Dive into the world of electric (BLDC) motors
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SwarmDrive is a motor driver (development) board intended for learning and experimenting with electric motors. It's an approachable mechatronics platform for users who want to learn and start experimenting with (small) electric motors and BLDC motors in particular. The board contains a basic motor driver setup together with a powerful microcontroller (ESP32) and USB connectivity. It enables professionals as well as students to learn about different commutation algorithms and all other aspects of electric (BLDC) motors in a convenient way. The 'Swarm' aspect is hinting upon the vast communication possibilities of the ESP32 such as bluetooth or wifi which enables the board or motor to communicate with other boards/motors. This allows for 'Swarm' type implementations or just plain remote control of the board/motors.
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"SwarmDrive: NickStick’s ESP32-Powered Dev Board for Experimentation and Learning"
"This $75 board is designed as an approachable platform for mechatronics education and development."
CNXSoft - Embedded Systems News
"The SwarmDrive board targets users who want to start experimenting with motor control, and learn about commutation strategies, PID for balance plateau or balance robots, cartesian gantries and spatial navigation, swarm intelligence experiments..."
"SwarmDrive...offers an approachable mechatronics platform for users who want to learn and start experimenting with (small) electric motors and BLDC (Brushless DC) motors in particular."
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Specially designed console firmware as well as example code can be downloaded to get started quick and easy. The code is well documented and open source. It can be used as a starting point for getting insight into the inner workings of algorithms for driving a motor.
The Enable bridging jumpers can be used to bridge EN1, EN2 and EN3 pins of the L6234 together. This can be used to save GPIO pins for other purposes when having a commutation strategy that will use only one Enable for all three motor phases.
The SENSE test point can be used for hooking up an oscilloscope to measure motor currents (it is connected to the SENSE pins of the L6234 through a resistor.
