Motor controller connection to Arduino
About this video
A hands-on wiring walkthrough for a motor controller connected to an Arduino. The presenter uses a multimeter on its continuity setting to work out which wire is which, as a beep means two points are the same continuous wire. Each wire is then matched to a named digital pin, such as L1 to D10 and L2 to D8, and the list is used later in the code. A crossed-out D9 entry is flagged as inaccurate.
You'll be able to
- use a multimeter in continuity mode to identify which wire is which
- match each identified wire to a pin-out and record it in a list
- explain why the pin-out list must match the pins used in the code
Key words
- Continuity
- A complete electrical path between two points, which a multimeter reports with a beep.
- Multimeter
- A tool for measuring electrical properties; here it is set to its continuity mode to trace wires.
- Motor controller
- A circuit that drives a motor; here its wires are connected to the Arduino.
- Pin-out
- The list that says which wire connects to which numbered pin on the Arduino board.
- Digital pin
- A numbered input or output connector on the Arduino, such as D8 or D10, that the code refers to by number.
Transcript
In this video, we're going to connect our motor controller to our Arduino. We've run the wires from the motor controller underneath the Arduino. We just need to figure out which wires are which so we can determine what pins to connect those wires to. So, we're setting our multimeter to open, and this will allow us to test for continuity.
[BEEPING] So when you hear the beep, it means that there's a continuous electrical flow there, and it'll allow us to identify which wire is which. So when we don't hear a beep, it means it's not the same wire. [BEEPING] But when we do, that means that wire is continuous.
So we know which wire is which. So we can use our multimeter to tell us which wire is which. So we're going to take that wire there, which is our L1 wire, and we've already created a list of where we want our pin outs to go. So our L1 wire, we're saying, is going to go to pin D10.
So when we create our code on our computer, we'll use this list to tell us which pin out is which in the code. And that'll help us make sure that we get all of our functionality all lined up correctly. OK, so we've got our first one done, and now we need to move on to the next one.
We're going to use our multimeter again. And so we're just going to go to L2. And so we're going to connect L2 to digital pin 8. And so we'll turn our multimeter to open again, and we'll-- [BEEPING] OK, so we're going to go through and take a look at where L2 is, see if we can figure out which wire that is.
[INTERMITTENT BEEPING] OK, so it's our second wire down there. That's where L2 is. And we determined in our list that we created, that L2 was going to be a D8, digital pin eight. So we'll finish connecting the rest of the wires using the same method, just checking your continuity, and then connecting them to the same pin out that is on our list.
If you're going to use the same code is as us, make sure that you follow the same pin outs, and we'll post that online. The D9 pin out that's listed in this list here was actually inaccurate, so we crossed that out. Because we were using D9 as you can see at the top there.
In the next video, we're going to show you how to wire up the camera and the sound card.
Video © Khan Academy, used under CC BY-NC-SA. Watch on Khan Academy. Puzzicle is not affiliated with Khan Academy.