I’ve reached a minor milestone in developing improved actuators for Super Mega Microbot.  Previously I demonstrated basic closed loop control using a VESC.  Now I have a custom control board running closed loop vector-based current and position control on a single brushless servo!  I’ll hopefully write up pieces in more depth later, but this post can serve as a proof of existence.

First, boards as received from MacroFab:

Control Board – Front

Control Board – Back

Mounted onto the planetary gearbox:

And finally, a brief video of operation, with tview (from the mjmech gimbal) alongside.

Amazingly, I’ve needed no blue wires or rework of any kind so far.  Next up is to get it communicating over the RS485 link instead of serial, build a second gearbox, and get it jumping!