MotorShieldSetup – Research / Practice

via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/rZkCiQ

I’m working towards the Method conference presentation next week, and it seemed useful to complete something in the data representation experiments that I’d been keen to see off: making the thing tap out key presses. I want the productive activity to become a distraction, and this seems like a good way of doing that.

The Arduino Motor Shield is a bit of a pain to code up and requires power on, brake off, and power level to be sent in different lines of code. It also needs to be externally powered as even a 5V solenoid will drain the current from your USB rendering your arduino invisible to the IDE.

It worked fairly smoothly once this had been ironed out and happily sent data from Processing using the StandardFirmata arduino code.  Solenoids get HOT though, and this is worth bearing in mind for surface mounting.

/*************************************************************
Motor Shield 1-Channel DC Motor Demo
by Randy Sarafan

For more information see:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Motor-Shield-Tutorial/

*************************************************************/

void setup() {
  
  //Setup Channel A
  pinMode(12, OUTPUT); //Initiates Motor Channel A pin
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //Initiates Brake Channel A pin
  
}

void loop(){
  
  //forward @ full speed
  digitalWrite(12, HIGH); //Establishes forward direction of Channel A
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);   //Disengage the Brake for Channel A
  analogWrite(3, 255);   //Spins the motor on Channel A at full speed
  
  delay(3000);
  
  //digitalWrite(9, HIGH); //Eengage the Brake for Channel A

 // delay(1000);

  analogWrite(3, 0);   //Spins the motor on Channel A at full speed
  //digitalWrite(9, HIGH); //Eengage the Brake for Channel A
  
 // delay(1000);
  
}

/*************************************************************

Motor Shield 1-Channel DC Motor Demo

by Randy Sarafan

For more information see:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Motor-Shield-Tutorial/

*************************************************************/

void setup() {

//Setup Channel A

pinMode(12, OUTPUT); //Initiates Motor Channel A pin

pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //Initiates Brake Channel A pin

}

void loop(){

//forward @ full speed

digitalWrite(12, HIGH); //Establishes forward direction of Channel A

digitalWrite(9, LOW); //Disengage the Brake for Channel A

analogWrite(3, 255); //Spins the motor on Channel A at full speed

delay(3000);

//digitalWrite(9, HIGH); //Eengage the Brake for Channel A

// delay(1000);

analogWrite(3, 0); //Spins the motor on Channel A at full speed

//digitalWrite(9, HIGH); //Eengage the Brake for Channel A

// delay(1000);

}