How to Power A Flywheel

Hi! I am working on a project for school. I am trying to find a way to power a flywheel (about 2.5" in diameter) off of a 9V battery using an electric motor. The speed should be variable with the use of either a potentiometer or a pair of buttons, between 100 and 300 RPM. The goal is to maintain a consistent speed even when there is some outside resistance against the flywheel edge (like a finger pressed against it), and the torque from the motor should be reasonably similar/consistent at both low and high speeds. This should be able to fit in the palm of your hand.

I have some knowledge of basic circuit components, not enough to know what my requirements would look like in order to design a functioning circuit though. I do want to learn for the sake of this project and I have a mentor to help me, but I do need some help first with figuring out what this circuit might involve. I’m also wondering how many of these components I could find on SparkFun. I also am not sure how to come up with the formulas I need in order to see what is going on physically, like how much energy will be taken out of the spinning flywheel when it encounters resistance and how that relates to the power coming from the motor. I can try to figure that out on my own though.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Cardinal.

A motor driver like [ROB-14450 along with an Arduino, a potentiometer and a little bit of software would work.](SparkFun Motor Driver - Dual TB6612FNG (with Headers) - ROB-14450 - SparkFun Electronics)