Published December 5, 2019 © LGPL

Motor Control Using NodeMCU

Control DC motors using a web browser.

IntermediateShowcase (no instructions)21,857

Things used in this project

Hardware components

NodeMCU ESP8266 Breakout Board

Texas Instruments Dual H-Bridge motor drivers L293D

DC Motor, Miniature

DIYables Jumper Wires

DIYables Breadboard

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Story

This is a project that enables the user to control 2 Separate DC motors in either direction via Web Browser.

The main components used are nodeMCU, motor driver(ICL293D) and 2 DC motors.

The motor is controlled using a motor driver IC L293D and an external supply (5V) is given to the motor driver at pin 8 and 16. Pin 4 and 13 is given as the ground supply. Input to motor 1 is at pin 2 and 7 provided by pin D5 and D6 of ESP8266. Similarly for motor 2, input is provided by pin D7 and D8 to pin 10 and 15 of ICL293D.

The ESP8266 is connected to the WiFi router using an SSID and password of the WiFi router and creates a Web Server which can be accessed by the user(using a smartphone or a Laptop) connected to the Wifi router. After the connection is established, an IP address will be displayed on the Serial monitor. The user then needs to put the same IP address on the Web Browser of their device to obtain a web page.

the Web page looks like this....

Upon pressing any button the status will be displayed on the Web page showing the direction rotation of both the motors.

The status is updated automatically depending on the button pressed.

motor 1 provides status as either forward or backward.Similarly motor 2 status is either left or right.(like the motors moving in RC cars)

After pressing any button

Code

Source Code

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <WiFiClient.h>
#include <ESP8266WebServer.h>

// Replace with your network credentials
const char* ssid = "Enter the name of the Wifi router";         
const char* password = "Enter Password of the router";

ESP8266WebServer server(80);   //instantiate server at port 80 (http port)

String page = ""; //For the Web Server
String page2="";  //For updating Status of motor 1
String page3="";  //For updating status of motor 2
void setup(void)
{
  //the HTML of the web page
  page = "<center><h1>Motor Control Web Server</h1><body><p><a href=\"Forward\"><button>Forward</button></a><p><a href=\"Backward\"><button>Backward</button></a></p><p><a href =\"Left\"><button>Left</button></a>&nbsp;<a href=\"Stop\"><button>Stop</button></a><a href=\"Right\"><button>Right</button></a></p></body></center>";
  pinMode(D5, OUTPUT);   // inputs for motor 1
  pinMode(D6,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(D7,OUTPUT);    // inputs for motor 2 
  pinMode(D8,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(LED_BUILTIN,OUTPUT);  // For status of WiFi connection
  delay(1000);
  Serial.begin(115200);     
  WiFi.begin(ssid, password); //begin WiFi connection
  Serial.println("");

  // Wait for connection
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(500);
    Serial.print(".");
  }
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN,HIGH);     // when connected turns high
  Serial.println("");
  Serial.print("Connected to ");   
  Serial.println(ssid);
  Serial.print("IP address: ");
  Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());   //provides IP address
   server.on("/", [](){
    server.send(200, "text/html", page+page2);
  });
  server.on("/Forward",Forward);
  server.on("/Backward",Backward);
  server.on("/Left",Left);
  server.on("/Right",Right);

  server.on("/Stop",[](){                              // turns all the motor input pins low
   page2="<center><p> motor 1 Status : Off</p></center>";
   page3="<center><p> motor 2 Status : off</p></center>";
  server.send(200,"text/html",page+page2+page3);
    digitalWrite(D5,LOW);
    digitalWrite(D6,LOW);
    digitalWrite(D7,LOW);
    digitalWrite(D8,LOW);
    delay(200);
  });
  server.begin();
  Serial.println("Web server started!");
}
void loop(void)
{  
     server.handleClient();
}

 void Forward() 
 {
    digitalWrite(D5,HIGH);
    digitalWrite(D6,LOW);
    page2="<center><p> motor 1 Status : Forward </p></center>";
    server.send(200,"text/html", page+page2+page3);
    delay(200);
  }
  void Left()
  {
    page3="<center><p> motor 2 Status : Left</p></center>";
    server.send(200,"text/html",page+page2+page3);
    digitalWrite(D7,HIGH);
    digitalWrite(D8,LOW);
    delay(200);
  }
  void Right()
   { 
    page3="<center><p> motor 2 Status : Right</p></center>";
    server.send(200,"text/html",page+page2+page3);
    digitalWrite(D8,HIGH);
    digitalWrite(D7,LOW);
    delay(200);
  }
   void Backward()
  {
    page2="<center><p> motor 1 Status : Backward</p></center>";
    server.send(200, "text/html", page+page2+page3);
    digitalWrite(D6, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(D5,LOW);
    delay(200); 
  }