Context

In the second half of the course, the students form teams and take on a design project which typically requires a motor and gearbox supplied. Before starting this project, the students learn about how electric motors and transmissions work and how to characterize them and find efficiency.

For this lab, I designed and assembled simple lab kits for the students to use to characterize their motors and transmissions. The students mount an encoder disk on their motor and mount it to a baseplate. The students test various voltages, and an IR detector counts motor RPM and displays it on a computer via an Arduino. For a transmission characterization lab, the motor could also be installed in a gearbox and screwed onto the same baseplate.

Class Motor characterization lab kits