Homework 9: Motorized Pinwheel

This homework was more enjoyable because there is something inherently more entertaining about making things move and spin than static objects, though, unfortunately the crafting part ended up a bit more janky than I would have liked.

The Circuit

Parts List

Name	Quantity	Component
U1	1	Arduino Uno R3
S1	1	Pushbutton
R1	1	10 kΩ Resistor
T1	1	nMOS Transistor (MOSFET)
D1	1	Diode
M1	1	DC Motor
BAT1	1	9V Battery

Parts List CSV

Schematics

Schematics pdf

Building the Circuit

Building the circuit went by quickly and I don’t really have much more to say about it. However, constructing the pinwheel itself didn’t go too well and the resulting pinwheel was falling apart quite a bit.

I guess I need stronger tape or something, though I wasn’t too disappointed since after loading the example sketch for testing, it worked out and span well enough.

Programming

After confirming that the circuit was mostly working, I then unloaded the example sketch and began programming the arduino, which this time, the program was way simpler than expected, and was just turning on / off the motor according to the switch.

const int switchPin = 2, motorPin = 9; 

int switchState = 0;

void setup() {
  pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(switchPin, INPUT);
}

void loop() {
  switchState = digitalRead(switchPin);

  if (switchState == HIGH) {
    digitalWrite(motorPin, HIGH);
  } else {
    digitalWrite(motorPin, LOW);
  }
}