A general-purpose motor test and calibration stand

I found myself in need for a proper test and calibration stand were I can easily switch motors, electronics and applications. It consist of three main stages on top of each other and bolted together. The first one elevates the whole assembly to have enough ground clearance for test equipment. The second stage is the mounting plate for the specific motor to test. The third is the application stage that can be varied. In the demo picture the application is a magnetic stirrer for stirring chemicals.

general-purpose motor test and calibration stand

Feature List

  • replaceable motor mounting plate out of ABS (temperature-resistant up to 100°C)
  • fan mounting for cooling
  • possible motors
    • gimbal motors
    • drone motors
    • steppers
  • sensor feedback
    • optical RPM-sensor for high speeds
    • magnetic position sensor for low speeds and accurate positioning
  • possible applications (may need additional parts)
    • speed measurement
    • finding electrical zero offset between motor and position magnet
    • torque measurement
    • PID calibration with different loads
    • revisiting the forever-spinning Levitron
    • magnetic stirring for chemicals

One of the first things I used this calibration stand for was PID tuning a drone motor. This way I got a feel for how the different terms influence the control system and what noise the sensor produces. For visualization I used SimpleFOCStudio.

SimpleFOCStudio, picture from https://github.com/JorgeMaker/SimpleFOCStudio

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