Electric motors are found in countless electronic appliances and devices in and around our homes. In these devices, motor controllers are used to ensure efficient, safe, and accurate ways to govern the speed or the actuator position of the motor(s) used.

Electric motors can be classified as either DC or AC depending on the type of voltage used to control them. DC motors are the oldest type of electric motors and they are widely used by electronics developers both in home labs and in schools and laboratories. Almost all printers, cameras, robots, and CNC machines in consumer, commercial, and industrial applications use some kind of DC motor. AC motors on the other hand are used in many home appliances and tools as they can be powered directly from an AC power outlet.

Cytron’s Maker Pi RP2040 Development Board is an advanced system based on the RP2040 processor and developed with motor control applications in mind. The board comes with dual-channel brushed DC motor controller hardware, 4 servo motor ports, and 7 Grove-compatible I/O ports, making it an ideal platform within mobile robotics applications, for robot arm control, or in any other type of application requiring precise control of motors and actuators.

The project book, written by well-known Elektor author Dogan Ibrahim, includes over 50 projects using LEDs, a buzzer, an OLED display, an ADC converter, an ultrasonic sensor, PWM, and temperature and humidity control. The main chapters cover DC motor control, servo motor control and stepper motor control using the Maker Pi RP2040 Development Board in creative and educational ways.

Included in the bundle

• Cytron Maker Pi RP2040 Development Board
• Electronic Parts
• 1 k-ohm resistors
• 10 k-ohm resistor
• 12 k-ohm resistor
• 470 ohm resistor
• LED
• Relay, 3 V/10 A
• LDR, 10 k-ohm
• Jumper wires (male-male)
• Breadboard
• Sensors
• TMP36 (temperature)
• DHT11 (temperature and humidity)
• Modules
• 5 V Stepper Motor with ULN2003 Driver
• HC-SR04 (ultrasonic)
• SSD1306 (I²C OLED)
• KY-021 (reed switch)
• DC motor (brushed, miniature, 3 V, 12 krpm)
• SG90 (servo motor)
• Project Book (191 pages)

52 Projects in the Book

Simple LED Projects

• Flashing LED
• Flashing SOS signal
• All LEDs ON and OFF
• Binary counting LEDs
• Rotating LEDs
• Randomly flashing LEDs
• Rotating LEDs with pushbutton control
• Reaction timer
• Two-player reaction game
• Using the on-board NeoPixel LEDs – showing different colors
• Using the on-board NeoPixel LEDs – flash both NeoPixels randomly

Simple Buzzer Projects

• Playing the middle C tones
• Using the buzzer as an audible sound indicator
• Playing a melody – Happy Birthday
• Frequency sweeping

Using OLED Displays

• Displaying text on OLED
• Displaying common shapes
• Seconds counter
• Drawing bitmaps

Using Analog To Digital Converters

• Voltmeter
• Temperature measurement
• ON/OFF temperature controller
• ON/OFF temperature controller with OLED display
• Measuring ambient light intensity
• Ohmmeter

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)

• Generate a 1000 Hz PWM waveform with 50% duty cycle
• Changing the brightness of an LED
• Alarm sound on buzzer
• Electronic organ

Ultrasonic Sensor Projects

• Ultrasonic distance measurement
• Ultrasonic distance measurement with OLED readout
• Measuring the level of water in a tank
• Ultrasonic reverse parking aid with buzzer

Temperature and Relative Humidity

• Temperature and relative humidity measurement
• Temperature and relative humidity measurement with OLED

DC Motor Control Projects

• DC motor ON/OFF control
• Two-speed DC motor rev control
• Varying the motor speed
• Using two DC motors
• Changing the motor direction
• LDR-based motor control
• Magnetic reed switch based motor control
• Displaying the speed of a DC motor – using a rotary encoder
• Displaying the speed of a DC motor on OLED – using a rotary encoder
• Time response of the motor with the encoder
• Measuring and displaying the motor speed using interrupts
• Proportional+Integral+Derivative (PID) motor speed control

Servo Motor Control Projects

• Servo motor control – turn to 0, 90, and 180 degrees positions
• Using two servo motors – turn to 0, 90, and 180 degrees positions
• Ultrasonic sonar

Stepper Motor Control Projects

• Basic stepper motor control
• Thermometer with dial