Hey, this is a cool project.

Rather than using the servo on the remote had you thought about using a 2N2222 transistor and a resistor from the Arduino to act like a switch and hack the remote directly?

Done. Works great. Posted a make to Thingiverse.

Hi Brian, quick question. Is there a reason that you decided not to use the i2c or iic interface for the display? I sourced a slightly different display that doesn't have pin headers for the parallel interface.

Hello Michael, I build this 3D-scanner using only the parts from a sponsored kit, and that LCD, arduino UNO, etc... where the parts I had to work with so that's the reason why. The LCD with the I2C interface would work just as good but you might need to change the code and mayby also the base where the LCD is mounted on.

Thanks for getting back to me so fast. I was concerned it might have had something to do with the UI. I originally ordered all the parts from banggood but unfortunately they could not ship them until March 25th. So I ended up with some slight differences like the LCD. And yes I had to hack the base to get it to fit :-(.  I think I’m going to try and get the i2c interface working as well to simplify the wiring and because I haven’t done i2c in quite awhile. 

No problem Michael haha, You could try to get the I2C module to work, which would work just as good as the way I did it. I also saw people just cutting the pins of the module, desolder the pins and wire it the same way I did on my wiring diagram which is also a possibility.

Switching to i2c was easy. Wired SDA to A4 and SCL to A5 plus VCC and GND then switched to the LiquidCrystal_I2C library and everything just worked. I did directly wire V0 to the pot for brightness control. Works great!

I'm new to buck converters but they seem useful. I bought the one linked, LM9526. It appears to go from whatever voltage to 1-3.5v depending on the setting. On the diagram it shows taking 9v DC and turning it into 5v DC. Since the Arduino has a 5v line, I'm confused how to implement it. When I plug it in and adjust the resistance, the light flickers and the motor vibrates, but I think it is far underpowered.

 How should it be hooked up? Did I understand the diagram correctly to separate the Servo/gear voltage and ground from the general voltage and ground? Also, this is a very nice design. I'm taking out the Servo and using an opticoupler to trigger a shutter release for a Canon.

Hello kboruff, sorry for the late reply, The buck converter is connected to the Vin pin on the Arduino. The Vin pin has the same voltage as the voltage of the power source that's connected to it, in this case a 9V adapter. And yes you are right, you should keep the ground and 5 volts of the servo and stepper motor seperated from the LCD and joystick, this is the reason I use the buck converter, when the stepper motor and servo are in motion they tend to take to much current from the system and the LCD starts to flicker. The buck converter solves this problem.

Thanks so much for sharing. Parts are printing. Components are ordered. 

Haha thanks Michael ;-)

where are you getting power?

But fascinating project.

I'm curious about the power as well. Why the buck converter when everything is running off 5V anyway?

The stepper motor and servo draw to much current to run of the oboard 5V regulator. Everytime the stepper motor rotated or stopped, the backlight in the LCD got brighter and dimmer due to the fluctuation in voltage. Using an extra buck converter takes the load from the 5 volt onboard regulator.

hi, I'm planning to use esp32 as remote shutter (https://github.com/MinatsuT/esp32_remote_shutter) for smartphone and also for controlling the motor.

I've been thinking of putting something together to either laser line or structured light scanning of objects. This project would be very useful towards that goal. What is the outer diameter of the main cylinder that holds the motor and gears?

what is the pot for?  and what value is it?

The potentiometer is there to adjust the brightness of the backlight of the lcd. I used a 10K one.

thanks i thought so but was unsure without the data sheet

Hi the pot that you linked is different. Would that work as well? Or could you maybe link me to the one you used?

Hello Chee Kit, The one i used in my scanner was part of an arduino kit and I couldn't find the exact same one online. But since you only need to adjust the value of the potentiometer once (only to adjust the brightness og the LCD) the potentiometer in the link works just fine.

Thanks for sharing this! Could you do some measurements on the accuracy of your stage.
The most familiar stage I am aware of are the heavy duty rotation stages of thorlabs see https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=1064 . They costs like 2500 euro.
Could you share the accuracy and bidirectional repeatability. I understand you can't reach the specifications of thorlabs but it would still be interesting to know what you can achieve with this setup. Personally, i also think arduino is non sensical. The only thing what is important is the motor and stepper or servo driver you use. I would use a nema 17 motor and at at least something like TMC2130 or TMC2160.
Design looks real nice!

Hello, I did some quick calculating for you to get a rough idea on the accuracy. The stepper motor used takes 2048 steps to get one full rotation. The gear ratio between the small gear and larger inner gear is 1:7. So the larger inner gear needs 14336 steps to get one full rotation. One step would then rotate the larger inner gear by 0.025 degrees. 0.025 would equal about 436 µRad. This is a purely theoretical calculation, please keep in mind the bearing has a play of about 1 to 2 millimeters and there's also some play between small and larger inner gear. I really wouldn't know how to measure or calculate the bidirectional repeatability, I also don't think I have the right equipment for this. I wouldn't recommend to use this as servo or something similar as the 3D-printed bearing has to much axial and radial play. It's more then perfect for the turntable but not for a servo. If I where you, I would consider using some real bearings and create a custom design for your application. I think the right combination of 3D-printed parts and some real bearings could give you some good accuracy and repeatability. Of course not as good as a completely mechined one, but close enough 😜👍

Repeat-ability can be tested easily by putting a mirror upright on the table and shining a laser pointer onto it. Then approach the same position from both directions and measure the difference in angle. Divide the angle by two for the actual value as the mirror doubles it. But I doubt that kind of measurement makes a lot of sense for the intended use cases. This table is clearly not suitable for machining 

I wonder how many kg's this pretty thing can hold being printed with pla. The latest cylinder structure seems quite solid.

Hello Arye, it obviously isn’t intended for larger objects (they wouldn’t fit on the plate either) but more for smaller objects like action figures, small 3D-prints,... However, all the objects i put on the table so far didn’t seem to cause any problems. The servo i put on it is quite substantial and was about the max size of the plate and it worked great😁👍 I also forgot to mention in the details I added some fine machine oil to the bearing to get rid of the friction which seems to work very well 👌😁

I wouldn’t go over a kilo though 😬😁👍

The strength of the PLA isn’t going the cause any problems in this project, the strength of the stepper motor is 😅

Nice build! In the video, the servo had me confused at first - I thought it was somehow locking the turntable for each shot. Then I saw the Bluetooth remote - clever! I've got a build I need to do that requires button-pushing like that - thanks for the idea.

Thank you Dan! I would've preferred to use a less mechanical sollution to take the photos, but Apple product just don't like to connect with bluetooth modules like the HC-05 and HC-06. My first idea was to open the bluetooth remote up and extend the contacts of the pushbutton to the arduino, but the pushbutton turned out to be a capacitive or magnetic one like the ones you can find on calculators or keyboards. So the servo pushing the button turned out to be the easiest most straight forward sollution, I mean if it works, why not haha ;-)

Awesome to see the design evolve. Would have been interesting to have it use the same bearing as the manually cranked one so it would be an easier/faster upgrade, but the final product definitely looks better without having the circular mounts for the legs and crank on the sides.

Thanks Tom! Yes i also would've liked to keep the same bearing as the hand cranked one but I had to change to much to the design in order to place all the electronics and motor etc inside it. And like you say the circular leg holders were in the way and I had to delete them. The plan was to just add a motor to it, turned out to become a completely different design haha ;-)