My Wing Project

About the project

My wing project is quite self-explanatory but also quite different it is a GT3 sort of style wing for my MX5 what's different about it is that it is movable it has five flaps each individually controlled that can move up and down depending on speed breaking and so on

Project info

Difficulty: Moderate

Estimated time: 3 months

License: GNU General Public License, version 3 or later (GPL3+)

Items used in this project

Hardware components

Stepper motors NEMA 17 Stepper motors NEMA 17 x 5
Stepper drivers over 2 amps and up to 48 volts Stepper drivers over 2 amps and up to 48 volts x 5
Universal wing mounts Universal wing mounts x 2
A sheet of aluminium composite A sheet of aluminium composite x 1
A spare MX5 Mark 2 boot lid A spare MX5 Mark 2 boot lid x 1
Worm gearboxes Worm gearboxes x 5
Arduino Uno - R3 Arduino Uno - R3 x 1
Switches just so you can turn on the wing Switches just so you can turn on the wing x 1
2.5 mm cabling 2.5 mm cabling x 1
Flat hinges Flat hinges x 8

View all

Software apps and online services

Arduino ide Arduino ide I downloaded it on Windows 10 don't know what else it works on

Hand tools and fabrication machines

3D printer 3D printer 3D prints were used for the gearboxes x 1
A hammer A hammer As I didn't have a roller machine I just used a hammer here x 1
Electrical screwdrivers Electrical screwdrivers x 1
A drill A drill For drilling the boot lid and the wing for the cables to run down x 1

Story

The idea popped in my head almost a year ago now in a CAD lesson at this time I didn't have a car like the one that I have now in Mazda MX5 so I designed it a bit but not properly or for any purpose as the car that i had at the time wouldn't work for it, about 3 months later I got the opportunity to buy my Mazda so the idea could be properly developed so that's what I did I'm managed to find some scrapped old signs made of aluminium composite and decided to use it as it was lightweight and reasonably strong after shaping it with hammer and a cost iron belt wheel I was able to put on hinges and the sides making the actual wing then after buying a second-hand boot lid I created my own custom mounting system in essence some 10 millimeter bolts straight down about 500 millimeters long with four nylon nuts holding it onto the boot lid and the wing as you can probably imagine it sounds pretty sketchy and not the best looking and you would be right so a couple weeks later I changed over to a universal mount that is also when the electrics arrived putting on the motors and Stepper drivers unfortunately this is when I got a bit stuck as I've never touched an Arduino before I didn't really have the best idea of what I was doing and was struggling to get the motors to even move and luckily after getting some help from guides and tutorials as well as chatgbt I got all five of them to move once they were all mounted my original idea was to have the motors rigged up to a aelerometer unfortunately after many hours trying and trying to get it to work properly I ended up just bailing on in completely and for the moment it is controlled by a switch in the interior I've taken out and tested it quite a few times now on the road and on a race track and there are definitely some changes that need to be made as it is still very much a project no where near completed as on the track day after spinning out and crashing it's destroyed all the gearboxes as the switch got knocked somehow and for the motors went into the wing breaking all of the gearboxes so when I come back to it and repair all the damage I will be putting in some switches so when they are pressed by the motor after a certain amount of rotation it will send a signal back to the Arduino that will send the signal to the motor not to turn anymore.


If you want to have a little bit of a close look I would suggest going on YouTube and searching up "the police's new tactic to controlling car meets" by adamc3046 and skipping forward to around the five minute Mark or you can go on Instagram and search up mx_big_wing but there is a full video coming on YouTube by me and just editing it as I'm writing this the channel is called technicaltucker. 


I hope you liked my project 

Many thanks

Schematics, diagrams and documents

The original mount system

Code

My code

Credits

Photo of technicaltucker

technicaltucker

Bit of a tinkerer mainly on cars and engines doing things that have never been done

   

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