Platform
- Arduino platform: Arduino
- Rotating platform: 3D printing、CREO
Making an Arduino Rotating Platform
- Counting the diameter of all Petri dishes used in the experiment
- Use Creo to draw a rotating platform to hold 6 Petri dishes
- Use Arduino to set the specific rotation speed and rotation angle of the servo motor
- Align the Petri dishes with the lens direction
- Terminate the program when one round of experiment is finished
Fig. 1) Platform making by Creo
Design Concept
Arduino Platform
Arduino provides a very convenient medium for creators around the world to create their own projects. As for our case, we used a servo motor as the power source for our rotating platform. Since the common servo motor (SG90) can only rotate 180 degrees during a set, the low torque and voltage problem will cause insufficient power to rotate or pulse to drive the motor if plenty of plates are placed on the turntable. Therefore, we use a 360 degree rotation servo motor (DS3230) to solve the problem of low torque and as long as providing sufficient voltage (e.g. mobile charger) , we can drive the whole set of turntables. Last, the large rotating arm can provide better stability when rotating the turntables.
Rotating Platform
The design concept of the rotation turntable is used to hold most of the plates in our lab, and the unclosed boundaries and holes drilled at the bottom were made to allow plates for easy removal. Initially, we were afraid that the light would not be strong enough so we put a light bulb next to the groove, but we found that it did not work well, so we turned it into a handle for moving the rotation turntable.