Two Basic Motor Speed Controllers

Here are two simple 12V DC motor speed controllers that can be built for just a few dollars. They exploit the fact that the rotational speed of a DC motor is directly proportional to the mean value of its supply voltage. The first circuit shows how variable voltage speed control can be obtained via a potentiometer (VR1) and compound emitter follower (Q1 & Q2). With this arrangement, the motor’s DC voltage can be varied from 0V to about 12V. This type of circuit gives good speed control and self-regulation at medium to high speeds but very poor low-speed control and slow starts. The second circuit uses a switchmode technique to vary motor speed.

Circuit diagram:

Fig.1: a very simple motor speed controller based on a compound emitter follower (Q1 & Q2).

Here a quad NOR gate (IC1) acts as a 50Hz astable multivibrator that generates a rectangular output. The mark-space ratio of the rectangular waveform is fully variable from 20:1 to 1:20 via potentiometer VR1. The output from the multivibrator drives the base of Q1, which in turn drives Q2 and the motor. The motor’s mean supply voltage (integrated over a 50Hz period) is thus fully variable with VR1 but is applied in the form of high-energy "pulses" with peak values of about 12V.

Circuit diagram:

Fig.2: this slightly more complicated circuit gives better low speed control and higher torque.

This type of circuit gives excellent full-range speed control and gives high motor torque, even at very low speeds. Its degree of speed self-regulation is proportional to the mean value of the applied voltage. Note that for most applications, the power transistor (Q2) in both circuits will need to be mounted on an appropriate heatsink.

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Build a Toggle Touch Switch Using Two Inverter Gates

We  can make a simple touch switch using only two inverter gates, two resistors, and two capacitors. The schematic diagram of the circuit is shown in the figure below. At power up, the output (of U1A) will be high, and the inverting output will be low because U1A gate will be triggered to ground level by C2. After triggered, the low level of U1A input is maintained by U1B output via R2.

If we touch the pad at this condition, where the output is high, then the U1A input will go high because we “short” the voltage of C1 to the input pin, and the low level previously caused by low level of U1B output voltage connected via R2 can’t be maintained because our skin resistance is much lower than 10M.

After U1A input goes high then U1A output will go low, and now U1B will go high to maintain high voltage level of U1A via R2, so we can release our finger without loosing the last state. Touching the pad again after we release our previous touching will toggle the output as the condition is reversed.

After we touch the pad, we have to release before 1 second (R2C2 time constant) elapsed. If we touch the pad longer than R2C2 time constant then  the output will oscillate (about 1 Hz).

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