@r-v I think your power supply doesn't have enough power. (what is the maximum intensity it can provide) or the shield that saturates.
I have 2 fans : 12v 2,7A
My power supply: 230V 5A
Do you think I have to change my fan ?
@r-v Note that the Arduino Motor Shield Rev3 can provide up to 4 amps, 2 amps per motor channel, but once 2amps total is reached the voltage drops to 9v. So you probably aren't getting enough power from the motor shield to the fans. My fans are apparently 1.4amps per fan, so they breach the 2amps total, but the wind force is still enough at 9v
So I would either recommend getting fans which require less amps (the fans in the original post are the 1.4amp fans), or change the motor shield to the Cytron MD10 or MDD10.
Ok thanks a lot for your answer.👍👍👍👍
@mbrown278 I agree with this post. I would recommend upgrading to a Cytron MDD10.
@r-v Note that the Cytron MD10 is a cheaper single channel motor shield, so you would put the two fans into the same channel, or if you want to be able to manage the fans separately then the Cytron MDD10 is dual channel 👍
- ok thanks for all the replies. If I decide to use cytron which program should I dump in Arduino?
I listened to your advice, I installed an MD10. My two fans are working better. However, it is difficult to adjust them delicately. for them to agree to start, I have to put the power high but once they turn, they turn very fast (and too fast for me).
Having issue with the fans. I've followed all the steps based on video, I have all the same parts except I got a no name adruino rev3 clone, sunfounder I think. The green lights go on, the install process works good, but when I test the fans don't move. Not sure what I'm missing, I tried changing the order of wires into the terminals and no change. Anyone have a solution? Also to be clear, the fans both turn when I press the button on the cytron. But nothing when I test via simhub
@r-v sorry for the slow reply, so different fans have a different starting voltage/power requirement, it is worth checking if the details are known for your fans. If it is high, then you could change the vans to something that have a lower starting point/range. Or keep testing with the settings in Simhub, with minimum force etc. Hope you've got it sorted 👍
@cozzi65 Exactly the same here in terms of hardware and outcome.
I’ve noticed that when I press the test button on the board that along with the fan spinning the relevant LED comes on too… when I click test no LED comes on either so I don’t think it’s anything like too little voltage to start moving the fans, I think the board isn’t getting the signal to operate the motor.
Mines set to 3 like the video but I guess with it being PWM it’s not as simple as sticking a multimeter on pin 3 to check if it’s outputting anything?
@cozzi65 I’ve kind of got it working now.
I’ve just uninstalled sim hub, renamed the folder it was installed at as it left a load of stuff behind and reinstalled it… followed all the steps (about 20th time now) and it all worked as expected with regards to clicking the test button one click isn’t enough, needs several.
I do have a weird issue in that when accelerating along a straight it seems to ramp up and down and then back up again when my speed has only been getting faster but not actually looked into why that could be yet.
Also be careful if you’re just holding the fan whilst testing it out rather than having it screwed down anywhere… it hurts a lot 😂
Followed all the steps and tried to get this to work today - to no avail. I have the motor shield rev3, and none of the LEDs ever light up. It has a 12v 4amp psu wired into it, and its sitting on top of the rev3 arduino uno. No idea what I've done wrong, I've tried a single fan and I've tried two other, different fans. Nothing seems to work. Some images of everything while plugged in:
Any advice would be much appreciated.
@neil_1980 glad you kind of got it working. I found with mine that the fans would cut in and out and ramp up/down, it was due to the minimum force/power being too low. It would solve itself as you sped up and it got over the minimum force but up to that it was quite random. Try increasing your minimum force to see if that helps, fingers crossed for you, or if I think of something else I'll post again 🤞