matthewa

Blog 2: Arduino – DC Motors

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by

mallawigan27
in

Welcome to my second blog!

For my second project of the year, I have a version of Project 9 from the Arduino Uno Starter Kit. I originally had way bigger hopes for this, combining it with my third blog (upcoming) to somehow create a remote-controlled car. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to make that possible. However, I have modified the booklet version of this project to include 2 motors that are connected in parallel with a diode.

Components:

– Breadboard – Arduino Uno

– Jumper Wires – 2 DC Motors

– Transistor – Diode

– 2 battery snaps – Pushbutton

– Resistor – USB cable

– 9V Battery – 2 Wooden wheels (in the kit)

– Wooden base

This is a diagram of said project that I got from the book, where you can see how both the 9V battery and the 5V power source from the Arduino Uno circuit powers the 2 motors (the circuit is connected to my computer). I modified this by adding a second DC motor in parallel.

As you can see drawn in red, this is exactly how I added the second DC motor in parallel to modify the motor. The preliminary reason why I wanted to add a second motor was for another wheel that was supposed to be for my remote-controlled car.

This is the code I used to run the circuit. I first declare the variables and then use void setup to as the name suggests, set up the code. This string of code only runs once. I then proceed to use void loop to make the code run indefinitely, where I put the code that makes the motors run when the button is pressed, and where the code that stops the motors is put.

I have zero previous experience with Arduino in the past, however I feel like I have learned the basics of coding with Arduino but I personally struggled with the circuits the most. My understanding of the transistors is still shallow and I hope by using more Arduino parts in the future I can learn to use Arduino at a higher level.

If you want to see a video of the DC Motors working, you can view that here.

Comments

3 Responses to “Blog 2: Arduino – DC Motors”

  1. mcrompton Avatar
    mcrompton

    Good start, Matthew. You have a simple Arduino device. You have copy and pasted the circuit diagram from somewhere (the Arduino website?). And you’ve altered that circuit diagram to indicate the simple modification that you made. I don’t see any of the code, so I’m not entirely sure how this works, outside of the video shows you pushing a button and the wheels spin. Honestly, for that, you likely don’t need any code (or even the arduino). Can you show me the code that you used? What did you learn in this process? Where did you start in terms of your knowledge of working with arduinos?

    Please reply in the comments below and add the code to the post itself.

    Reply
  2. mallawigan27 Avatar
    mallawigan27

    Hello Mr. Crompton,

    I pasted the circuit diagram in from a picture I took of the Arduino Uno Starter Kit booklet from the project 9 tutorial. I answered any other questions at the bottom of the post along with the code I used.

    Reply
  3. mcrompton Avatar
    mcrompton

    Thanks, Matthew. This fills in the gaps. Just a note, that you can do this project with half of the code. Your second switch state is redundant. In the first if statement you say, if the switch state is high do this or else do that. The second if statement says if the switch statement is low do this, or else do that. Since the switch state can only be high or low, there are only two options which you address in the first if statement. Make sense?

    Reply

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