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two motors on motor shield start spinning and then cut out

e14 Contributor

I am a software programmer by trade, but I am pretty new to anything hardware related, including understanding circuits, or power requirements, etc. I am doing my first "real" electronics/robotics project, and I am stuck.  I have two dc motors connected to the "official" Arduino motor shield, and they are being powered by a 9v 2amp power supply.  When my program tells the motors to start turning, they begin to spin up to the correct speed, but then suddenly cut out.  After this happens, I must reboot the arduino.  I don't know any specs for the motors, but here's my questions:

 

1. Why would any motor start to spin up when current is applied, and then stop spinning after a couple of seconds.  (I can reboot my arduino, and repeat this behavior, so it wasn't that something permenantly broke one time).

2. What info do I need to know about my two motors, and the rest of my system for that matter, to troubleshoot my issue?

 

Thanks for your time and help.

 

David

  • Hi David,

     

    I hate to ask, but could it be possible that the code is turning it off after a while?

     

    Because you're powering the motors with a separate supply, I don't think it matters to the Arduino what kind of power requirements the motors have. To make sure they are running on the external supply, you could try unplugging that external (9v) supply to make sure the motors don't come on (if they do, it's not using the external supply).

     

    Otherwise, maybe post your code (assuming you have a tiny simple sketch to test this out), and a pic of the circuit, so that others might be able to spot something?

     

    Cheers,

    -Nico

  • in reply to ntewinkel

    Nico,

     

    Sheesh.  It seems that right before I uploaded my code the last time, I must have bumped the space bar, and turned, "if(!runOn)" into, "if(! runOn)".  Since that piece of code had been working for weeks, I had no reason to suspect it. image

     

    Thanks for your help.

     

    David