Controlling a DC Motor using PictoBlox

Lesson Details

How to program evive to control the direction and speed of a DC motor in PictoBlox?

Activities:

Creating a script to control the speed and direction of a DC motor using evive's potentiometer slide switch respectively.

Curriculum: Physical Computing for Kids – Level 1

Classroom Bundle Used: STEM Classroom Bundle, STEM Mini Classroom Bundle

Prerequisites: Digital Input – Reading the State of Switches , Analog Input – Reading Potentiometer

Download Resources

Lesson Overview

Students will learn the following things:

What is a DC motor?
How to connect a DC motor to evive?
DC motor controlling blocks in PictoBlox and the different parameters to control a motor.
Activity 1: Setting the direction and speed of the motor input by the user.
Activity 2: Controlling the DC motor using a potentiometer and a slide switch.

1 set of the following material per group of 3-5 students:

Component	Image	Quantity	Available in Bundle
evive		1	STEM Mini Classroom Bundle STEM Classroom Bundle
Dual Shaft BO Motor		1	STEM Mini Classroom Bundle STEM Classroom Bundle

DC Motor - 10 minutes

Actuator Extension in PictoBlox - 15 minutes

How to control DC motor?
How to control the speed of DC motor?
Motor control blocks in Actuators extension:
- Run motor () in direction () with speed () % block
- () motor () block

Activity 1 - 15 minutes

Make a PictoBlox script to set the direction and speed of the motor which is input by the user.

Activity 2 - 20 minutes

Make a PictoBlox script to control the DC motor using evive’s potentiometer 1 and evive’s slide switch 1.