DIY Linear Tubular Motor Does Precise Slides

We’ve seen plenty of motor projects, but [Jeremy]’s DIY Tubular Linear Motor is a really neat variety of stepper motor in a format we certainly don’t see every day. It started as a design experiment in making a DIY reduced noise, gearless actuator and you can see the result here.

Here’s how it works: the cylindrical section contains permanent magnets, and it slides back and forth through the center of a row of coils depending on how those coils are energized. In a way, it’s what one would get by unrolling a typical rotary stepper motor. The result is a gearless (and very quiet) linear actuator that controls like a stepper motor.