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• 0.13mm vs 0.3mm thick Flexible PCB Coils

  Carl Bugeja • 04/07/2019 at 20:14 • 0 comments

  A PCB can be considered as 'flexible' when its thickness is under 0.3mm. But how can this extra thickness effect the behavior of my flexible PCB Magnetic Actuators? 

  In the bellow test video I compared the electrical parameters of the coils and also the bending capabilities of both 0.13mm and 0.3mm thick PCBs!

• Tindie!

  Carl Bugeja • 12/03/2018 at 23:35 • 0 comments

  My Flexible PCB Actuator is finally available on tindie.com!
  

  https://www.tindie.com/products/Microbots/flexible-pcb-actuator/

• New PCB

  Carl Bugeja • 08/31/2018 at 22:06 • 0 comments

  Just received the new flexible PCB actuators! I'll be selling some of these on Tindie! I'll just have to find some time to set up my store! So far I have only selected the name Microbots

• New Single Coil PCB Actuator

  Carl Bugeja • 08/20/2018 at 22:00 • 0 comments

  Designed a new single coil Flex PCB Actuator! I'm planning to use this as a tiny flap/fin. It the same number of turns as my previous 12 coil pcb.

• SOFT ROBOTICS

  Carl Bugeja • 08/18/2018 at 14:00 • 0 comments

  This video shows the different type of soft actuator prototypes I have managed to build with my flexible PCB. These include flaps, fins and a very weak robotic muscle with a magnetic bone structure.

  It also shows a glimpse of a robotic fish prototype that I'm started working on.

• The Magnetic-Bone Structure Prototype

  Carl Bugeja • 08/13/2018 at 20:46 • 0 comments

• Testing

  Carl Bugeja • 08/09/2018 at 21:19 • 1 comment

  Before I can start building robots with this thing, I need to measure its characteristics and test its limitations.

  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:
  

  	4-Layer Linear PCB Motor	2-Layer Flex PCB Actuator
  Resistance	32Ω	23Ω
  Maximum Temperature @ 5V	51°C	76°C
  Power	0.75W	0.9W

  
  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.
  

  I was also able to reach a maximum operating frequency of 65Hz.

• Open Source Files

  Carl Bugeja • 07/31/2018 at 23:49 • 0 comments

  Today I have submitted the Flexible PCB Actuator for the www.pcbway.com PCB-Design Contest! 

  You can now also buy or download the free open source gerber files from the link bellow!
  

• PCB Actuators can get hungry

  Carl Bugeja • 07/31/2018 at 22:51 • 0 comments

• First Test!

  Carl Bugeja • 07/24/2018 at 17:55 • 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.

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