This was my first time controlling a motor using Arduino! As the "Hello World" for this project, I used a motor control shield to move a DC motor forwards and backwards.

This motor is actually from a robot platform kit, and thus includes some plastic wheels. I re-purposed this as a spool which will be used to pull in the curtain using a string. I drilled a couple holes in the wheel and tied the string to it.

I then mounted the DC motor to my curtain rod and tied the other end of the string to my curtain.

Unfortunately I didn't get many good images of this setup as it failed: the motor just wasn't strong enough to pull the curtain along!

Thankfully I had ordered a couple of high-torque continuous rotation servos, and they just arrived a couple days after trying out the DC motor! So onto attempt #2...