#Mostly Printed Field Characterization System

The Mostly Printed Field Characterization System (MPFCS) is a CNC-based scanning system for devices' electric and magnetic fields. Given a device, it creates a 3D point cloud of the fields resulting from a EM Transmitter (e.g. a complex WPT Coil) using a field probe mounted to the MPCNC's end effector. This end effector contains two stepper motors that allow tilt through 90deg and pan through 180deg down to 0.05deg accuracy. Additionally the above field probe can be replaced with a receiving coil to capture S21 data for characterizing the transfer between a transmitter and receiver. The system was built almost entirely of 3D printed and off-the-shelf parts.

Although remarkably reconfigurable, our main use case is for characterizing wireless power systems. The MPFCS acts as a design tool for systems with fields that are too complex to feasibly simulate.

To run the system as configured see the information in the GitHub.

We've released our research paper on this design! Read the paper here!

###System Summary:

• Designed Max Volume (X, Y, Z) = 620 x 620 x 310mm
  • X, Y, & Z Homing End-stops Implemented
• Software Limited Max (X, Y, Z) = 600 x 600 x 300mm
• Precision (X, Y, Z): 0.01mm
• End Effector Angular Precision (Tilt, Pan): 0.5deg
• Software: Open Source Software GUI (Python)
• Estimated Cost of Materials:
  • ~$630 (S-Parameter & Calibration)
  • ~$940 (S-Parameter, B-Field Characterization & Calibration)
  • Cost Breakdown here.
  • Note: Excluded from the costs are the central controlling PC and the VNA