Can an arduino uno be used to control a large amount of motors? If so, how?

Erdin:
These recent post are about controlling lots of servos:

The Arduino Mega 2560 can handle up to 48 servos:
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,154561.0.html
That is a simple and easy solution. A few Arduino Mega for hundreds of servos.

Sweet! I only have a UNO R3, so I did not know MEGA has such a potential. Sorry for that. And I learned I can control up to 12 on my board :slight_smile: Thanks. I should read more >_>

If your project is not permanent, buying a few MEGA boards would be the best solution IMO, because after that you will have 3-5 boards to play with. Otherwise, tying something as complex as a MEGA just to control servos is... cruel. It is overkill. Idea itself makes me cringe.

If you are an adventurous type, you can try something like SparkFun PWM Shield - DEV-10615 - SparkFun Electronics or better yet, you can build your own circuit with the IC used in that one: http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tlc5940.pdf. 10 of these ICs sell for €27 (cheaper than single MEGA) at farnell. Of course, these are just examples and you should search for better ICs and better prices. But this method can be significantly harder and frustrating. Although I would go this way, I think Erdin sorted this out for you until a better approach is posted :slight_smile:

-d