#include <PID_v1.h> // Define pins const int tempPin = A0; const int setpointPin = A1; const int heaterPin = 9;
If you have ever built a circuit in Tinkercad that needed to maintain a specific temperature, keep a motor at a constant speed, or balance a robot, you quickly ran into a problem: real-world systems drift. A fan slows down under load; a heater overshoots its target. The solution to this problem is a PID controller —and surprisingly, you can build, test, and understand one entirely inside Tinkercad’s free Circuits environment. What is a PID Controller? PID stands for Proportional-Integral-Derivative . It is a control loop algorithm that calculates an "error" value (the difference between a desired setpoint and a measured process variable ) and then applies a correction.
// Variables double setpoint = 50.0; // Target temperature (Celsius) double input = 0.0; // Actual temperature double output = 0.0; // PWM output (0-255) tinkercad pid control
void loop() { // Read temperature from TMP36 (voltage to Celsius) int raw = analogRead(tempPin); float voltage = (raw / 1023.0) * 5.0; input = (voltage - 0.5) * 100.0; // TMP36 formula
// Apply output to heater analogWrite(heaterPin, output); #include <PID_v1
// