Open Micro-Manipulator

We are building an open micro-manipulator after the amazing design of Diffraction Limited (YouTube). He describes is as

This project contains an open source low-cost, easy-to-build motorized XYZ Micro-Manipulator motion control platform achieving submicron precision. It's designed for applications such as optical alignment, probing electronic components, and microscopy.

[Work in Progres]

• Upstream Project Documentation: https://github.com/0x23/MicroManipulatorStepper

Assembly arrived in the lab and we finished assembling it.

The chosen stepper motors have too short of an axle which makes the mating parts not sit straight. The motor coils also have too low resistance which means we cannot drive them at full specified torque. Running at 3V supply for now.

Attached the encoders. They report a “weak” magnetic field (come on, it's at least average!). Patched out the error check for this.

Open loop motion during calibration works, but the closed control loop oscillates heavily. During calibration, motion starts in a weird direction.