Using my Arduino Uno, I need to be able to simply start and stop the thing whenever I say so in the code. Right now, one lead to positive (5V is fast, 3.3V is slow) and the other to ground makes it spin.
Note that there are three leads on this thing, two of which seem to go to the attached PCB and out as resistors, and the third one you can see in the middle (but halfway down also gets soldered to a point on the PCB).
So what am I dealing with (brushless, etc.) and is it possible do turn on/off? I can remove the PCB with my solder iron if I have to.
[ I am obviously a noob, so clear instructions would be helpful, even though I'm getting pretty good at coding LEDs ]
Looks like a regular hobby DC motor to me. That middle wire is unusual, but it is probably just a "shield" wire that someone decided would be a good idea to reduce electromagnetic noise or interference. I'm guessing you can just ignore it.
If you just want to go in one direction then you can turn the motor on and off with a simple transistor circuit. Otherwise you will need an H-bridge circuit for bidirectional control. If you Google "Arduino DC motor control" you will get lots of hits.
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The Gadget Shield: accelerometer, RGB LED, IR transmit/receive, speaker, microphone, light sensor, potentiometer, pushbuttons
RuggedCircuits, thanks for your reply! After reading up on some other motors, I was hoping that third circuit was some sort of "control" lead, haha, I just can't be THAT lucky.
jonarmani:
RuggedCircuits, thanks for your reply! After reading up on some other motors, I was hoping that third circuit was some sort of "control" lead, haha, I just can't be THAT lucky.
Thanks again
If you look at the PCB, it appears that there are a couple of surface mount capacitors wired between each lead and the "third wire" going to the motor's case (C1 and C3); these (plus the "spurious" cap C2) and the low value resistors (3.3 ohm each, I believe) serve as a "noise suppression" filter for the motor (which is a small brushed DC motor), to keep any sparking noise from the commutator from reaching back to the controlling PCB on the toy (which can cause issues).
Leave everything in place, and be glad you don't have to add it yourself; the motor should (and apparently does, as you mentioned) work fine with them in place, and the extra filtering (which on another "bare" motor you'd have to add yourself) only helps.
I don't think there's anything special about the board. I think the middle wire is ground, and the two resistors are forward and backwards. I made a tutorial on YouTube explaining how to run a motor. Arduino ~ DC Motor Controller (Easy!) - YouTube