Somax Hardware Specification

Proto 1

Proto 1 started with with a very simple premise, "turn a motor". I started work on Proto 1 in late 2016.

The design consisted of an Intel Edison sitting on the Arduino breakout board, L298N motor driver, a STH-55D1003 stepper motor salvaged from a slot machine, and an 24v 90 watt power supply also salvaged from a slot machine.

There was no motor controller just a motor driver. The driver connected to the Edison using 4 GPIO's. Each GPIO was driven by the Quark microcontroller. I could have easily used a motor controller where just I2C commands would have caused the motor to turn, but I'm an engineer who prefers writing games to playing them. The method was unduly difficult because that is what makes it interesting and fun!

Proto 1 had a profound effect on me. I worked on the motor control for quite some time. When it finally turned it was quite literally euphoric. I still get goose bumps when I think about it. If you have never caused a stepper motor to turn then, you simply will not understand. It is a feeling of creation that, unlike software, is tangible to all. Sometime later I related this experience to my brother who also managed to turn a motor. I was happy to hear that his impression was no less amazing than mine. Now I was hooked!

Proto 2

In 2017 I purchased the first version of the Samsung Gear VR. It was driven by a Note 5 phone. I showed more people VR on this thing than I care to remember. I related a Quora question titled "So who uses VR for anything more than demo's of VR?" The VR experience was fluid. It tracked well with head movement. I really thought that VR was about to take hold in a big way. Since I could turn one motor, I knew could turn three, so I set about building a three axis camera gimbal to remotely view environments in VR. At this point I was working at f5 networks and was working on board bring up and diagnostics for very high end hardware. I learned a ton of stuff about hardware. I pushed some of this into Proto 2.

This version had the following:

• Intel Edison mounted to the Arduino breakout.
• 3 nema 17 stepper motors.
• 3D printed gimbal mechanism.
• 3 L298N motor drivers.
• AC power supply stepped down to 12 volts DC
• 2 voltage regulators
• Custom 4D joystick built from 2 PSP thumb sticks and 2 normally off buttons.

I enclosed the electronics in between two clear poly carbonate slabs with brass bolts. It had an LED on each of the 12 GPIO feeding the motor drivers. The voltage regulators each had voltage and current 7 segment displays. I even built a light show that would strobe the motor driver LED's in different patterns when the motors we inactive. No one seemed to care much about 3 axis' of motors turning but everyone loved the shiny brass bolts and pretty red and blue LED's! I learned a little about hardware and a lot about showman ship.

In 2018 I was working on the gimbal when it came loose and fell back into the 120 volt AC power supply. It made a lot of sparks and blew almost every component! Maybe Proto did teach me something about hardware after all :-)