Assembly instructions

Mount the motor drivers

Turn the head face-down, and place a stepper driver face-down in the bottom left-hand corner, with the four LEDs on the driver towards the top of the head. Secure with two M3 screws, then repeat with the other stepper driver in the bottom right-hand corner of the head.

head with stepper drivers attached

Attach the motors

With the head still face-down, turn one of the stepper motors axle-down and mount it with two M3 screws to the left eye socket. The motor's wires should point towards the bottom of the head, and slightly to the left. Mount the other stepper motor to the right eye socket.

head with one motor attached head with both motors attached

Attach the strings

Cut two long pieces of thread. Find the two holes in the rim of one of the rotors. Starting from outside the rotor, insert the end of the thread into one hole, then pass it between the spokes, then bring it back out through the other hole.

rotor with a thread passing through the rim holes rotor with a thread passing through the rim holes, alternate angle

Tie a knot in the thread and cut off the excess.

rotor with a thread tied through the rim holes

Tie the other end of the thread to one of the suction cups, and wind the thread around the rotor.

rotor with a thread wound around it

Repeat with the other rotor, thread, and suction cup.

Mount the rotors

Turn the head face-up, and orient one rotor so that the thread winds counter-clockwise around it. Press the rotor onto the axle of the left motor. It should be a snug fit, and may require some force. Pass the thread through the thread guide.

left rotor attached to the head

Mount the right rotor, oriented so that its thread winds clockwise. When passing its thread through the thread guide, cross it over the left rotor's thread.

both rotors attached to the head

Wind the motor wires around the sides of the head to use up the excess, then plug them into the motor drivers.

the motor wires plugged in

Making sure that the threads are crossed, place the forehead piece over the threads and attach it with two M3 screws. Don't attach the middle screw yet!

forehead screwed to the head

Mount the servo

Turn the head face-down, and mount the servo bracket to the back of the head with two M3 screws. The servo attachment points should be on the right, and extend above the top of the head as shown.

servo mounted to the head

The top screw of the servo mount must be at least 12mm, so it is long enough to extend through the forehead.

upper servo-mount screw extending through the forehead

Insert the servo into its bracket from the right, with the servo axle towards the bottom of the head. Fasten the servo to its bracket with two M2 screws, passing them through the servo's screw holes first and then into the bracket.

servo mounted to the bracket servo mounted to the bracket, alternate angle

Attach the battery box

Attach the 9v battery connectors to the voltage converter and the power switch:

  1. Solder the two positive wires from the battery connectors to center pin of the switch.
  2. Join the two negative wires from the battery connector, and crimp on a ring terminal.
  3. Solder a wire from one of the other switch pins to the "IN+" pin of the voltage converter.
  4. Solder wires to the "GND" and "VO+" pins of the voltage converter, and crimp ring terminals to the other ends.

battery connectors, wired up to voltage converter and power switch

Using a hot glue gun, glue the voltage converter and the power switch to their mounting points at the bottom left of the battery box.

voltage converter and power switch glued to the battery box voltage converter and power switch glued to the battery box, alternate angle

Turn the head face-down, and use an M3 screw to attach the battery box to the bottom part of the head, between the two stepper drivers.

battery box mounted to the head

Attach the pen holder

Using M3 screw, attach the two spring clips to the nose.

pen holder mounted to the nose

Wire up the stepper drivers

Connect the stepper drivers to the dev board, paying close attention to the orientation. Each stepper driver has four pins in its bottom left-hand corner; pin 1 is on the left and pin 4 is on the right. Connect pins 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the left stepper driver to pins 0, 1, 2, and 3 respectively on the dev board. Connect pins 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the right stepper driver to pins 4, 5, 6, and 7 respectively on the dev board.

driver wires connected to the left driver driver wires connected to the dev board driver wires connected to the right driver

Cut and strip the ends of the servo motor wires. Crimp ring terminals to the ends of the red and brown wires, and crimp a DuPont connector to the end of the yellow wire. Plug the yellow wire into pin 10 of the dev board.

servo wire ends servo signal wire connected to the dev board

Prepare two 2x1 DuPont connectors for providing power to the stepper drivers: first, crimp a power wire and a ground wire to each connector. Join the two power wires and crimp them to a ring terminal, then join the two ground wires and crimp them to another ring terminal.

Wire up the power

stepper power wires

Plug the stepper power connectors into the stepper drivers.

stepper power wires, plugged into the drivers

Prepare a 3x1 DuPont connector for providing power to the dev board. Leaving the middle pin empty, crimp a power wire and a ground wire into the two outer pins.

dev board power wires

Plug in the dev board power so that the power wire connects to the pin labeled "5V" and the ground wire connects to one of the pins labeled "G".

dev board power wires, plugged into the dev board

Gather all the 5V power wires (the red wire from the servo, the wire from the "VO+" pin of the voltage converter, the stepper driver power wires, and the dev board power wire). Put an M3 screw through the ring terminals of all these wires and screw it into the left hole on the battery box.

Gather all the ground wires (the brown wire from the servo, the wire from the "GND" pin of the voltage converter, the stepper driver ground wires, the dev board ground wire, and the wire from the negative 9V battery terminal). Put an M3 screw through the ring terminals of all these wires and screw it into the right hole on the battery box.

ring terminals, all screwed together

Plug 9v batteries into the battery connectors, and put them in the battery box.

batteries plugged in

Align the servo motor

Turn on the power switch. The first two leds on each stepper motor should light up, and you should here a sound as the servo moves into position. Turn the power switch off again.

lights on

Now that the servo has found its position, attach the little plastic piece to the servo axle so that it points perpendicularly out from the back of the head.

servo motor plastic bit sticking out

And that's it! Your Bradipograph is assembled and ready to draw.