[Swansea Hackspace] How does one go about organising a workshop?

[Graham Owens]

As above,

Is there any interest in a motor control workshop at the space, where i could explain the various methods of motor control, the pros and cons of each type - perhaps with a scope set up to show the waveforms of each type, along with slides on a big screen or projector.

I would need about a month to put together examples, and the associated paperwork.

Content would include:
Types of motor and their typical application including
Dc motors brushed and brushless
Ac motors of differing types inc single phase/3 phase
Servo motors
Stepper motors
Along with information about terms like microstepping, chopping, hbridge, pwm, pid etc.

This would be followed by a fairly indepth discussion of 3 of the main types of motor that would be used in a typical project, along with control strategies.
Dc motor with speed and direction control (various pwm strategies)
Rc servo motor with control strategy (i will also provide some code for interrupt driven multiple servo control on a PIC, and if someone could provide the same for arduino, and possibly Ceri could provide an example for MBED)
Stepper motor, along with an example of using a STEP & DIR control board, and also direct drive of a stepper using the phases.

The workshop would end with an example of a PID (proportional, integral, derivative) controlled Standard dc motor, with feedback added to make a custom servo motor of any size.

Discussion about the various methods and motor types would be encouraged throughout the session.  Example drive circuit schematics would be provided and lots of hands-on with the various motor types (low voltage dc only ;) )

Examples would be using PICs, but the methods, and schematics would be applicable to any micro-controller.

The Take-Away knowledge would hopefully be that anyone requiring an actuated output from their project has the information to choose a suitable motor, a suitable control strategy, and a suitable drive circuit to make their project a success, and actually be able to implement these things in the project.

Incidentally, do the scopes in the space have a math function to subtract one signal from another? As it would be nice to show how the differential pwm works on a scope.

Best Regards

Graham Owens