Control your inventions with Android Tablets! This tutorial goes through a demo of getting an Android tablet to send serial commands to an Arduino board and having the board turn a motor on and off.
Step 1: Things You will Need
- Android (4+) tablet with a USB port.
- Arduino Uno Board
- DC 5V Stepper Motor (This demo uses Kootek® DC 5V 4-Phase 5-Wire Arduino Stepper Step Motor with ULN2003 Driver Test Module Board)
- 6 male-female cable wires
- A USB cable to connect the Arduino and Android Tablet
Step 2: Wire up your Arduino Uno Board to the Motor
For motors the typical signal pins are 8,9,10 and 11 so we will use those.
Arduino / Motor Driver Wiring Table
5v +
GND -
8 1N
9 2N
10 3N
11 4N
Step 3: Program the Arduino
- Download and install the Arduino SDK. http://arduino.cc/en/main/software
- Download the MotorControl Arduino Code available here:https://github.com/Kevdragon6/makertablet/blob/mas...
- Connect your arduino to your computer and upload the code.
- (Optional) To confirm it is working, open a serial monitor window (Ctrl+Shft+M) at a 9600 baud rate. Type motoron to start the motor andmotoroff to turn it off.
Step 4: Make an App for the tablet.
- Download the Android SDK and Eclipse (if you don't already have it) and set the tablet to debug mode.
- Clone the Motor Control App source code from here:https://github.com/Kevdragon6/makertablet/tree/mas...
- Install on to your tablet and run.
- Connect the tablet and the Arduino Uno Board through USB. (If the Arduino does not turn on then it is not recieving power through the usb- It will need to have its own power cable plugged in)