Motors & Actuators
Servos, steppers, DC motors, relays and solenoids. Anything that moves needs more current than a GPIO pin can give, so drivers are half the story.
PCA9685 16-Channel Servo Driver: Sixteen Servos on Two I²C Wires
A PCA9685 board that keeps sixteen servo pulses running by itself while the microcontroller talks to it over I²C. Servo power on V+ from USB-C or a screw terminal, the chip on VCC, six address pads, and a header on each edge so boards plug into each other. Three boards a box, headers soldered.
DRV8833 Dual Motor Driver
Two DC motors, or one stepper, from four GPIO pins. The board ships bare, the sleep pin is asleep until you drive it, and the red LED only says the supply is there.
19. Vibration Motor
Learn to control the motor with digitalWrite() or analogWrite(); outcome: motor vibrates 0.5 s, stops 0.5 s, repeat; optional PWM for strength.
Vibration Motor
A 10 mm coin vibration motor on a TinkerBlock board, switched by a MOSFET and fed from the board's own 3.3 V regulator. SIGNAL HIGH buzzes, LOW stops, analogWrite sets the strength. VCC only feeds the regulator, so 5V on VCC is safe beside a 3.3 V board, and 3V3 or 5V both give the motor about 3.3 V.