u/Wonderful-Honey-9229

If it works, it works... right? 😭

If it works, it works... right? 😭

Hey guys,

I recently finished an internship at a research center (CDTA) where I was tasked with building a custom board to control a 24V industrial robotic arm gripper. I wanted to share the project here to see what you guys think, especially regarding the hardware choices.

I built it around the ESP32-C3. Right now, it hosts a local web server (Standard HTTP GET) so you can open/close the heavy-duty gripper from a phone or PC. (I’m currently working on upgrading the UI to WebSockets for smoother, real-time animation).

The Hardware Dilemma: I actually designed two different PCB configurations for the 24V coil/motor and I'm curious what you guys would prefer in an industrial setting:

Relay-Based: Great isolation and robust against voltage spikes, but suffers from mechanical wear and arcing from the inductive load.

MOSFET-Based: Silent, infinite lifespan, and allows for potential PWM (variable grip strength), but much more sensitive to ESD and requires proper gate driving and flyback protection.

I’ve open-sourced the firmware, the web UI, and the hardware comparisons on my GitHub. I’m trying to grow my network in the embedded systems space, so I'd love it if you guys checked it out!

https://github.com/0xNaviMetal/ESP32-Industrial-Gripper-Controller.git

(Also, I attached some pictures of the custom PCB and the web UI to this post!)

Let me know if you’d go with the Relay or the MOSFET, or if you have any tips for my next WebSocket version!