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WinDIYingThing - Automatic coil winder

WinDIYingThing is a side project that helped me to wind the coils for the generator that i'm using with "WinDIY" a 3D printed wind turbine

fabFab
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I started this as a sideproject to build the coils for the "Nerdiskerator" (a 3D printed disk generator: https://hackaday.io/project/172445-nerdiskerator-a-3d-printed-disk-generator) that im using with "WinDIY" (a 3D printed wind turbine: https://hackaday.io/project/172328-windiy-hawt-wind-turbine).

During that i came across a problem: winding the coils by hand is very time-consuming. Not only the windings must be correct. The positions of the individual windings should also be as uniform and parallel as possible on the 3D printed coil core.

After I tried this manually, it became clear to me that it would be faster, easier and of higher quality if i would let a machine do this.

More in the details. :)

WinDIYngThing at work


Why build yourself?

Very simple: At the time when I started with WinDIYngThing there were no comparable machines for the small budget. Of course there were professional machines, but they were well above the budget that I wanted to spend. Also, I didn't really understand what has to be so expensive on such a machine? So I started building my own and that's how it came out. :)

The actual state

Here you can see the current status. Two NEMA17 stepper motors are installed. One of the stepper motors is responsible for guiding the wire guide to the correct position on the winding. The other stepper motor winds the wire on the screwed winding insert.

Since the "winding stepper motor" sometimes "lost" steps in the past and the number of turns became too small, it is also equipped with an "MKS Servo42" controller. This continuously checks whether the stepper motor has also carried out the "commanded" steps. If it detects a difference, it is adjusted accordingly and, if necessary, the winding current (of the stepper motor) is increased to catch up with the step.

The whole thing is controlled via a small circuit board that I created recently. It includes an ESP32, a stepper motor driver, an OLED, two buttons and a rotary encoder. In the final version, all parameters should be set and started automatically.

A closer look at the setup during the prototype phase. (When everything was still on an MDF board)

Here you can see the "wire straightening mechanism".


ToDo:

  • Test PCB
  • Design housing for electronics
  • Design a new base plate

Licenses:

Content that is not based on software/code: Unless otherwise stated, all works presented here that are not based on software/code are subject to the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license (attribution – non-commercial – dissemination under the same conditions 4.0 international).

You can find a summary here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.de

You can find the complete legal text here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode.de

Software/code-based works Unless otherwise stated, all software/code-based works presented here are subject to the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0

You can find a summary here: https://tldrlegal.com/license/gnu-affero-general-public-license-v3-(agpl-3.0)#summary

The complete legal text can be found here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.de.html

  • The controller PCB

    Fab06/24/2020 at 14:02 0 comments

    I may have already mentioned it somewhere, but I created a board to control WinDIYngThing. I wanted to briefly present them here. There is space for three stepper motor drivers, an OLED, two buttons, a rotary encoder, voltage converter and an ESP32.

    In the pictures you can see the first prototype. On this I soldered the components with pin headers. As soon as I know that everything works, the individual components can be soldered more compactly (closer to the PCB).

    The third stepper motor driver is actually not necessary. But I thought it was better to have another one than to need it. :) One purpose I could imagine is to use the stepper motor to unwind and wind up the wire spool. In this way, if the winding itself was incorrectly wound up, the wire could be quickly and easily rewound onto the original spool.

    What do you think? Have I forgotten anything important?

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