So, the year is ending and I have a little progress to show. It's like 10 step forward, 9 backward… Anyhow:

The new PCB's arrived, I figured out all errors I did and the motors are running. I have also got the first set of 3D printed handles (PLA) which fits more or less on the motor.

I have two different PCB because this is the maximum size I can get with the Autodesk Eagle free version. Otherwise I need to pay (and the project is expensive enough…). So I have one PCB with 3 motors and one with 2 motors. At the end, the installation will have 5 motors vertically and 11 (or 13) horizontally.

What does it do now?

First the lower handle rotate until it passes a hall sensor. Every handle has a hall sensor and a different offset to know where is zero position (12 o'clock). After this, the handle goes to 3 o'clock to avoid an interference with the upper handle. As the upper handle is quite far away from the hall sensor, the magnetic field change is very little and therefore the other magnet shall not be too close.

After this, the handles go to 12 o'clock. As soon as they are there they give the signal that they are ready. When all are ready, the master gives a new position via I2C for all MCU (every motor has a MCU with a different I2C Address). The new positions have the informations:
- delay prior to run
- new position
- speed
- accelleration

Issues:

- Some bugs on the PCB :-(

- The magnets are too close. One handle can push the other slightly

- One broken motor was replaced, two other seems to have problems with the gear too. I am not sure if it's because I treated them bad or if they wear so fast? I hope not!
You see the damages on the handle of the motor "2" with the sticker on it. The gear is sometimes jumping a little bit when the handle should turn upwards.

Changes for the next version:

- Hall sensors further away

- upper handle closer to the PCB (for the signal of the hall sensor)

- Test with other motors (X40)

The video to show how it works is here:

All files are in the document section "V08".

So I am always open for ideas, inputs and questions :-)

Wish you a happy new year!