Newbie: Proximity control of tape player motor

Hi,

I am totally new to this. Sorry for asking any dumb questions.

I am wanting to control the speed of a rubbish tape cassette player that i've opened up by a proximity sensor (somewhere in the range 10cm (min i.e. fast) to 2 meters(max i.e. slow).

I can see that the motor has four wires. I have got as far as

red - to arduino 5v power
black - to gnd
orange - 9 pin digital
red - spare? (the actual motor controls two tape decks (rec and play - i want to just control playback speed of one)

i've got this from the servo tutorial, but am not sure if the motor is even a servo motor anyway.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Any help would be much appreciated,

thx

i doubt that the motor is a servo motor, more than likely it is a brushed dc motor, but that wouldnt explain the 4 wires. maybe it has two windings for two different speeds (fast forward and play?). try to get the motor spinning by directly connecting it to a battery first.

Also, unles it's a VERY small motor it will possibly draw too much current to be hooked up directly to an Arduini pin.

An Arduino pin can source 40mA (absolute max).

Hi thanks for the advice,

i see on the motor etched into it next to the wires

red +
black -
orange A
white B

running the arduino from usb power

when i put red into 5v and black into gnd the motor turns

when i then put either orange or white into pin 9 - it stops

this is all without any sketch, or indeed the arduino environment running at all.

umm?

i would also like, in the final project ,to run two further motors (from disaasembled radio controlled cars) from the board too.

so am i putting my laptop, or the arduino at risk from connecting it to the motor?

i have tried running the motor directly from a battery (9v) to no effect

(red to + and black to - ?)

should i be looking into motor shields?

thnx for any help,

Try one of these if you only need to use DC motors I recommend the first link.

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

It still doesen't sound like a standard DC motor to me.

First thing it has 4 wires, i never saw a small DC motor with more than 2.

Second if it doesen't run when you connect the red and black wires to + and - on a 9v battery and something else needs to be connected then it's not a DC motor, as far as i can see.

I would NOT hook that motor up directly to my Arduino board, in fact i would not hook up ANY motor directly to my Arduino board, i have seen enough grey smoke in my time :slight_smile:

you guys, thanks for the advice,

i've ordered the motor shield from adafruit, and a couple of books. i'll get back on the list when i've learnt a bit more.

thanks again for your guidance

regards jmt

If you need a godd source for cheap motors, try to find some old inkjet printers. They usually contain one Dc and one stepper motor, sometimes 2 steppers.