This example was written to control a motor from a touch sensor. More generically, it turns on a digital output based on the state of a digital input.
/* Digital Input controlling DC Motor by Tom Igoe This example controls a DC motor on pin 13. If a digital input on pin 3 is HIGH, the motor turns on. Otherwise it turns off. In the original example, the digital input was connected to a QT113 capacitive touch sensor. Created 28 Jan. 2006 */ int motorPin = 13; // this is the digital output pin for the motor int touchSensorPin = 3; // this is the digital input pin for the touch sensor int touchSensor = 0; // this is a variable to hold the state of the touch sensor void setup() { pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT); // set the motor pin as a digital output pinMode(touchSensorPin, INPUT); // set the touch sensor pin as a digital input blink(3); // blink the LED pin 3 times to know that Arduino is alive } void loop() { touchSensor = digitalRead(touchSensorPin); // read the touch sensor if (touchSensor == HIGH) { // if the touch sensor is sending 5 volts digitalWrite(motorPin, HIGH); // turn on the motor } else { digitalWrite(motorPin, LOW); // turn off the motor } }