I am currently working on a project related to robotics for the robot arm. I use a 13 mm motor for this. To increase the accuracy and determine the position of the finger, I use a conventional potentiometer. It is attached to the finger to determine whether it is open or closed. However, there is a problem: the potentiometer interferes with the movement of the finger. I would like to ask if there are motors that can be used in this case. I am considering motors from Maxon Motor.
I used small trimmers like that in a robotic arm project and I have never had problems. what do you mean with "interferes"? If it's a mechanical issue it could be a matter of bad/misaligned mounting.
No, there are no mechanical or other problems. Everything is working fine. The problem is the size. I wanted to ask if there are motors that can do the potentiometer function.
Ok, now I got what you meant, sorry. BTW, I don't know your size requirements, but at the time I knew there were motors with internal encoder. The ones I have seen were all too big for my plastic arm, so I just used some "naked" trimmers (i.e. without that -useless- board) small enough to be fixed in axis with the joint/motor and had no problem at all. I can't tell you more than this.
There are motors with shaft encoders, but the shaft position is almost always relative to the power-on position. Absolute shaft encoders are large and expensive.
There are motors with shaft position sensors that can detect the position of the shaft regardless of the switching position. Such motors usually use magnetic or optical sensors to determine the position of the shaft and do not require initial calibration each time they are switched on.
For example, some motors using a Hall sensor or encoder can accurately determine the position of the shaft even after switching off and on again. This is achieved due to the fact that information about the position of the shaft is stored in the memory of the microcontroller or in a special encoder system.
Please help if we can try to find this type of motor on the site:
Are you committed to what you have so far? Servo motors always know where they are and are easy to implement. If the angle limits are too restrictive for your needs, 360 degree rotation servos also exist.
(edited for clarity. I originally said continuous rotation servos but they don't work as simply as typical servos, afaik)
Do I understand correctly that the potentiometer is only used to determine either opened or closed, but never used to determine intermediate positions?
If so, why not use a switch and when the program starts, move the finger to a known position based on the switch.
Trimmers are not intended for continued use , the track will quickly wear out .
The arms I’ve seen have fingers operated by pushrods in the arm , that would give you more space .
On a finger , you need a motor with gearbox - difficult to make small .
Have a look what others have done - small servos ?.