Electronics Puzzler Solution: Rotation Detector
By Forrest M. Mims IIIWhat's the Missing Component?
While watching his son do wheelies with his radio-controlled car, Bob Wheels realized that small DC motors are very tough gadgets. They also generate a voltage having a polarity dependent on the direction of rotation. So he built a test circuit to determine if an inexpensive motor could be used as a rotation detector for the video game he was designing.How It Works
The figure below shows the circuit with the missing component displayed. Both LEDs glow when the motor's armature is still or when it is rotated in a clockwise direction. When the armature is rotated in a counter-clockwise direction, the green LED switches off and only the red LED glows.
The mystery component is a DC Motor.
Background
My first project that used a small DC motor to detect rotation was an airspeed indicator for a homemade wind tunnel. Details are here: An $11 Wind Tunnel Design, Model Rocketry, July 1970, pp.13-15.
Going Further
Any general purpose, single-supply op amp should work in this circuit. Different effects can be had by connecting a small capacitor between pin 3 of the op amp and the motor.