I know that some are following my learning process. Hopefully some of you are in the process of learning too.
I can not emphasize enough how important it is to actually try out the various projects, no matter how small or simple they may seem. Even if you do it wrong, you're learning. And problem solving is a very important skill.
It's not enough to watch a YouTube video, or read the steps to a project. If you stop and say "that makes sense" then you'll actually learn very little.
Take Stepper Motors. - One good solution, one not so good solution.
Most of the books and videos show this way of connecting it all up.
The Arduino board is on the right, all of the stuff on the left is just an illustration. It really looks like this -
The important point is that after following the instructions from an online source, the motor did more buzzing than turning.
OBVIOUSLY I had gotten a bad motor.
But what else might be the problem?
The problem was that it was pulling 5 volts from the Arduino board, through the USB cable, but it just didn't have enough current to move the motor very much.
Once I figured that out I used a separate "power supply" that came with one of my kits.
. .
Much better. But, boy, do those motors suck the power out of the batteries!
OK....dig..dig.digdig - Found it! a wall wart to power the motor.
But how to wire it in?
Not a problem, I connected it directly to the plus & negative on the motor controller board. Now the motor had more than enough power to work correctly. But it didn't. Work correctly, that is.
Oh, it did work better than just the 9 volt battery, but not very well.
It's gotta be the program! Right?
So off I went to the internet, searching for a better program.
And I got lucky. Very lucky as it turns out. I found this video. It may contain more details than most want to know, but as I said - problem solving is an important skill.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B86nqDRskVU[/youtube]
Watch the video in it's entirety if you want, or just pay VERY close attention to this picture from the video. And I mean VERY close attention. Build it until you have it right. This IS the solution.
I know that I get very long winded and can pound a subject to death, Sorry.
Remember when I said that I thought that a better program might be needed?
Well this video shows someone who thought the same thing. He even gets some improvement by changing the code.
He also figured that a part of the problem was that the motor was very cheap. Wrong. Inexpensive, yes. But not cheaply made.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8XsE6Bb99s[/youtube]
All I know for sure is that if you connect a separate power supply to the controller board, and connect it to the ground on the Arduino board it WILL work perfectly.
But if I had only looked at the sample project, and not actually tried it, I would never have learned what I needed to know.
Before long I'd just say "This STUPID stuff don't work!", and give up.