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A project log for Bigfoot - Sewing machine motor speed control

A DIY motor speed control for sewing machine motors - true speed control, not merely a power regulator.

joseph-eoffJoseph Eoff 11/11/2023 at 22:050 Comments

I tend to post my project design files and code on GitHub.  I make use of open source software to get my projects done, so I figure it is only fair to make my stuff open source as well.  That is, I use all kinds of free and open source programs to do the design and programming, so I make my finished stuff open source as well.  I also do my best to follow the licensing requirements of the libraries I use.

Bigfoot is no exception.

I posted all the stuff I designed and all the information I gathered into the Bigfoot repository.

It's all there, though it is at the moment a bit of a mess.  Schematic, PCB design, mechanical drawings for the hardware I built, datasheets for all the components I used, etc.

There are two versions of the Arduino software.  There's  the version I am currently using, which includes a PID controller and a PID autotuner, then there's a simple version that simply regulates power - it doesn't try to maintain the speed, it works like a standard sewing machine pedal.

The PCB design needs to be updated - I made a couple of small mistakes that I corrected when I assembled it, but I haven't gone back and corrected the KiCad files.  There's a couple of pull down resistors missing, and there's a bleeder resistor missing on the 300VDC power supply.  They are tacked on my PCB, but they aren't in the KiCad files.

Take a look.  Leave a comment here or open an issue on the repository if there's something you need to know but can't find.

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