Introduction to the Meduim motor

The medium motor is the first motor that we can use to drive the attachments on our robots.

So far, we have been moving only the wheels of our robots. With the help of the medium motor, we can now move arms, lifts, actuators or anything else attached to a robot.

Characteristics of an EV3 Medium motor

This is what the medium motor looks like:

When you are looking at its red drive opening, the positive direction is a clockwise rotation.

The default port for a medium motor is port A, so make sure you plug your cables in port A of the Brick.

Programming the medium motor

The Medium motor block is the very first block in the green action palette.

Aside from its different picture, there is nothing special about the block:
it can rotate for rotations, degrees and seconds,
it can be programmed to turn OFF or to turn ON indefinitely, just like the other motors.

Typical use of the medium motor block

This motor is more precise, than powerful. You will have a hard time lifting heavy objects with a medium motor.

On the other hand, it is the most precise motor that can turn to one degree of precision and has very small lashback (the play between adjacent gears in the motor itself).

When you use this motor, 99% of the time you will be using Turn for Degrees, so that the attachment does not hit any other part of the robot or get jammed. You will rarely have to programme the motor outside the range of +180 to -180 degrees and most often you will need +90 or -90 degrees.