All of the electrical systems for this project are wired to an Arduino. Two types of motors were used in this project: a stepper motor and a servo motor. The stepper motor was used to turn the wheel, while the servo motor was used for the swiper mechanism. The circuit diagram to the left indicates the positions of these motors and the pedal, which acts as the trigger mechanism.
Motors
We used two motors in our system. A stepper motor (photo on the left) to roll the page up and a servo motor (photo on the right) to move the flipper. The servo motor worked well throughout, but the stepper motor proved to be problematic. We originally used a library to control the stepper motor, but the motors, as a result, were very finicky and didn't always work as we wanted them to. Furthermore, since we didn't really know what code went into the library, it was very hard to troubleshoot. We decided to switch to sample code that "manually" turned the coils on and off in the order necessary to turn the stepper motor (for the order see table below) and this worked out significantly better. In addition to working exactly as we expected it to, being able to see the whole code made the trouble shooting process significantly easier.
Trigger Mechanism
For the duration of the project we went through two iterations of our trigger. For our first iteration, we experimented with this really cool material called Velostat/Linqstat whose resistance decreases when force is applied. Sandwiching the copper tape between two strips of copper tape and two pieces of cardboard, we created our first cut pedal. This worked pretty well, but didn't produce the feedback sensation of pushing on something, so we found a sewing machine foot pedal that we repurposed. Minimizing excess noise, we added some lining that allows the pedal to be silent when pressed.
Protoboard
In order to compactly organize our wires and various components, we soldered everything to a protoboard. This also allowed us to create permanent connections that won't fall out of place if bumped. It also allows for the wiring to fit more compactly into the box.
