"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it; and I shall move the world."
- Archimedes
As promised in Chapter 3, Day 1 - Building a Simple Prototype, today we will work on our first project that uses diodes and transistors with a DC motor (an example of an actuator) powered from an independent battery-based power source. This is an advanced level chapter and is designed with a lot of concepts and components; it builds upon the knowledge gathered so far during the previous chapters. In this chapter, our focus will be on moving parts that are used to physically move things.
You will learn the following topics in this chapter:
- Interfacing a DC motor
- Powering DC motors from a battery
- Using multiple power sources
- Concept of Common Grounding
- Concept of reverse current
- Practical use of a diode
- Practical usage of a transistor
- Concept of pull up/pull down resistors
- Concept of PWM
- DC motor speed control
- Using interrupts for I/O processing
- Interfacing a servo motor