after building my smaller engine I found that I had a heating issue and a timing issue. This engine uses larger solenoids for heat dispersion and cooling fans mounted on each piston. as far as the timing issue I used a SENSOFOIL touch sensor with a bearing to give an infinite turn 360* position sensor.
I found this engine is so large that one computer power supply cannot run the engine without side effects…. The Arduino would reset randomly or the power supply would just cut off due to the safety circuits. After that trial and error I grabbed a 650w power supply just for the solenoids and the 450 for the cooling system, Arduino and relay shield.
the particular SENSOFOIL sensor I purchased wasn’t as strait forward as I had hoped. the sensor had offset reading breakpoints that required some interesting programming. After that hurdle it was exactly what a project like this needed. some of you may notice tape on the sensor… that is because the part I designed doesn’t apply enough pressure on the sensor for the top half to read 100% accurate every rotation. I’ll redesign the part later.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Open Hardware is In, New CircuitPython and Pi 5 16GB, and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
