Motor assembly

The OpenFlexure Microscope can be motorised, to allow you to run automated experiments. In order to do this, you will need to fit stepper motors to the X, Y, and Z axes.

Requirements

You will need the parts shown in the picture below:

Parts required for this step

Parts

Tools

Assembly Instructions

Step 1

First, fit the gears onto the motors. The gears are printed with a circular bottom - place them on the table, circular side down. They should be a tight fit onto the motor shaft - if they are not, place some insulating tape, sticky side up, on top of the gear as shown.

A motor and gear, ready for assembly

Step 2

Now, fit the gear (and tape) onto the motor shaft - with the gear on the table, press the shaft into the hole. NB you need to line the flat sides of the shaft up with the hole - it is not circular.

A motor with the gear on its shaft

Step 3

Repeat steps 1 and 2 for all three motors.

Step 4

Fit each of the three motors onto the microscope body using two M4 screws. It is possible that this step will be easier if you tap the holes in the microscope body first. The screws should be done up tightly, otherwise the motor will wobble.

A motor screwed onto the microscope body

Step 5

Fit the mini USB lead to the motor board, and fit the motor board into the case as shown.

The motor board, in its case

Step 6

Connect the cables from the motors to the motor board as shown.

Motors connected to the motor board

Step 7

Finally, sit the microscope on top of the motor board case, and tidy up the wiring using the cable ties. You can more securely attach the motor board to the microscope using M3 screws at the corners, but you might want to wait until you have tested it in case you need to swap the wiring around.

The microscope complete with assembled motors

Step 8

Congratulations, you have fitted the motors. You will need to upload the motor controller firmware using the Arduino IDE. Currently, the firmware resides on github.