This instructable gives a short walk-trough of my linear actuator design. The idea of this design is to keep it relatively simple, keep the cost relatively low and make a well functioning actuator !

The Actuator is driven by a NEMA 17 motor and in my case using uStepper S and egoShield S to make it fully stand-alone.

Step 1: Drawings, Instructions and BOM

I have done a bit of effort to put together a BOM and build instruction in a PDF here. It should pretty much explain everything regarding the mechanics. Also a package with STL files is to find here as well as a STEP file for the complete design - making it possible to adjust for your specific needs.

Printing of the parts was done in PLA with 0.2mm layers, 50 % infill and support where needed.

Step 2: Programming and Test

So, now comes the easy part since I use the uStepper S and Egoshield S :)

The software for uStepper - and an instruction can be found on GitHub - just follow the instructions in the Readme section.

Now we have to add the egoShield S library which is found in the Arduino Library Manager as shown on the screenshot.

Next step is to go into the Arduino examples menu and find egoShield S and the "Teach" example. As you can see on the attached screenshot the resolution with the M8 rod here is 288 deg/mm since it has 1.25 mm travel per revolution. I also increased the velocity to 1000 to give it a bit more speed with the really low pitch of the M8 rod.

A video showing a test of a random motor I had lying on the shelf shows that the 12 Kg weight of that motor is not a problem for the linear actuator :)