Motor Testing Device by Jan Goolsby

[barrti]

Hi, I am new to adafruit and this forum. I found on the adafruit website this article on a small dyno recently: https://learn.adafruit.com/improve-brus ... erformance, written by Jan Goolsby.
I want to build a simplified version for now. I will use digital scales instead of the load cell. I don't need to log data yet but I do want to use the same method of applying a load to the load motor. I also want to use the same method of reading RPM and displaying it.

The article shows the use of a Pybadge which is out of stock now, are there any other methods using adafruit products?
Jan also uses a DRV8830/INA271 Motor Controller FeatherWing and a Magnetic RPM Sensor (Pololu #1523).

Does anyone have any more details on the construction and programming of this device? I tried to contact Jan but there is no way that I can see to contact her.
Cheers,
Barrti

[CGrover]

Yes, it is possible to design a similar tester using currently available Adafruit components. The PyBadge/PyGamer platform was used for the guide project because it had a built-in display, buttons, and a Feather Wing connector. CircuitPython was chosen for code implementation.

The original motor tester prototype was built using the Feather M4 Express, but a Feather RP2040 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/4884) should easily work as well and has the added bonus of a StemmaQT connector for the motor current sensors. You can then select a preferred display and add controller buttons -- or run it solely from the REPL if needed.

Omitting the load cells, the primary sensor and control devices needed are:

• a dual motor controller like https://www.adafruit.com/product/2927, for the motor under test and the braking/torque-converter (dyno) motor,

• two current monitors like https://www.adafruit.com/product/904, one for the motor under test and another for the braking/torque-converter (dyno) motor,

• an RPM sensor like the Pololu #1523 device

Unfortunately, because the motor tester was developed solely as a highly customized, one-off device for gathering motor performance characteristics specifically for the "Improve Performance" guide, motor tester construction and coding were not developed in a sharable format. The DRV8830/INA271 FeatherWing was custom-built and is not available commercially.