FabScan – how to build a 3D scanner? A DIY tutorial… VOL 2

Several days ago I have begun to describe how to build a low-budget 3D scanner called FabScan yourself. In the first episode of the series I told its history and I made a list of elements necessary to put them together. Have you done the shopping? – So, we can start to assemble it. Today, we will prepare electronics.

Assuming that my tutorial should be easy and comprehensive, I want to ask real gold mines to be understanding towards less experienced readers, for who I tried to explain everything extremely detailed. On the other hand, when some expressions sound to general, please, let me know. O.K., let’s get back to our 3D scanner.

FabScan Shield

As I mentioned in my recent article, the plate is sent to us in pieces, so you need to treat it with a soldering iron. Of course, there are four places to plug motors, but I decided to use only one. If you are lazy, as I am, you can prepare sockets to plug only one motor and a stepstick.  It is enough, when  you solder pins, thanks to which you connect the Arduino plate, two female battens of pins to place a step motor, four male pins to to plug the motor and two male pins to install a laser. It should look like in the picture below.

Step motor

The step motor has six cables (black, green, red, blue, white and yellow). You won’t need a white and a yellow one, the rest is to install in following order: black, green, red and blue.

Line laser

I guess, that its cables will be to short and you will need to extend them and finish them with a female plug for two pins.

Camera

The most complicated will be to prepare the internet camera Logitech C270.

1. Remove the front panel.
   
2. You loosen three screws, to get inside.
3. Loosen two screws holding the plate with the camera inside the casing.
4.  To remove the plate with optics you can unplug one plug and solder the second cable, and then put them together. I decided for more destructive version and I used pincers to cut out a wedge in the casing, through which I removed the cable.
5. Unblock an option of manual setting of definition of the camera. Above the lens there is an internal ring, which is fixed to the casing of optics. You should remove a glue. After that you can turn the ring. It will be necessary to set the definition manually. I will describe in in the next episode.
6. You will need a drill of a diameter of 2 mm to broach two gaps, which hold the plate close to the casing of the camera.

Putting the electronics

1. Put the Arduino, the FabScan Shield and the stepstick together.
2. Connect the laser and motor.
3. It should look like that.

In the next episode I will write how to put the electronics with the casing of the 3D scanner together.