Custom Stepper Motor Bracket

We needed a motor bracket for the NIARC robot, so we had a look at what was currently around. Googling gave a few options in the $10-50 range, which was way too much! So I modelled one of the brackets in Inventor and had it printed in PLA:

This did the job of holding the motor, but it wasn’t very stiff (being made from PLA) which is bad news for accurate odometry, and it took up a lot of vertical space as the fasteners go between the motor and the bracket. So I redesigned it to have the fasteners either side of the motor, and with larger side supports:

This design also used the motor body itself as support structure to minimise flex, when mounted in the upright orientation. The cut-out in the base was to reduce material and allow room for the motor wires if needed. We had two of these printed in fancy red ABS:

These were very stiff and compact, and worked fantastically! You can see them in place here, in an early version of the robot: