The Wobble Ring Stepping Motor MK1 by Ndrew

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Edit: This thing has been upgraded!http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:52299
This is my humble start on an actuator that could be mostly printed on a 3d printer. Incomplete as it is, I thought I'd post it as it developed.
It is based on this:http://www.act.sys.okayama-u.ac.jp/kouseigaku/research/okamoto_wobble_06/english.htm
Instead of air chambers, I plan on rolling my own solenoids, eventually.
It also uses hypo-epicycoidic gearing, based off this:http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:28237
And it should move like this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UayBAHJQE_k
But instead the outer ring 'wobbles'.
The wobbleRing is 1 tooth larger than the drivenGear(51/50). This allows for 2.4 degrees between solenoid steps(360 / (50 * 3)). But that's with just one of the 3 solenoids pulling at a time.
Now why did I use cycloidic gearing? Well, I understand they wear a little slower for this application. Also I was really having a time getting the MCAD library to work. Please correct me if there is a better gear profile for this application.
I do also appreciate any constructive critism, as this is my first openscad project.
BEWARE: I have not printed this thing yet!
I really wish I could but I am still waiting for mine.
BEWARE: There be snakes in dem codes; look at the openscad code at your own risk!
I really do intend to add more paramaters too, just working out the basic form first.
Oh and for now there are no solenoids included. At this point I really don't know enough yet to design capable ones.