Build your own motor
By Andrew Gregory. Posted
This article was originally published as part of HackSpace magazine, which has since been incorporated into Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.
This open-source PCB motor is a small, cheap, and easy-to-assemble micro brushless motor. What’s unique about this motor design is that the stator is printed on a four-layer PCB board. The six stator poles are spiral traces wound in a star configuration. Although these coils produce less torque compared to an iron core stator, the motor is still suitable for high‑speed applications.
Creating a brushless motor using a PCB is cheaper to manufacture, and allows the designer to easily tailor the design to their specific project. This design is lighter than standard brushless motors, which opens up countless opportunities for smaller, more delicate projects.
Carl Bugeja, the motor's creator, has a YouTube channel detailing how it works, and you can get the design file on it's Hackaday.io page.
Features Editor Andrew trawls the internet for Cool Stuff while keeping the magazine running smoothly.
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