Joystick controlled DC motor with Arduino and TIP122

Controlling a DC motor with a joystick is an easy and fun project that can be done using an Arduino board and a TIP122 transistor. In this Arduino dc motor tutorial, we'll walk you through the steps to set up Joystick to work with Arduino and show how to control speed of dc motor and provide example code to help you get started.

What is a DC Motor and TIP122 Transistor?

A DC motor is an electric motor that runs on direct current (DC) power. It can be used in a variety of applications, from hobby projects to industrial machines. A TIP122 transistor is a type of bipolar junction transistor (BJT) that is commonly used to drive high-power DC motors.

Why Use a Joystick to Control a DC Motor?

A joystick is a commonly used input device for controlling movements in video games and other applications. By using a joystick to control a DC motor, we can easily control the speed and direction of the motor. This makes it a great choice for projects where you want to control a motor manually, such as in a remote-controlled car or a robotic arm.

The following picture shows DC motor controller with Arduino Mega and a Joystick with TIP122 as dc motor controller on a breadboard.

To get started, you will need the following components:

• An Arduino board
• A TIP122 transistor
• 1KOhm resistor
  
• A joystick
• A breadboard
• Jumper wires
• A DC motor
• A power supply

Interfacing Joystick, Arduino, TIP122 transistor

The following is the Arduino joystick schematic diagram which also shows the TIP122 transistor and the DC motor connection.

Step 1: Connect the Joystick to the Arduino

The first step is to connect the joystick to the Arduino. Joystick have two directions, X and Y. Here for simple demonstration we will use only X-direction. So you will need to connect the X axis pin of the joystick to analog pins A0 on the Arduino board.

Step 2: Connect the TIP122 Transistor to the DC Motor

Next, you will need to connect the TIP122 transistor to the DC motor. The TIP122 has three pins: the collector, the base, and the emitter. The collector should be connected to the positive terminal of the DC motor, the base should be connected to a digital pin on the Arduino board via 1KOhm resistor, and the emitter should be connected to the negative terminal of the DC motor where the Arduino ground should also be connected.

Step 3: Connect the Power Supply to the Breadboard

Finally, you will need to connect the power supply to the breadboard. Depending upon the motor voltage and current requirement, the power supply could be 12V, 9V, 5V etc. Here for simple DC motor we will be using regulated 5V breadboard supply. The positive terminal of the power supply should be connected to the positive rail on the breadboard, and the negative terminal of the power supply should be connected to the negative rail on the breadboard.

Arduino Joystick controller Program

Now that the hardware is set up, you can start writing the code to control the DC motor with the joystick. You will need to use the analogRead() function to read the values from the X and Y axes of the joystick, and use these values to control the speed and direction of the DC motor. Here's a basic example of what the code could look like:

/*
 ee-diary.com : DC Motor control using JoyStick
*/

int xPin = A0;    // select the input pin for the potentiometer


void setup(){
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(9,OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  // read the value from the JoyStick
  int xValue = analogRead(xPin);
  //map xValue to PWM
  int xpwm = map(xValue,0,1023,0,255);
  analogWrite(9,xpwm);
  // print values
 Serial.print("xValue = " );
 Serial.println(xValue);
 delay(10);
}