Arduino-Powered Bobbin Winder Speeds the Creation of Custom Transformers for Power Supplies
Designed to take the work out of custom transformer building, this handy tool is built from "stuff laying around," its creator says.
Pseudonymous maker "yellowsnow2" has shown off a handy bobbin winder for building custom transformers — created from "spare stuff laying around."
"I taught my self how to built switch mode power supplies for mains voltage," yellowsnow2 explains of their need for a winding device. "[This] one is about 80-100 watts for a heater thing I'm building for a buddy. But I bought a bunch of the bobbins and cores from China and have several other projects coming up that need custom transformers also."
Built using an Arduino-compatible microcontroller, the prototype is fully functional — as proven by a photo of the first transformer it wound, "push-pull configuration for mains voltage to 25V step down," its creator writes.
"I programmed it to go on its own but had to add the joystick later," yellowsnow2 explains, "because the problems listed made it require being baby sat and paused every once in a while. But actually even that was faster than trying to do 174 wraps by hand."
"The main problem with it is the stepper motor has too much play in its shaft. The crappy looking slide using a 3mm bolt as a screw shaft actually worked good, but took a full rotation to move a half a mm. Which was the limiting factor as far as speed goes. But the motor rotating the bobbin just has too much play and is why the spring pulls on the end."
More information is available in the project's Reddit thread.