V Electronics and Software

We used an Arduino Uno as our microcontroller because of the convince it provided both in respect to hardware and software. The pins allowed for easy connection to other hardware components. There is a lot of open-source software for Arduino, which made it easy for us to learn and use already available software. We used two 5-volt DC stepper motors that each needed their own Darlington Arrays to control the steps in the motors. We used a power module that took 120 volts AC from the power outlets and converted it to 12 volts (10 Amps) DC to power the two 5-volt DC stepper motors. We used a stripped computer cable to connect the power module to any AC outlet.