I need some advises for Sangaboard. What is the way to order? is it difficult to solder? What is the price to order the board an all components? Anyone have some advises and some pictures of the boards finished?
Regards
Using an Arduino nano (or Uno) and the H-bridge motor boards that usually come with the stepprr motors is the cheapest option. It is quick to put together with a few jumper cables. The power distribution to all the boards may require soldering, and it is not neat.
The various Sangaboards make it neater, but need progressively more electronics experience to build. The actual functions for the microscope are the same for the separate Arduino or for Sangaboard v0.2 or v0.3. Note v0.4 does not currently work.
v0.2 is pretty easy to solder if you can get the components and the board made. v0.3 is much more advanced surface mount assembly. As William said, this is the simplest option:
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Hi all,
If it can help somebody, here is my motor board build, as sourcing a sangaboard was not simplest for me.
I highly recommend buying the motors with the blue smd board. (not more expensive).
The smd version of the ULN2003 board has a layout that allows to assemble them on the nano directly. It is slightly delicate, and maybe not optimal, but the trick reduces by a lot the cable mess, and it makes a compact setup.
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@Rup that is very neat. Hot melt glue would stabilise and strengthen it, and can be used to give strain relief on the blue wires. It is also reasonably easy to peel off if you need to.
It looks as though you are using the 5V from the data USB for the motor power. It is generally safer to use a separate 5V line as you do not want to be drawing too much current through your Pi.
Good suggestions, thanks.
For the 5v power, I am indeed using USB power in the picture since I was testing with a sufficiently powerful PSU and I am planing to rewire the power to external one to be safe.
Still, I would be curious to hear people who tried using the 5v from the raspberry since this should be fine from specs perspective.
Indeed, the motors should draw 0.25Amps each, leading a total current draw around 0.75A, which is still well within the usb 3 specs, and within the raspberry pi 3/4 specs, being of 1.2A (max draw over all 4 ports). So I guess this also depends on the current draw of the camera on the other USB ports not to exceed the total pi usb current capacity.
I forgot to say it, as I am new in the forum: we won’t say it enough, what a great project, and thanks for the great work achieved and shared !
Best
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My measured currents are usually less than 0.75A on the motor supply. As you say, it is within the specification, so should be OK. I suppose I am thinking that any other peripherals plugged in might push you over the limit. There are also several reports of some motors getting very hot, which probably means they are drawing a lot more current.