Raphael Kit Lesson 1.3.1 for Raspberry Pi (Motor)

Learning kit for Raspberry Pi
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Ok on this one:

  1. Fan. You don’t mention (or show) the fan attached to the motor. That is kind of critical to this lesson. It should be listed in the components we will use, and maybe a note on popping it on and off the motor. Also show it in the wiring example
  2. 9V Battery Buckle in the kit. While you are at it, include the Battery Buckle in the listed components. Also note up front that you need to supply your own 9V battery. I was out and had to wait to do the lesson until I could get another one (not wanting to dismantle a smoke detector).
  3. Breadboard Power Supply Module. My kit came with the jumpers set on one channel to 5V and the other channel to 3.3V. The Wiring Schematic on the lesson shows us connecting to 5V. The Wiring example shows the module with both channels set to 3.3V and we are connecting things up to power on both channels. Confusing! I left my module the way it came (one set to 5V and the other to 3.3V) and it worked but… ??
  4. Motor. the motor I got in my kit came with a black wire and a red wire which seems to imply power and ground but apparently does NOT. The wires in the wiring example are NOT black and red so I didn’t know which should be connected to which (my motor didn’t look like that either - similar but the barrel is perfectly blank). I did discover that to get the fan to rotate ‘forward’ (CW) and ‘backwards’ (CCW) the way it seemed it should (so forward, or CW, would blow air on my face) the red wire should be jumped to ‘Output 1’ (pin 3) on the L293D (via green jumper wire in diagram) and the black wire to ‘Output 2’ (pin 6) (via yellow wire in diagram). I wired it incorrectly the first time and I kind of hoped I wouldn’t mess anything up playing with it.
  5. Jumper Wires. That jumper wire between pins 4 and 5 (the two ground pins) on the L293D is really really tiny on the wiring example. I almost missed it. You might want to call out specifically.

Oh, and a general suggestion for the kit. Please consider including an IC extractor tool!

Plugging along!

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Thank you for your detailed feedback – you are a very attentive learner, and we truly appreciate the time you’ve taken to point out these details. You’ve noticed several things we took for granted, and your suggestions are very helpful.

Here are our responses to each of your points:

Fan – You are right. We assumed the fan and motor would be used together and didn’t create a separate diagram for it. The fan is a load on the motor, not part of the circuit, so we overlooked it in the explanation. We will add it to the component list and show it in the wiring diagram in future updates.

9V Battery Buckle – Good catch. We will include the battery buckle in the component list and add a note that a 9V battery is required but not included.

Breadboard Power Supply Module – The wiring diagram shows the jumper set to 5V, but we agree it could be more intuitive. We will update it to make the 5V setting clearer, perhaps by highlighting it as shown in the attached image.

Motor direction – We intentionally avoided using red/black wires in the diagram to discourage the assumption that the motor only turns one way. This is to encourage flexibility when adapting the project for other uses. However, we understand the confusion and will add a note about polarity.

Jumper wires – You’re right that the tiny jumper between pins 4 and 5 on the L293D is easy to miss. We will make it more visible in future diagrams.

IC extractor tool – That’s a great suggestion. We will consider including one in future kit revisions.

Thank you again for your thoughtful feedback – it helps us improve our tutorials and kits for everyone. Keep up the great work!