Hi guys,
So I am working on building an alarm clock that opens my blinds when the alarm goes off. I have the alarm clock all setup on my lcd (I am not using a shield just a plain old lcd) and it looks great, but the problem I ran into now is with the motor to open my blinds. I have a small servo motor, but that only rotates 180 degrees. The servo will not be able to rotate far enough for it to open and close the blinds all the way. I also have a small 6/9 volt Dc motor, but I can not figure out how to set it up and control the speed from my Arduino. I could use a stepper motor, but I don't know what parts other parts I would need to buy along with the steppermotor to make it run. I have an Arduino uno and pins 1,2,9, and 12 on Digital open to use for my project. So really my question is what motor should I use and how! I'm open to suggestions about my project, but someone please help!
I could use a stepper motor, but I don't know what parts other parts I would need to buy along with the steppermotor to make it run.
A stepping motor driver:-
[driver](Pololu - A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier)
. I also have a small 6/9 volt Dc motor, but I can not figure out how to set it up and control the speed from my Arduino.
You'll probably need to gear it down (or use pulleys, etc.) Typically, you'd use a DC motor and limit switches to tell it when to stop. If you wanted to do things like automatically open to 50% or 10%, then you'd use a stepper motor but you'd still need a limit switch or "home sensor" so the microcontroller knows where to start counting steps.
A DC motor requires a transistor or MOSFET driver, and since you want to reverse it you need an "H-Bridge" motor driver. With PWM into the motor driver you can also control speed but when you reduce speed with PWM you also reduce torque (the opposite of a gear or pulley system) and you probably won't be able to get it slow enough with PWM alone.
A stepper motor requires a stepper-motor driver.
What do you mean by gear it down? Would this Mosfet transistor [IRF520] work? I have also read that Diodes are needed with the dc motor to help prevent destroying the arduino so would this Diode [1N4007] work? I think i'll go with the dc motor, but I do not know how to wire it up. I know I am a newbie to all of this 
but thank you for the help!
What do you mean by gear it down?
Putting gears on the end of the motor to reduce the rotation speed. It will be too fast without.
However the problem with a DC motor is that you do not have the control over its position.