm thick. Although the number of turns have now reduced to 70, the thin dielectric will improve the coupling.
If this works it could open a whole other dimension of applications.
Carl Bugeja • 06/27/2018 at 23:02 • 0 comments
Carl Bugeja • 06/27/2018 at 21:58 • 0 comments
Ok so I had to make some modifications to the slider design. The major issue was that I did not leave enough clearance for the pcb, so the slider was getting stuck in some regions.
The second prototype of the slider has less friction and houses a larger rectangular magnet.
Carl Bugeja • 06/26/2018 at 20:22 • 0 comments
Today i have ordered some new test boards with a total of 9 pcb coils. These have different turns, to try and find the best size-to-strength ratio. Three of these coils also have a 5mm diameter hole in the middle to test them with an iron core.
Carl Bugeja • 06/16/2018 at 16:57 • 0 comments
The magnetic field of the windings need to be a little stronger but the concept seems to be working. The idea is to have ferrofluid dancing around from a simple PCB. This is obviously just a concept but with more windings and perhaps with a core in the middle of these printed windings, it can be possible. (Also, I need to find a way not to stain the container with the ferrofluid .. its a little messy)
Since this does not actually have to do with the Linear PCB motor (although same pcb), I have set up a different project page for this:
Carl Bugeja • 06/16/2018 at 11:54 • 0 comments
The first prototype of my Linear PCB motor has 12 coils. To simplify the electronics i have connected these in sets of 3, each having 4 coils in parallel for maximum current, and then in a delta configuration.
I am then using the STSPIN230 3-phase driver(available on the X-NUCLEO-IHM11M1 dev board) and controlling it with a DSPIC33EP128MC202-I/SP microcontroller.
Carl Bugeja • 06/14/2018 at 22:35 • 0 comments
The pcb coils have a total a 140 turns on 4-layers. These are creating a total resistance of 31.9ohms.
This is the current-voltage curve of an individual coil:
Carl Bugeja • 06/12/2018 at 00:18 • 0 comments
I accidentally made magnets jump when testing my Linear PCB Motor PCBs. This happened when I placed a small spherical neodymium magnet in the middle of the coil and alternating its magnetic field.
Log In/Sign up to comment
Create an account to leave a comment.Already have an account?Log In.
tconnelly15 wrote 06/18/2019 at 16:08
Your creativity is exciting. Can the circuits be printed on a silicone membrane? Stretching too much would break the circuit, of course. However, if stretching is kept to a minimum, would we get little mounds instead of ripples?
Are you sure?yes | no
jwanga wrote 12/27/2018 at 05:45
Thank you Carl Bugeja for this amazing project! However, Im getting the following when i attempt to upload the gerbers to OSH Park. Is it just asking me to convert pcb1.g1 ->pcb1.g2l and pcb1.g2 ->pcb1.g3l ? :
Warning (non-critical)
Detected multiple internal layer 1 layers. Renaming or deleting may be required. pcb1.g2 pcb1.g1.
Failure (critical)
Sorry, we couldn't determine internal layer order. Please rename to G2L and G3L.
Rodolfo wrote 11/28/2018 at 15:53
This is an exciting project and I am really happy to see the progress from the initial motor to this outstanding actuator.
As I am in China, I tried to proctor it in a local PCB factory. In half dozen of them already, they tell me that this is not easy to manufacture. The main reason is that the shape of the tracks cannot be done by their machines.
I wonder if anyone else went through this struggle and anyone knows what’s a plausible explanation.
sean9898 wrote 11/19/2018 at 00:15
are the middle layers of the 4 layer PCB motor included in the Gerber files? I did not see them(I am new at this so I apologize if this is a stupid question)
K.C. Lee wrote 06/15/2018 at 01:46
Have you consider making the coils rectangular shape so that they can be closer to the adjacent one and also make better use of space?
Carl Bugeja wrote 06/16/2018 at 11:35
Hi! My initial design was with rectangular coils but you can get more turns with circular coils rather then squarish coils.
K.C. Lee wrote 06/16/2018 at 14:01
If you take a cross section along the diameter of a circular coil, then stretch the cross-section out horizontally. i.e. replace each of the short tracks in the intersection with a much longer one. Think of it as an expandable table.
The number of tracks (hence the number of turns) should remain the same. It is not like the tract to track spacing has changed. Use 90 degrees or 45 degrees corners.
JuPrgn wrote 06/12/2018 at 21:23
Do you plan to use also bottom coils to add intermediate steps and increase resolution while reducing dumping ?
cubeberg wrote 06/12/2018 at 12:53
I'd suggest SMD pads on the bottom for your wires - that will help avoid shorts on the top of the PCBs. Cool project so far though!
Michael R Colton wrote 06/12/2018 at 00:00
You might be able to do something similar to how digital calipers work on the same PCB, that would give you excellent positional feedback to the coil driver, allowing very precise and repeatable movements.
Also, are you driving the coils individually, or in groups. You'd probably only need three sets of c
