Owen R.

Largo BIT – CT 3B DAY 11/10/2021

SUMMARY

In this project, I made a motorized pinwheel. In other words, I wanted a motor to spin. I
need two 9v battery, two DC motor, one 10k ohm resistor, one push button, two diodes and
two transistors. The first issue I had to deal with was that the motor included in the Starter Kit
needed more current and voltage than the maximum dispensable by the Arduino’s output pins.
To solve it, I used a battery of 9V. Another point was that I had to control the battery and the
motor (high voltage) with low voltage (outputs from the Arduino’s pins). In order to achieve it, I
needed to use a new element: a transistor. A transistor consists in three “parts”, each one
connected to the breadboard: the gate, the source and the drain. When low voltage (the one
that provides Arduino’s pins) hits the gate, it closes the circuit between the source and the
drain allowing you to turn on motors, batteries and control them. As you can see in the picture
above, there’s a black diode in parallel with each motor. This is because when the motor
receives electricity, a magnetic field is generated. In consequence, voltage is created in the
opposite direction that is conducted to the motor. It is called back voltage. When you turn off
the power supply and the motor is spinning, owing to the inertia it will continue moving for a
while. Then the back voltage becomes a problem and can damage the circuit. The diode avoids
this situation protecting the circuit.