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PCB Motor

A smaller and cheaper open source brushless motor

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My open source PCB motor is my attempt to build a smaller, cheaper and easier to assemble micro brushless motor.

What unique about this motor design is that the stator is printed on a 4-layer PCB board. The six stator poles are spiral traces wounded in a star configuration. Although these coils produce less torque compared to an iron core stator, the motor is still suitable for high-speed applications.

It also has a 16mm diameter, 1.7mm thin 3d printed 4-pole rotor. So the total thickness of this axial flux motor adds up to 5mm (excluding the shaft) and weighs 1.5 grams.

The inspiration for this idea came from trying to build smaller and cheaper drone. Making the motor onto the PCB itself will reduce the overall price of any tiny robot, allowing swarm robotics to become more affordable.

My PCB-Motor is made from a 6-pole stator printed on a 4-layer PCB and a 4-pole 3d printed rotor. Its has an outer diameter of 16mm and is rated at 1 watt. 

I had this idea when I was trying to design a small compact drone. The PCB motor is much cheaper than other micro brushless motors and also easier to assemble. My goal is to make the rotor part of the BOM and mounted just like any other component on a PCB. 

VIDEO

HACKADAY SUPERCON DEMO

RAR Archive - 151.40 kB - 06/04/2020 at 20:41

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6-layer PCB Motor Gerber Files.rar

Gerber files for my 11mm diameter 6-layer PCB Motor

RAR Archive - 46.53 kB - 11/07/2018 at 16:52

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ESC BOM.JPG

BOM for my PCB motor brushless ESC with Hall sensor feedback

JPEG Image - 59.80 kB - 10/22/2018 at 04:42

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PCB Motor ESC Gerber Files.rar

Open Source Gerber Files for my PCB motor brushless ESC with Hall sensor feedback

RAR Archive - 171.61 kB - 10/20/2018 at 17:47

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PCB Motor ESC Schematics.JPG

Open Source Schematics for my PCB motor brushless ESC with Hall sensor feedback

JPEG Image - 61.15 kB - 10/20/2018 at 17:45

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  • 1 × 3D Printed Rotor
  • 1 × PCB Stator
  • 4 × Magnets (5mm diameter x 1mm thick)
  • 1 × Shaft (1.5mm diameter)
  • 1 × SMF681X-ZZ Bearing

  • FlexPCB Motor + Steel Stiffener Test

    Carl Bugeja10/08/2021 at 06:53 1 comment

  • Version 4

    Carl Bugeja08/05/2021 at 17:36 0 comments
  • PCB Motor Wheeled Robot v1

    Carl Bugeja05/19/2021 at 12:42 0 comments

  • PCB Motor v3

    Carl Bugeja06/05/2020 at 16:12 1 comment

  • How to design a PCB Motor?

    Carl Bugeja04/10/2020 at 13:46 0 comments

  • Rotor Flux PCB Motor

    Carl Bugeja07/13/2019 at 17:22 0 comments

    This video shows my attempt in trying to design a rotor-flux brushless pcb motor prototype:

  • SPEED!

    Carl Bugeja06/04/2019 at 00:59 0 comments

    How fast can my PCB Motor go? 

  • CORE PCB Motor

    Carl Bugeja01/07/2019 at 19:06 0 comments

    Check out this teardown of the CORE-PCBMotor!! I came across this motor a few months ago, after a few people who saw my design sent me their website's link. There's not much information on it and its also patented but this guy managed to take it apart and review it.

    http://build-its-inprogress.blogspot.com/2018/12/core-outdoor-power-pcb-motor-teardown.html

    I have no idea why they decided to use it for a lawn trimmer (there's much more interesting applications) but its very interesting to see how it was designed, the way the windings are connected and that it has sufficient torque to rotate a blade!

  • Smallest PCB Motor

    Carl Bugeja10/31/2018 at 00:11 0 comments

    My SUPER tiny 6-layer PCB Motor is spinning! Here's the full video describing how I designed it:

    My original 4-layer PCB motor had a 16mm diameter. By adding two extra layers I was able reduce the number of turns per layer and get it to 11mm. The total height of the motor is 3.6mm and its weight is 0.5 grams.

    No space is lost in this pcb! Each coils have 3 vias to connect the in-between layers. These forced a triangular shaped stator poles, which utilize the magnetic field area more efficiently.

    The tiny rotor design has four press-fit 2mm n52 magnets and a 3mm bearing. This new design has the shaft soldered onto the stator, so it is fixed and don't rotate with the rotor.

    I had chosen to go with this design because of two things:

    1. I couldn't find a bearing small enough to fit in the middle of the stator.
    2.I'm not planning to use a shaft. Customized 3d-printed rotors makes much more sense. 


    The phase resistance of this motor was measured to be 15ohmsand its getting to 85℃ with a 4V supply, so it should be perfect for a 1s lipo.

