STORY
A washing machine is a cleaning appliance that uses electrical energy to produce mechanical action to wash clothes. In our daily life, the washing machine has become a necessary household appliance in every family. So have you ever thought about how a washing machine cleans clothes? Follow me to make a mini washing machine with some simple tools and programming. I believe you can find its principle in it; you just need to prepare it according to the list of items I listed, and you can make a mini washing machine of your own!
REQUIRED EQUIPMENT
ELECFREAKS BBC micro:bit V2.2 *1
ELECFREAKS Nezha Breakout Board *1
ELECFREAKS High-Speed Building Blocks Motor *1
Some building blocks
20 x 5mm*6mm cylindrical magnets
A laundry tub (cylindrical glass jar)
CASE INTRODUCTION
We are making a mini washing machine, which is mainly composed of a washing drum, a wave wheel, and a driving device. Controlling the motor rotation drives the wave wheel to rotate in the laundry drum, so as to clean the clothes. I’m too tired to wash socks every night, I plan to use it to wash my socks!
BUILD STEPS
1. First, we use the blocks to build a washing machine wheel, and then put the wheel in the laundry bucket (cylindrical glass jar) we prepared, think about it, then how to make the wheel in the laundry bucket turn?
2. Here we need to use a magnetic drive technology, respectively, in the drive and the wave wheel to install our pre-prepared 5mm * 6mm cylindrical magnets, so that the drive across the glass can drive the wave wheel.
3. In order to reduce the friction between the magnet below the bobbin and the bottom of the glass, here I installed four small blocks for cushioning under the bobbin.
4. Next, we use the blocks to build a drive unit that can provide power to the base, and power to provide the main rely on the motor rotation, due to the motor rotation speed being slow, we built a secondary acceleration system here to drive the drive unit.
5. We then add some blocks to the base, you can make the laundry bucket placed on the base.
6. Then we use the blocks to build a frame again, placing the washing machine in the cleaning work occurred when the rollover.
7. Next, we need to install some blocks on the Nezha expansion board to connect to the washing machine as a whole.
8. Install the Nezha expansion board on the washing machine as a whole and connect the motor to the M1 connector of the Nezha expansion board.
9. Finally, we will be installed in the washing machine bucket and wave wheel as well. At this point, the entire washing machine is complete.
micro:bit PROGRAMMING
Next, we just need to program the micro:bit motherboard to control the motor rotation to control whether the washing machine starts working or not. Here our program is relatively simple, we set the value of variable I through the A and B buttons, and then we judge that when the value of I equals 1, the motor starts rotating and the washing machine starts working; when the value of I equals to 2, the motor stops rotating and the washing machine stops working.
Program link: https://makecode.microbit.org/_4hy354PktDi0
DISPLAY
CONCLUSION
Through this article, you can learn how to make a mini washing machine and also learn to control the motor through the Nezha expansion board. The Nezha expansion board is still very powerful, think about it, can you add some new functions to it?