Arduino DC Motor Running for a Specific Time

2026-06-12 | By Ron Cutts

License: GNU Lesser General Public License Microcontrollers Motors Pushbutton PWM Arduino ESP32

In this tutorial, we will learn how to rotate a DC motor for a certain time period and then, with the push of a button, repeat it again. In this tutorial, we use a 10s period, but you can change it to any time.

Watch the video!

What You Will Need

Arduino UNO (or any other board)
L298N DC MOTOR CONTROLLER Driver
Batteries
DC Motor
Button
1K ohm resistor for the button
Breadboard
Jumper wires
Visuino program Version 8.0.0.84: Download Visuino

What You Will Need

What You Will Need photo 2

What You Will Need photo 3

What You Will Need photo 4

What You Will Need photo 5

What You Will Need photo 6

What You Will Need photo 7

What You Will Need photo 8

What You Will Need photo 9

The Circuit

Connect the power supply (batteries) pin (gnd) to the motor driver controller pin (gnd)
Connect Power supply (batteries) pin (+) to motor driver controler pin (+)
Connect the power supply (batteries) pin (+) to the Arduino pin (VIN)
Connect the GND from the Arduino to the motor driver controller pin (gnd)
Connect digital pin(3) from Arduino to motor driver pin (IN1)
Connect digital pin(4) from Arduino to motor driver pin (IN2)
Connect the DC motor to the motor driver, as you can see on the schematic
Connect Arduino pin [5V] to breadboard positive pin [Red line]
Connect Arduino pin [GND] to breadboard negative pin [Black line]
Connect Arduino Digital pin [2] to the Resistor and button
Connect the other side of the resistor to the breadboard pin [GND]
Connect the other pin of the button to the breadboard positive pin [5V]

The Circuit

Start Visuino, and Select the Arduino UNO Board Type

Start Visuino as shown in the first picture. Click on the "Tools" button on the Arduino component (Picture 1) in Visuino. When the dialog appears, select "Arduino UNO" as shown in Picture 2

Start Visuino, and Select the Arduino UNO Board Type

Start Visuino, and Select the Arduino UNO Board Type photo 2

In Visuino, Add Components

Add "Debounce Button" component
Add "Timer" component
Add "L298N" component

In Visuino Add Components

In Visuino Add Components photo 2

In Visuino Add Components photo 3

In Visuino Set Components

Select "Timer1" and in the properties window set "Interval (uS)" to 10000000 <<this 10 seconds, you can change this value if you want

Select "DualMotorDriver1" and in the properties window, expand "Motors" > "Item[ 0 ]" and select "Enabled" and click on the pin Icon and select "Boolean SinkPin" and set "Enabled" to False

Select "DualMotorDriver1" and in the properties window, expand "Motors" > "Item[ 0]" and set "Initial Value" to 1 or to 0, depending on the direction that you want. You can also adjust this value to change the speed

In Visuino Set Components

In Visuino Set Components photo 2

In Visuino Set Components photo 3

In Visuino Connect Components

Connect Arduino board's Digital pin [2] to "Button1" pin [In]
Connect "Button1"l pin [Out] to "Timer1" pin [Start]
Connect "Timer1"l pin [Out] to "DualMotorDriver1" > "Motors[0] pin [Enabled]
Connect ""DualMotorDriver1" > Motors [0] Pin [Direction]" to Arduino digital pin[4]
Connect ""DualMotorDriver1" > Motors [0] Pin [Speed]" to Arduino digital pin Analog PWM[3]

In Visuino Connect Components

In Visuino Connect Components photo 2

Generate, Compile, and Upload the Arduino Code

In Visuino, at the bottom, click on the "Build" Tab, make sure the correct port is selected, then click on the "Compile/Build and Upload" button.

Generate, Compile, and Upload the Arduino Code

Play

If you power the Arduino module and press the button, the motor will start to rotate for 10 seconds, and if you press the button again, it will repeat.

Congratulations! You have completed your project with Visuino. Also attached is the Visuino project that I created for this project. You can download it here and open it in Visuino: https://www.visuino.eu