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• First words (video that is...)

  CLo • 03/12/2014 at 04:20 • 0 comments

  Dropbox:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/m7kiq8n1j4a93o1/GOPR1401.mp4

  youtube: http://youtu.be/3kZ-kx1SKD0

  **note that it is at about 2x 

• Test flight!

  CLo • 03/11/2014 at 16:37 • 0 comments

  I hit a small snag when mounting it up for the first time... the glass of the sunroof is slightly curved which meant the mount could not have both suction cups attached at once.  I had tested the mount with only one before however, so decided to go ahead with the test.  

  With the obvious safety precautions of course.  I will always use the leash tho, I doubt that will stop the cop who pulls me over from making me take it down.  

  ***footage coming soon!!***

• Control box

  CLo • 03/11/2014 at 16:31 • 0 comments

  This is a Radio Shack (I hate radio shack. just sayin') electrical enclosure with holes opened for the momentary switch, power switch, power cable and Ethernet cable (out to motor).  I used a dremmel and a mini mill to cut the holes.  

  Electronics board soldered up and wired in.

  Close up the box...

  ...and good to Go!

• Circuit Prototyping

  CLo • 03/11/2014 at 15:17 • 0 comments

  At first I used an arduino to feed a pwm signal to a stepper motor controller and to take the input from the control box, but that seemed like a huge waste (overkill I mean). So I looked into other ways of generating a pwm signal and found 555 timers could do it. I had been meaning to learn about 555s and this was the perfect opportunity. Thanks to [amandaghassaei] via instructables, I set up this simple circuit:

  which is a LM555 setup in astable mode.  With C=0.1uF, R1=3.3KOhm, and R2 = 68kOhm, it will produce a 50%(ish) duty cycle at 100(ish) Hz (which I found to give a good speed).

  Here it is integrated into the rest of the circuit

  I setup up a DPDT momentary rocker switch to power the LM555 thus initiating the PWM signal to the stepper controller, but also to pull the DIR pin low when toggled to one side only. The DIR pin then got a pullup resistor to 5v. This enabled the switch to control the direction of turn without the micro-controller. 

• Assembly of hardware

  CLo • 03/11/2014 at 14:53 • 0 comments

• More cutting

  CLo • 03/11/2014 at 14:45 • 0 comments

  
  

• First Chips

  CLo • 03/11/2014 at 14:34 • 0 comments

  The first piece and main body
  

  Machining the metal (6061 Al)

  Finished part with Nema 11 stepper installed.  I added the cable strain relief as an afterthought.

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