OpenMoCo for motion control
OpenMoCo is short for “Open Motion Control”. The community is focussed on building rigs for moving cameras.
They have great, detailed, accessible articles on different topics including gearing, motors, and their own software and hardware. They also list several good hardware sources.
It is maybe not a replacement for pipette micromanipulators. However, for stages, microscope platforms, and motorized mechanisms in behavior rigs, this could be a great resource for a custom made solutions.
The have forums too. It’s not the most active community, but it seems to have a steady pace. And perhaps if they broadened their scope a bit, there would be an increase in activity. The infrastructure itself seems very general. Here’s a diagram:
(via)