Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: rstevew@armory.com (Richard Steven Walz)
Subject: Re: Robots And My Computer
Organization: The Armory
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1994 14:43:19 GMT
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In article <CtF5MD.n4y@freenet.carleton.ca>,
Brian Ford <ah411@FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote:
>
>
>I am just becoming interested in robotics and I would like some information.
>Could someone please explain to me what is required in hooking up small DC
>motors to my PC's parallel port.  I don't want to be frying any hardware!
>I already know how to control the output on the pins in the port but can
>I just hook a motor directly to it?  Will any motor work?
>
>Thanks for any help
>Brian
-------------------------------------
To save your computer, NO DON'T DO IT!!!!!! Actually some very small motors
could work, but you'd have to be an engineer to know how. If you are asking
this question, there is almost nothing I can quickly tell you that will
guarantee that you don't roast your computer screwing around and
misunderstanding what I or another on here might suggest!!! YOU NEED TO
START LEARNING BASIC ELECTRONICS!!!!! I suggest the "Getting Started in
Electronics" book at Tandy RS by Forrest R. Mims III. Then pick up a book
which shows how to interface an optocoupler to your port, and buy some
spares!! Build a small board with the optocoupler on it and the hook ups to
the motor supply, a battery pack can do, and then connect the output of the
optocoupler to a BIG transistor, say a 2N3055 of the TO-220 or the bigger
TO-3 case type. This will protect your computer and give you great latitude
to screw around on the opposite side of this circuit from the parallel
port! Then you can play with PWM and such to control your motor. Another
really good idea is to hang around your local electronics store, not TRS,
but a "real" one, and ask some questions and maybe find a mentor, a person
who can show you how to start out and who can make suggestions when things
don't work. The mentor might be on staff and interested in helping, or even
a customer who is friendly and a hobbyist type. You'll know them because
they answer your question if you ask them and tell you as much as you want
to know! Look for a person with a gleam in their eye who is not in a hurry!
-Steve Walz   rstevew@armory.com

