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Week 10 - Output Devices

Group Assignment

  • Measure the power consumption of an output device.

Simple circuit with a small motor and a mosfet.

One important element of the output circuit is a flywheel diode that runs parallel to the motor. The purpose of this element is to discharge energy when the ciricuit is switched off.

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../../images/week_10/motor_mosfet.jpeg

We had this small motor on hand

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Although we knew the general specification of the motor we did not know the exact part number. We used our ciriut and power readings to determine which of these options we had.

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This video shows the circuit with the mosfet and flywheel diode. We used an LED diode so that we could visualize the backflow. Normally a LED diode is not appropriate for th is application because it will likely burn out.

Power Measurements Results

Input Voltage Current Power
2 0 none
5 0.031 0.155
6 0.032 0.224

Based on these results we were able to determine that our motor most closely matches the specifications for the 6V Low Voltage motor.