Tiny Encoders for DC motors

Hi again! Today I'll show you a small part of a project that I did a long time ago and, due to some changes of plans I didn't end up using. Anyway, maybe this small project might come up handy for you.
Some time ago I went to a junkyard to salvage two powerful high torque DC motors from car window lifting systems to use in a robot and had to make some encoders to put in them. The space where I could put them was really small so I had to find really small sensors and design a PCB for them in Kicad.
The sensors that I used were Vishay's TCUT1300 IR Transmissive Sensor with photo-transistor output. Following the sensor's datasheet I designed a small board (10x8mm) that would fit in the space that I had available.

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Experimenting with vacuum molding

Hi there! This post is about a really simple way of making plastic parts for your projects. Have you ever heard of vacuum molding? It's a method to make a plastic mold of a piece by using heat and suction from a vacuum cleaner. You can easily replicate what I'm going to show you. You just need some wooden pieces to make a box like the one you'll see in the picture, a vacuum cleaner, a heat gun/electric heater/oven and some disposable plastic dishes.

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