[dorkbotphiladelphia-blabber] Fwd: newcomer says hi and asks arduino question

[Chris Vecchio]

Hi Alison, welcome to Philadelphia!

I haven't used the Arduino yet.
(I have one sitting on my desk in the "things to do" pile.)
But I know some people on this list have worked with them.
I take it you are trying to send commands from the PC to the Arduino over
a serial port?

As for the motors, if they're DC motors the simplest & cheapest
solution is to use a transistor or FET to turn them on/off.
If you need to get fancier than that, PWM can be used to give you speed
control.
Do you need to be able to change the motors' direction?

I can send you a schematic if you want.

    - Chris
    www.noisemantra.com


	-------Original Message-------
  From: Alison Lewis
  Subject: [dorkbotphiladelphia-blabber] Fwd: newcomer says hi and
asks	arduino question
  Sent: 15 Apr '08 18:06

  ---------- Forwarded message ----------
  From: Alison Lewis <[LINK:
http://webmail.hoster911.com/compose.php?to=lewischicken@gmail.com]
lewischicken at gmail.com>
  Date: Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 10:47 AM
  Subject: newcomer says hi and asks arduino question
  To: [LINK:
http://webmail.hoster911.com/compose.php?to=dorkbotphiladelphia-blabber@music.columbia.edu]
dorkbotphiladelphia-blabber at music.columbia.edu


  Hi,

  I am a newcomer to Philly, and just wanted to say hi to the dorkbots
group.
  I hail from NYC dorkbots and happy to be here!

  On that note, I am new also to the Arduino board and have just bought
one to
  work on a project. I will be sending data from the computer through the
  Arduino to control some motors and wondered if anyone had experience
with
  it? I am following the online tutorials... and hoping for the best. Any
  advice is good at this point.

  Oh, and I am running two motors from the Arduino which require a larger
  power source than the Arduino can provide. I was going to use an
h-bridge
  for one motor, but it may not work. Can anyone link me to a possible
  solution that I can do quickly (by that I mean... not have to go buy a
motor
  controller)

  thanks so much!

  Alison


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