Gearmotor selection/tech questions - DIY 3D printer

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

Hello. I am working on building my own, resin-based 3-D printer. I have the Z-axis figured out, but for the X-axis, I need a gearmotor to slide the resin tray back and forth as seen in the first few seconds of this video:
youtube.com/watch?v=KFNSyomyP1c

I have seen at least one user recommend this motor: robotshop.com/pololu-12v-100-1-gear-motor-encoder.html

My questions (and, please, pardon my ignorance):

  1. Would the above referenced motor be appropriate? The combined weight of the acrylic resin tray and the aluminum base on which is slides is not very substantial.

  2. I’m not sure what I need/how to drive this motor. I am using an Arduino with an EasyDriver controller for the Z-axis stepper motor. Is the set up similar for a gearmotor? That is, do I need another controller, or does the encoder attached to the motor handle that job? If so, do I just provide 12V and the control signal from the Arduino to the encoder on the motor?

Thanks for any guidance you can offer.

2

Thanks for your reply. I should have mentioned that the software for the project has been made available open source and it uses a stepper motor for the Z-axis, which I have working, and a DC gearmotor to slide the resin tray back and forth as in that video. It interfaces with an Arduino that handles the operation of the two motors. So if I would need a DC motor controller, can you suggest one that would work well with both the gearmotor I mentioned above and the Arduino?

Thanks again for your help.

3

There are a lot of controllers which can be used with that motor and can interface with Arduino. Some of the more convenient ones are of course shields:

][]](https://www.robotshop.com/10a-dc-motor-driver-arduino-shield-3.html)DFRobot Arduino Compatible Motor Shield (2A)/*:m]
]DFRobotShop Rover Arduino Compatible Motor Shield (2A) (This one has convenient headers for the encoder wires)/:m]
]and many more…/:m]
You just need to solder the wires to standard 0.1" headers and connect them to the Arduino’s digital, V and GND pins. The Arduino code would handle the encoder input - try to use the same pins that the creator used.

That motor’s probably fine.

4

The choice of motor will depend largely on what software interface you plan to use. If you want to use pre-made software, then you might want to stick to the type of actuator they use/ suggest: it might be a stepper motor, servo or DC gear motor + encoder.

If you plan to make your own software interface, then using the same type of actuator throughout the machine has its advantages - and we’d suggest you again use a stepper motor.

If you really wanted to use a DC gear motor with encoder, you’d need a DC motor controller (serial or PWM) and connect the encoder output to the microcontroller. You would then need to program the microcontroller separately from the software you use to slice the part. It’s quite involved. The Arduino would provide the 5V power for the encoder and read the states of the onboard IR sensors.