Motor control, where do I begin?

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

I am a teacher with no experience with Arduino. Our school introduces a new vocabulary word each week. We would like to hack toys to create a number of eye catching gizmos to accomplish this goal effectively. I have the Arduino board, prototyping breadboard, and the motor shield assembled.

We want our motors to activate with a motion detector (nightlight component). I have successfully programmed a motor to run in one direction but reverse is still a mystery.

Ideally, we should have a dozen or more of these contraptions. Does this mean we will have to buy a board for each or can the board program the chip and then the chip function as a stand alone?

Thank you.

2

There are motor shields available for the arduino which allow you to control several motors with one board

Motor Shield - Arduino motor/stepper/servo control has a motor shield which has

2 connections for 5V 'hobby' servos

Up to 4 bi-directional DC motors

Up to 2 stepper motors

If you use bi-directional DC motors you could control 4 motors per arduino board

http://www.nkcelectronics.com/arduino-shield-motor-control.html

others may have shields also

You may be able to use multiple L293D chips to control more motors but I don't think it would fit on a shield

You would probably need a much bigger PCB or a large breadboard for the additional L293Ds and possibly a board with more pins than the arduino

Power would be an issue too, if you have too many motors you may need much more power than the arduino voltage regulator can handle, so you may need a large external regulated power supply

:slight_smile:

3

I have the motor shield. Does this mean I simply write some code that will run a motor x seconds in one direction, x seconds in the other and then stop to reset? Appreciate your help.

4

In that case I would suggest looking at the examples here Arduino motor/stepper/servo control - How to use and elsewhere on that site

:slight_smile: