Hello! I am doing a research project for school. My goal is to design a watch that will incorporate something called alternating bilateral stimulation by using coin cell vibrating motors. For my watch, I would like the motors to alternate vibrations. One side will vibrate, then the other side will. These alternations would be quick; less than one second per alternation. One other specification my watch needs to have is I need to have the motors at different intensities, which would be selectable. I am thinking I need 4 vibrating motors in the watch, two on each side. I would like to have about 9 different intensities the motors can vibrate at, starting at a low vibration and then increasing to high vibration. The easiest way I could think of to do this is to have a dial on the watch/wearable device, or I could have an app or something on the computer that connects to the watch (wireless) with the different selectable intensities.
I am very new at coding and Arduino so if anyone could tell me what materials they would suggest getting for this project that would be great. Also, is it possible to program 4 motors on the same board?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you want more information about the project, and the logistics, let me know and I can give you more information.
The project I am working on is developing a novel technology to mitigate hand tremors. The logic behind this is by having the alternating bilateral stimulation from the vibrating motors, this will create white noise to distract the feedback loop in the brain which ultimately causes the hand tremors. If you would like to know more about this, I can email you my proposal for the project. Thank you so much for your help.
Grace
OK, I think I have some of those stored away somewhere, but it would take a while to find them!
Your first task is to hook them up to a 3 V battery and use a multimeter to measure how much current they draw - as well as whether the intensity of vibration is adequate for your purpose. Have you done this already?
I am going to suspect that a TPIC6B595 will be the best way to control the vibrators if they do not require too much current.
I very much doubt that you will want nine levels of vibration, or that the motors can be controlled with anywhere near that precision.
And it certainly will not be miniature; as I see that you will want the vibrators to run for some time, the minimum battery to power them would be a pair of alkaline AA batteries, possibly AAA, or a LiPo rechargeable. And for practicality, a separate battery for the Arduino or similar controller. A rather big version of a "watch" but not unreasonable to wear on a (larger) armband.
