Cutting Resistors with a Robot - Meet Vincent V

We cut resistors, A LOT of resistors. Over the last 3 weeks, I have built Vincent V, a robotic resistor cutter.

We call him V for short.

Construction
I used 8mm steel plate for the body and cutter assembly. The resistor drive plate is a 5mm toothed belt on Aluminium Pulleys (Aluminum for the Americans). This is driven by a NEMA 17 stepper motor. The resistors are held down on the belt by an Acrylic top plate, and springs. The cutter is a guillotine using the 8mm plate, fround by hand to 80' for sharpness and longevity. It slides in a keyway, and is operated by a 15mm stroke pneumatic cylinder. Air at 100psi is directed to the cylinder by the servo valve.

Control
The brain behind the control is an Arduino Uno R3.
The stepper motor is driven by an L298N H Bridge
The servo valve is switched using an IRFZ510 Mosfet
The software is still being worked on, but I couldn't wait any longer to give it a go.
For testing we used the stepper motor software on this blog, and added a command to take pin13 HIGH when we needed a cut.

Next Steps
Over the coming weeks I will be tidying up the build, A dedicated Power Supply, an LCD screen, and selector buttons, along with some better code.

If you would like to know more, just ask!