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"Flex" PCB and unusual motor

A project log for CPU Gauge

An analog gauge with USB, serial and analog interface.

lukasziwaszkiewiczlukasz.iwaszkiewicz 02/04/2015 at 09:042 Comments

I just added a photo of simple and small PCBs which will act as a connector between the main PCB (main board sounds cooler) and the motor. As I stated earlier (or maybe I forgot) there are special (geared?) stepper motors for driving such things as tachometers, or other gauges in automotive industry. Just type "switec" in Google images and you'll get the idea. The problem is, that they are relatively expensive (few $) and relatively big. So my idea was to use those tiny motors you'll find on my photos, which I've got from China. I have no Idea what was their original purpose, but they suits me pretty well. This is a hack you might say, but well, we are on "hackaday" right?

To the point - I'll try to connect the motor and the PCB using another, tiny PCB (0.3mm == 12mils thick). Main board has a special slot (chink, crack? what is the proper word?). And the tiny ones, at one side have holes, like THT ones which will suit for the motor terminals, and the other side they will slide into the hole on the main board and the pads will be soldered together. I've seen such connections on few boards in the past, so hopefully I'll get nice working and nice looking results.

Discussions

Rob Deutsch wrote 02/06/2015 at 08:52 point

Hi mate, where did you get those "flex" PCBs made?

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lukasz.iwaszkiewicz wrote 02/06/2015 at 09:23 point

This is some local PCB fab we have here in Poland. It looks like their website speaks English as well, so here's the link : http://www.prototypy.com/sites_pcbplugins/pcborderen/72 They have decent quality (less than OSH park, but comparable).

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