SwarmDrive Shipping!
Good news! SwarmDrives are on their way to Crowd Supply's warehouse for final distribution. Please take this time to check your delivery address. I would also like to share some pictures of the partial assembly process here in the Netherlands. Read the full update.
Awaiting Shipment
The production of SwarmDrive is complete! The good folks at PCBWay did a great job and worked closely with me on this one. Read the full update.
Campaign Funded!
I’m happy to announce that we reached our campaign goal for SwarmDrive and I want to thank our backers for their support. If you didn’t get a chance to back the project, don’t worry, you can still (pre)-order your SwarmDrive from Crowd Supply. Read the full update.
SwarmDrive Haptic Feedback Experiments
This time I would like to dive into the exciting domain of haptic feedback using electric motors. The result of it all is a resemblance of a mechanical rotary encoder where you feel the clicks. Read the full update.
Example SwarmDrive Firmware for BLDC Motor Commutation: Part II + Campaign Extension and Lower Price!
I would like to share with you that we have decided to extend the campaign for two more weeks. as an extra incentive we decided to lower the price of SwarmDrive to $59!! Also, last week in part I of Example SwarmDrive Firmware for BLDC Motor Commutation we covered the setup of the Space Vector LUT and obtaining the motor characteristics. In this second part we will look at the actual commutation code. Read the full update.
Example SwarmDrive Firmware for BLDC Motor Commutation: Part I
This update digs into SwarmDrive's example code in order to demonstrate some basic principles about controlling BLDC motors. Read the full update to learn the details. Read the full update.
SwarmDrive with Brushed Motors, and New Boards
This update takes a look at the newly arrived pre-production boards and demonstrates how to control ordinary DC motors. Read the full update for all the details. Read the full update.
Swarmdrive Using The AS5048B Rotary Encoder
Good news from PCBWay, the two pre-production boards with the new silkscreen layer are on its way. Hopefully next week I can share some images. In the meantime, let’s have a look at the AS5048 rotary encoder, one of many choices for having a closed loop BLDC motor implementation. Read the full update.
ESP-NOW Peer-To-Peer Communication
In this update, we show you the basics of setting up peer-to-peer communication between SwarmDrives. Read the full update for all the details and code samples. Read the full update.
Swarmdrive Remote Control Tutorial, and New Silkscreen
This week I would like to show how you could lay the foundation for remote control of a SwarmDrive with the onboard ESP32, and, while awaiting the outcome of this campaign with excitement, I decided to start a small preliminary production run. This is needed to verify a few minor changes, one of them being the addition of the SwarmDrive logo to the silkscreen, but also some minor adjustments of some tracks. Read the full update.
Launch Announcement!
First of all, thank you for your interest in SwarmDrive. I hope it will enable you to enter the fascinating world of BLDC motors what I like to call "The Easy Way". For me it did! As you might have read on the SwarmDrive website, I started this project because I felt that there should be a better way to get going with this interesting technology. Read the full update.