"Using an Arduino to control the speed and direction of a DC Motor."

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

This article:

http://arduino.cc/playground/Main/DCMotorControl

states, "Warning: the schematic for this project is incorrect. Ask about it in the forum before attempting to build!"

I couldn't find this addressed in this forum as I searched through it, so I decided to ask. I cannot find the error in the schematic, but I haven't put it together yet. Does anyone know why the schematic is incorrect?

For the record, I am not interested in the direction of the motor for my project, but I am trying to control the speed of a DC motor that takes 6v maximum and seems to draw about half an amp under load. I have a power source for it, I just need a circuit which lets the arduino control its speed.

2

If you don't need directional control then a transistor or MOSFET switch will allow you to control speed.

http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/HighCurrentLoads

3

Thank you, John. I'd come across this before and at first glance I thought it was for on/off control, but on actually looking at the parts involved that was silly of me. I'd gone right to the programming section of the article to show myself whether it had speed control and only noticed the "on/off" program that was there for a test.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.