But for now, the main concern is powering the motor with an Arduino board.
How would this be handled in terms of powering it from an Arduino board?
First thing I think you need to get your mind around is the difference between powering something and controlling something. An arduino is great a controlling things, but it's very poor at powering things other then small leds and other low current components. So for your project you have to kind of make your component choices and decisions in a logic order as in:
- First select the motor. If must have the mechanical torque and rpm to do the job, the arduino cannot solve that if it does not.
- Once a motor is selected, find out what it's running voltage (and if AC or DC) and maximum current requirements are at full load you will be using it at.
- Select a voltage source (power supply) suitable to operate the motor at it's maximum load.
- Select the method you will be using to allow the arduino board to control the power to the motor. Do you require variable speed, do you require reversible rotation, or just on/off control? The answers to these will point you in the best direction for how the arduino can be interfaced to the motor to control it under you sketch software. It might be a simple relay or a logic level power MOSFET, or a full blown H-drive motor controller.
Lefty