Lab 7: Servo Motor

Description

I had difficulty coming up with something clever for this lab. I initially had a wire paperclip bent into an angled leg with a small foot at the end which worked quite well, until it stopped working and I could not get it to work again. I then used a small spatula that I use to mix paint because it reminded me of a boat oar. For the motor's base, I used two spools of thread. I experimented with having the spools loosely lashed together and to the motor, to see if that extra bit of maneuvering room would give the whole unit a bit more stability and allow it to crawl more smoothly. It did not. I also noticed that I have to consistently secure the spatula at precisely the same angle or else results will widely vary in the crawler's ability to crawl (and not flip over from top-heaviness.) I used the same code provided in the lab.

Components

arduino

breadboard

potentiometer

wires

servo motor

2 spools of thread

spatula

electrical tape