This linear actuator is almost completely 3D printed (except for the thread and some bolts, nuts and bearings).I curently don’t have any position feedback or limited switches installed on it, I will add them in the feature when I’m going to integrate it in a projecct. It has a speed of about 25 mm/s on a 9V battery and draws about 1.7 Amps of curent. The motor is rated for 36 Volts. Running the linear actuator on a 36 Volt battery will increase the speed of the actuator. The transmission is a belt driven one wich uses a GT2 timing belt and a 3D printed GT2 pulley, This may not be the most ideal transmission for this task but it’ll do for some testing. The linear actuator uses an M8 thread to convert the rotating motion into a linear motion. All parts (except for the 120 teeth pulley) are printed with a 1 mm nozle because there is no high accuracy required and it goes a lot faster. Some people are sceptic about using a 1mm nozzle but I think it’s good for printing large objects like these without the need for accuracy. And it works great for me.
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!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!
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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.
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