Is there any way to use an FSR to control two DC motors using an Arduino? I have 2 DC motors connected to the Adafruit Motor Shield V2 which is one an Arduino Uno. I want motor 1 to run until a certain force is reached and once that force is reached, turn that motor off and turn on motor 2. Once the force lowers to a set force, have motor 2 turn off and motor 1 turn on.
FYI - the two motors are 12V DC vacuum pumps. Motor one will be used to inflate, and motor 2 will be used to vacuum. I have already written a basic code that alternates when they are on and off, and it works fine, but I was wondering if I could include a feedback mechanism to control their output instead of just using the delay function.
Hi,
You would need to program your Arduino board to control your motors in the way you have described.
You can use a load cell with an appropriate amplifier as an analog input to the Arduino UNO board.
The choice of the load cell will depend on its capacity (maximum weight that the load cell will measure).
This Load Cell Shield might interest you. You can connect to it two load cells and it will output an analog value to the Arduino through Analog pin A0 and A1 proportional to the load on the load cells.
Here is a tutorial on how to use this shield with an Arduino Board.
You can also use these FSRs with its DAQ to interface the FSR sensor to your Arduino.
The microcontroller (your Arduino Board) will control the Adafruit Motor Shield V2 (that will be driving your motors) depending on the analog value coming from either the Load Cell Shield or the FSR DAQ.
This way, you will have a motor closed loop control based on a load feedback from FSR (or Load Cell).
Regards,
