Or more accurately, filing off the stops.

Recently Tim Hirzel asked if I knew of a source of motors without stops, or if the X25.168’s could be modified to remove the stops and open up the full 360 degrees of rotation.

Good question! The X25 Series Buyers Guide lists 6 models of motors without stops, but a quick search turned up no suppliers selling these in small volumes.

Okay, time to figure out if the stops can be removed. Note that I’m working on a VID-29 clone, not a genuine Switec X25.168 here. There are 4 tiny screws that open the case revealing this:

For the second gauge in this build, I tried to get better placement of the current-limiting resistor. By placing it tight in the corner, it wont cast a shadow.

These photos show the LEDs at 100% brightness, but they are on PWM pins so I can control the intensity from the Arduino code.

Getting Started with the SwitecX25 Library

For Arduino IDE version 1.0 and later you can store user-contributed libraries in a subdirectory of your sketch directory named ‘libraries’. In fact you really should install them there to ensure that they persist when you upgrade the IDE.

Today I added an LED backlight to my square gauge. I really like how light leaks from the grills at the top and bottom of gauge.

I made dial faces for a couple of the square gauges built in Build Number One. Nearly ready to install these guys.