  • ESC details

    Carl Bugeja10/20/2018 at 17:52 0 comments

    This video shows how i designed my PCB Motor's ESC and what where the challenges involved in getting my speed controller to work.



    This is its schematics:


    It has a PIC16F1503 as the main controller and a triple half bridge driver STSPIN230, to control the three phases of the motor. These are both powered from the same supply, to avoid having an extra power wire or on-board regulator, reducing the cost even further. I filtered the digital circuitry supply from an LC filter to attenuate any noise the motor can generate. It can operate from a 5V to 2.6V supply and draws around 220mA in total.

    As i explained in my previous project logs, the back emf generated from my pcb motor was too weak to implemented a sensorless speed controller. So i decided to use a hall sensor to provide feedback to the microcontroller and then implemented a speed closed loop speed controller. 

    The open source gerber files and schematics for this PCB are available for download. 

    In the beginning of November I will be giving a demo of this project at the Hackaday Superconference so see you there! 

View all 31 project logs

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Discussions

Christian W. wrote 01/24/2018 at 21:42 point

Hello Carl. Congratulations on your excellent work! Please let us know if you plan to sell your motors. I like the idea of putting the stator on the ESC PCB.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Carl Bugeja wrote 01/25/2018 at 11:32 point

Hi :) i will release open source parts very soon so you can build your own

  Are you sure? yes | no

spillikinaerospace wrote 01/24/2018 at 21:26 point

Hi Carl excellent work! one question: why didn't you make the rotor from a PCB? it seems to me that would be better than 3d printing.

  Are you sure? yes | no

timonsku wrote 01/24/2018 at 21:30 point

Good question, I mean air flow would be an obvious reason but at this stage I doubt that would be much of an issue.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Carl Bugeja wrote 01/24/2018 at 21:33 point

Hi! the rotor needs to hold the magnets in place that's why its 3d-printed. But make a pcb on top of the rotor is certainly possible. The only problem would be passing signals and giving power to that board.. But with a little imagination I think it can be solved :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

alexwhittemore wrote 01/24/2018 at 22:53 point

This was my question as well. I think what he means is to pocket-mill recesses in a similarly sized PCB to fit the magnets, making a roughly equivalent structure from FR4 instead of plastic. An FR4 magnet carrier would ultimately be stronger than the plastic version, and practical to fabricate since it doesn't require any complicated 3D geometry, only standard controlled-depth milling. And really, you wouldn't necessarily need that either - you could use through-routes on one PCB and leave it at that with the magnets glued in by the sides, or glue the milled PCB to a flat one of the same diameter to make fake pocket mills. Making such a through-milled magnet carrier would also enable Daren's idea above of adding a second stator to double torque. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Carl Bugeja wrote 01/25/2018 at 17:29 point

The problem with a pcb rotor is actually keeping the magnets in place .. its certainly possible to have them press fitted inside but having the rotor spinning at high speed it would be safer to have a cover over them.. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Sean Weppner wrote 01/24/2018 at 21:13 point

Would be cool to see this type of approach applied to creating a micro linear actuator

  Are you sure? yes | no

Carl Bugeja wrote 01/24/2018 at 21:38 point

Hi Sean a micro linear actuator seems feasible with this technology.. However it would have a weak torque since it don't have a metalic core.

  Are you sure? yes | no

eekster wrote 01/24/2018 at 19:08 point

I'll buy ten of them! That or make the cad files and bill of materials available, perhaps? Please?

  Are you sure? yes | no

openube wrote 01/24/2018 at 21:23 point

I second this. I'll buy or BOM please?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Carl Bugeja wrote 01/24/2018 at 21:41 point

Hi! Thanks for your kind comments :)  I think I will eventually open source this design.. It just needs a little more testing

  Are you sure? yes | no

ActualDragon wrote 01/23/2018 at 23:32 point

It almost needs another row of headers on the other side, just for support. It might be helpful

  Are you sure? yes | no

Carl Bugeja wrote 01/24/2018 at 06:59 point

Hi 🙂 the headers are just a temporary solution. My plan is to put the stator on the esc pcb. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Carl Bugeja wrote 01/24/2018 at 07:02 point

This would make the whole setup light and more compact

  Are you sure? yes | no

ActualDragon wrote 01/24/2018 at 10:50 point

could you put the headers on the other side, then slide the esc under and solder it? that would be sweet

  Are you sure? yes | no

malvasio wrote 01/23/2018 at 09:44 point

can you make a coil that the rotor will rotate in the opposite direction with gears

to generate electricity from interaction of rotors : how much ? how far can you go if you add it to the pcb ?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Jarrett wrote 01/22/2018 at 22:06 point

Woah. Do you have more pictures of the PCB?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Carl Bugeja wrote 01/22/2018 at 22:10 point

Sure :) 

  Are you sure? yes | no

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