Powerful Continuous Rotation WiFi Servo Winch

thingiverse

This servo winch packs a punch with several Watts of power at its disposal. It can effortlessly lift and lower 1 kg in no time. This device uses optical sensors to track the rotation of the shaft, while a motor and microcontroller team up to control the position of the winch with pinpoint accuracy - within 1/24th rotation, to be precise (that's about 5mm). A WiFi-enabled microcontroller takes charge here, allowing you to control the winch from your smartphone or any other browser. You can also give direct orders to the servo via a USB serial connection. A standard H bridge motor driver is in play here, providing the necessary oomph for the motor. I'm using 1/2 of a dual H bridge in these pictures, which just so happens to feature a built-in 5V regulator that can power my trusty D1 mini. A tiny printed circuit board carries two infrared photo-interrupters, cleverly configuring them into an optical rotary quadrature encoder. And if you're curious about the PCB design, I've got Gerber files for your perusal. Keep in mind that PLA is not exactly opaque to infrared light - a little paint can go a long way here, as I learned the hard way when I painted my rotary encoder blades black to get the photo-interrupter working smoothly. This model is designed to be flexible, accommodating various motors, shafts, gear ratios, and more. Just design your parts and align them properly, and the housing will be generated automatically. All source code can be found on github - if you're interested in following this project, just head over to https://github.com/jesseparker/servowinch. Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/ne80NvGg7cM.