Published March 7, 2023

Project #5 Mood Cue

Use a servo motor to make a mechanical gauge.

IntermediateShowcase (no instructions)2 hours711

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Breadboard (generic)

SG90 Micro-servo motor

Capacitor 10 µF

Arduino UNO

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Story

This project had a little bit going on. We used the Server Motor included in the kit to make an arm that moves in reaction to our potentiometer that we also have on the board connected to the Analog Pin 0 on the Arduino board. This will read the input to control the position of the arm on the server by changing the ratio of voltage when you turn the knob of the potentiometer. We connect the Servo wires to the power, ground and to Digital Pin 9. We use capacitors to smooth out voltage changes that occur when we turn the potentiometer.

For the code, we first had to import the servo library, and then #include it in the top of the code so the sketch reads that it is there. We refer the servo by making it a variable,, and then set up a constant for the Analog pin for the potentiometer. We also make a constant that will hold the analog input so it determines the value and the angle the servo will move towards. We set up a loop to read the potentiometer value afterwards. Using a Map function, we can add values to the Servo angles. Then with the Write function, this will move the motor to the correct angle.

Code

Mood Cue Code

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myServo;  // create a servo object

int const potPin = A0;  // analog pin used to connect the potentiometer
int potVal;             // variable to read the value from the analog pin
int angle;              // variable to hold the angle for the servo motor

void setup() {
  myServo.attach(9);   // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
  Serial.begin(9600);  // open a serial connection to your computer
}

void loop() {
  potVal = analogRead(potPin);  // read the value of the potentiometer
  // print out the value to the Serial Monitor
  Serial.print("potVal: ");
  Serial.print(potVal);

  // scale the numbers from the pot
  angle = map(potVal, 0, 1023, 0, 179);

  // print out the angle for the servo motor
  Serial.print(", angle: ");
  Serial.println(angle);

  // set the servo position
  myServo.write(angle);

  // wait for the servo to get there
  delay(15);
}

Project #5 Mood Cue

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Schematics

screenshot_2023-03-07_125207_rCHI0CqHV6.png

Code

Mood Cue Code

Credits

Luis Estades

Comments

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Project #5 Mood Cue

Project #5 Mood Cue

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Schematics

screenshot_2023-03-07_125207_rCHI0CqHV6.png

Code

Mood Cue Code

Credits

Luis Estades

Comments

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