LarryD:
You wont forget this though, will you ?Learn by doing makes things stick in your brain, but can be a real pain in the butt.
Oh, I know. But I'm a 16-year veteran teacher myself, and the way this guy runs the class is inexcusable. 8-line rant deleted
Anyway, I'm looking through my equipment list, and I've got an LM7805CT voltage regulator which I can attach to a 9V battery with the 9V battery strap. A friend of mine who knows a little about electronics tried to guide me to create a circuit that I could use as a power source for the 28BYJ-48 motor. He says I don't need the datasheet-recommended capacitors because it's okay if the signal isn't "clean" for my purposes. But, he stuck on four 1-Ohm resistors in parallel to control the amperage. I'm getting 4V (instead of 5V) out of it, but the motor doesn't even vibrate. When I switch the power from the regulator to the Arduino, it starts vibrating again. When I reconnect to the regulator but remove the resistors, the motor will vibrate. Still can't get it to move though. I have tried all 3 possible wirings for 2 pairs of 4 wires for the motor.
I'm going to look into how to test if my motor is just flat-out busted or if an external power supply is just flat-out necessary. I kind of doubt the latter because a very detailed entry at arduino-info.wikispaces indicated that the Arduino would be sufficient for a one-motor demonstration.
I'm about to give up and join my classmates in figuring out how to do all of these assignments on a PICkit 3 instead of an Arduino. Learning is one thing, but I have to pass this class.
