Published March 11, 2016 © GPL3+

Electronic Wind DIY Pinwheel

A DIY pinwheel controlled by Arduino using a DC motor recycled from a portable CD player.

BeginnerFull instructions provided3 hours8,317

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino UNO

DC motor (generic)

I took this engine from an old portable CD player

SparkFun Pushbutton switch 12mm

Resistor 10k ohm

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Carboard

Scissors

Scotch tape

Story

Hi everybody!

I will show you a project that will entertain your children or even yourself. It is a pinwheel (which I will show you how to build your own) controlled by Arduino and a button for switching.

Demonstration

Building the Pinwheel

That is all you need:

a perfect square made of cardboard (with the side of about 12cm / 4,7in)
a ruler
a pen
scotch tape
scissors

With the aid of a ruler, track with the pen the two diagonals of the square. The point where these two diagonals intersect will be the center of the square.

We see that we have divided the square into four triangles.

With a steady hand, cut along the newly marked lines from the corners and going towards the center; we pay attention to stop approximately 4 cm (1,6 in) before reaching it (watch the picture below for clarity).

Once you make the four cuts raise the left corner of the first of the four triangles, with the greatest care not to ruin the roundness and attach it on the center using the tape.

You can also make small cuts around the center where tuck the corners and secure them with tape from the back.

Now make a hole at the center of the pinwheel, where we're going to attack the axis of our engine.

Ok the pinwheel is ready. Let's go to do all the nerdy things.

Recycling the DC Motor

As I said at the beginning there is no need to buy the engine. We can recycle an old portable CD player which you may have in your home and that you will not use more. Let's see how.

Open the CD player:

Now we have to disassemble the piece inside the red rectangle.

The piece inside the red rectangle is the DC motor that we need: unmount it.

Ok. Now we have everything we need. We finish the installation, and run the pinwheel.

Installation

Follow this scheme to assemble all the pieces:

Now download the Arduino sketch or copy it in a new one. Click on upload, and good fun!

Code

Arduino Sketch

// It starts the engine when the button is pressed, keeping it on when you release.
// We press a second time to turn off the engine

#define MOTOR 5               // motor to pin 5
#define BUTTON 7              // input pin where the button is connected
int val = 0;                  // it is used to store the state of the input pin
int old_val = 0;              // it is used to maintain state in the previous step of the input pin
int state = 0;                // stores the motor status: 0 for off, 1 for on
  
void setup() {  
  pinMode(MOTOR, OUTPUT);       //sets the pin output 
  pinMode(BUTTON, INPUT);     // sets the pin input 
}  
  
void loop() {  
  val = digitalRead(BUTTON);  // reads the input value and saves into val
  
  // checks if something happened 
  if ((val == HIGH) && (old_val == LOW)){  
    state = 1 - state;  
  }   
  
  old_val = val;            // ricordiamo il valore precedente di val  
  
  if (state == 1) {  
    analogWrite(MOTOR, 255);   // starts the motor. 225 is the speed value. You can modify it from 155 to 255
  }  
  else {  
    analogWrite(MOTOR, 0);    //turn off the motor 
  }  
}

Credits

Francesco Guerri

4 projects • 16 followers

Computer engineering at University of Siena. Android developer and graphic designer.

Electronic Wind DIY Pinwheel

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Demonstration

Building the Pinwheel

Recycling the DC Motor

Installation

Schematics

Project schematics

Code

Arduino Sketch

Credits

Francesco Guerri

Comments

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Electronic Wind DIY Pinwheel

Electronic Wind DIY Pinwheel

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Demonstration

Building the Pinwheel

Recycling the DC Motor

Installation

Schematics

Project schematics

Code

Arduino Sketch

Credits

Francesco Guerri

Comments

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