Control DC motors?

Projects Programming
1

Now, I've gotten my DC motors to move, however I haven't been able to get them to respond to timing whatsoever. I've confirmed that the power is being run through and regulated by the arduino, but it puzzles me why I can't adjust timing or turn the motors on or off. Here is the code I made. Anything in setup caused errors, so I moved things into the void loop. Do I need anything in void setup? Is that what's messed up?

For my setup I'm using an arduino uno with a tip31 transistor and a 1N4001 diode. The motors are supposed to be controlled through analog 3 (A3)

void setup()
{
}

void loop()
{
  delay(5000);
  int motorPin = 3;
  pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT);
  analogWrite(motorPin, 0);
  delay(1000);
  analogWrite(motorPin, 255);
  delay(3000);
  analogWrite (motorPin,0);
   delay(1000); 
  
}
2 
  int motorPin = 3;
  pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT);

Goes in setup(). What external hardware are you using?

Mark

3

Put an LED in your pin 3 so that you can see if your code works or not. If the LED lights as expected then I would look at the wiring of your motor controller.

4

DC motors are typically controlled with a H-Bridge Motor controller chips or shields.

Although you mention a transistor and diode, you don't provide enough information. For example, are you trying to power the motor from the Arduino? (bad idea). Do you have a the transistor rigged correctly?

As another poster has mentioned, you might want to try getting a LED to stand in for the motor to see if your circuit is working.

Really though, you should get either an H-Bridge chip or motor shield. Ultimately that's the way to go with controlling DC motors.

5

thank you very much guys!!! I've found that the LED isn't working when connected instead of my 2 motors.

on my uno it goes

6

That way of using your motor is not going to work (most likely). The Arduino can not source enough power for a motor. The power supply should be separate from the Arduino !!

Try something like this instead. You need to provide a separate power supply for the motor and at the correct voltage. (The motor may not be a 5V motor, you didn't specify.)

As an aside, you should check out Fritzing. They have plenty of layouts for hundreds of simple projects.

7

I may try that, is there a code that goes with it?

8

You have the motor connected to A3 when it should be connected to D3. analogWrite() works on the digital pins NOT the analog pins.

Mark

9

holmes4:
analogWrite() works on the digital pins (added by Jim:) marked with ~ NOT the analog pins

You might like to look at this and / or this. (Not that those tuts are any better than any others, I just like the pics 8) )