I am building a clock and I need some help on what components I need. My design needs 20 small motors that rotate and a small processor that I can put a code onto. I need it to be able to plug into a wall outlet. I am know next to nothing about robotics and any tips and advice is appreciated.
Well, that sounds like a great challenge then!
Since you are new to robotics, we’d recommend you go for an Arduino-compatible microcontroller board to get started. These have a huge community with lots of sample codes, tutorials and example projects that you can use as a reference to get started. Whatever your project type, someone probably already tried to do it with Arduino already (and documented it!) at this point.
You can find those boards here. For simplicity, you should probably just get a standard [RB-Ard-34]. It is one of the most common Arduino board and it strikes a good balance between features, size and price.
You mention having to rotate 20 small motors. Are these going to be regular DC motors, just spinning in one direction? Do you need to control their speed? The direction of rotation?
If you want something simple to control, you may be interested in the RB-Fit-02. It is a small servomotor that can turn in either direction. You can control the speed of rotation (or idle it) by changing the pulse sent to it.
Now, of course, the Arduino cannot send 20 such signals by itself. This is where you add-in the [Rb-Lyn-850] (which can control up-to 32 such servomotors).
With an Arduino board, and SSC-32U board and 20x RB-Fit-02, you’d be nearly set and wouldn’t need much code to get all of this moving. We also offer plenty of example code for the SSC-32U (used with Arduino) on the Lynxmotion GitHub.
All that would be missing is some kind of power source (typically at 6 V DC) to power the Arduino, SSC-32U and the servomotors (which require 6 V DC). Since you’d have about 20 motors running at ~200 mA each, you’d need at least 4 A (most like more), therefore, the RB-Hap-01 would be a good choice (6 V DC, 5 A).
We hope this helps! Feel free to ask more questions if needed.
Sincerely,