Introduction: Make a Remote Controlled Fan!

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In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a very simple fan attachment that can be controlled by any remote.

Step 1: Materials

For this project, you will need the following materials:

  1. 1 9g Micro Servo + Horn + Screws for Horn- $2.00
  2. 1 TSOP4838 IR Receiver - $0.10
  3. 1 TIP120 Darlington Transistor - $0.10
  4. 1 Small PC fan - ~$2.00
  5. An Arduino Uno + Cable
  6. Lots of jumper wires
  7. A 9v battery
  8. The IRremote Librarylocated here
  9. A hot glue gun (or some other form of adhesive)
  10. A remote (it can even be your TV remote as long as it has unused buttons, you don't have to modify it at all)

Total cost (assuming you own an Arduino Uno, a 9v battery and some jumper wires):

About $4.50

Step 2: Circuit

This is a fairly complex circuit, I'm not going to write out all of the connections here, but you can refer to the image above if you are having any trouble. One thing to note is that the polarity on the fan (the motor in the picture) does not matter.

Step 3: Calibration

Firstly, you need to make sure that your servo is set to it's middle position with this sketch (with the Servo wired up correctly). Then, run this sketch (with the IR receiver wired up correctly) to record the IR codes of your remote's power, channel up and channel down buttons.

Step 4: Construction

This is the easy part, just screw on the horn (making sure it's position hasn't been tampered with since calibration), hot glue the fan on top and make sure that everything is connected correctly. If you're having stability issues, you can try making some sort of base.

Step 5: Code

Upload the code located here to your Arduino, and make sure that all of the functions work. There are a few troubleshooting options located at the bottom of the code, but if you have any issues post them in the comments below.

* Make sure to change the values POWER, CHANNEL_UP and CHANNEL_DOWN to the values that you recorded in step 3

Step 6: Expansions on This Idea

Some other things you could try with this project are:

  • Using PWM to control the speed of the fan (maybe with the volume up/down buttons)
  • Adding another servo to give the fan more range of motion
  • Adding an "auto" option to the remote that makes the fan go back and fourth automatically
  • Adding a PIR sensor or Ultrasonic sensor to detect and follow people (you can check out my post here about following people with an ultrasonic sensor for inspiration)