One Step at a Time

Today was all about getting the stepper motor turning. I did some tests yesterday but to no avail. The stepper motor didn't turn and when it did, it would rotate back and forth randomly. Today, after assigning correct values in the Arduino code, I got the motor to turn smoothly. It seemed to only like rotating at 10 rpm. Luckily, it was exactly the speed I needed it at.

After running the motor continuously for 15 minutes, I used my thermal sensor to measure the heat of the motor drive. It seemed to max out at about 80 degrees fahrenheit. I might need to install a small fan in the control box. After that, it was time for mounting.

Electrical Testing

Since the continent cutouts didn't work yesterday, I decided to start testing code and electronics. I started with the Adafruit ESP8266 Feather and the MicroSD card. I figured out how simple .csv files are so the ESP8266 could easily parse through the data. I then created a Google, Adafruit, and IFTTT account for interacting with the ESP8266.

I started to hook up the circuit to the 5v 30A power supply but realized that I ran out of crimp connectors. A quick run to orchard solved that.

Finally, the Adafruit package that I had been waiting for got delivered. It contained the Logic Level Converter that I needed in my circuit but I was really excited for the miniature fan I bought for soldering.

 It worked wonders.

A Day of Solder, Paper, and Vinyl

I finally spent the time to set up my soldering station. After mounting the electronics and designing the wiring, it was time to solder the circuit together. I had a fun time routing the wires in and around the boards. I also kept the circuit color coded like it was in the diagram I drew. By the time I finished, the inside of my electronics box looked like a land of rainbows.

My dad's work has a printer meant to print large blueprints and diagrams so he printed out the outlines of all the continents. We then started cutting out the paper borders to transfer them to vinyl sheeting but when we held up South America to the globe, we noticed the printout was a little to big. Oh well, we will have to try again another day.

Electrical Schematic

Today, I drew up a wiring diagram for my project. I drew this in Fritzing, an open source CAD software for the design of electronics. This was especially easy due to the ready made Fritzing library by Adafruit Industries. In fact, the design was so easy that most of my time was actually spent downloading the software.

This diagram is sort of a rough sketch for me to reference when I solder together the entire circuit. I did not include the 5v 30A power supply that would power the globe nor did I include all 500 NeoPixels. Just imagine the extra 497 pixels attached to the 3 pixels to the left.

Code Blue

These past few days were spent spray painting the frame. The white base coat was sprayed on first. My dad and I had to make multiple runs to the supply store for more paint.

 Then the blue coat was added. The light blue is a little turquoise but it still works. The paint adhered to the wood really well and I was surprised to see how evenly colored the final coat was.

Too Thin for Wood Screws

After deciding on a wooden frame, there had to be a good alternative to welding which was a key component of the original design. This 3/16" thick masonite is too thin for wood screws and tape wouldn't give the look I want. The final viable option was glue.

Thanks to an all-purpose sealing and bonding adhesive, The frame is now glued and ready for painting.

Look! A Frame!

Thanks to the help of my dad and Metal Specialties (Monterey, CA), I now have a wooden frame cut out. The waterjet over at Metal Specialties was able to cut out the entire frame with amazing accuracy. The pieces just snap together to form the two hemispheres my 4 foot diameter globe. The frames panels line up perfectly with every other longitudinal and latitudinal line.