Making a DIY Ventilator using a stepper motor.

For construction of the ventilator, we need:

  • A piece of wood
  • A hinge
  • A stepper motor bracket
  • Apiece of “shock absorbers” 
  • NEMA 17 Stepper motor

Assembling the parts together:

  1. Cut the wood in two pieces as desired to make the pressing arm and the base of the ventilator. 
  1. Hinge the pieces of wood together one side.
  1. Cut a piece of “shock absorber” and place it on the wood as a base for the Ambu bag.
  1. After assembling the parts together and mounting the stepper motor

For rotating the motor we need to connect the Arduino circuit.

The components required are as follows:

  • Arduino Mega 2560
  • A4988 Motor driver module with heat sink
  • Potentiometers
  • 100µF capacitor
  • Breadboard and Jumper wires
  • 12v 2A Adaptor.

The A4988 driver controls the bipolar stepper motor using the steps and direction pins. Check out its data sheet for more info: https://www.tme.eu/Document/25459777e672c305e474897eef284f74/POLOLU-2128.pdf

The electrical connections are as shown in the complete circuit schematic below:

Connections description:

  1. VDD and GND pins from the driver connected to 5V and GND of the Arduino.
  2. A1 ,B1 ,A2 ,B2 pins of the driver are connected to the stepper motor.
  3. VMOT and GND of the driver to power supply with the 100µF capacitor in between the two terminals for decoupling.
  4. STEP and DIR pin of the driver to pin 8 and 9 of the Arduino.
  5. The wipers of the potentiometers connected to pins A0 and A1 of the Arduino. The other two pins of the potentiometer to 5V and GND.
  6. Connect RST and SLEEP pin on the driver.

Here’s the Arduino circuit connection diagram:

The total Cost of assembling the ventilator is less than KES 20, 000 .

For commercial production or incase one needs us to assemble the ventilator for them you can reach us on below contacts.

Share This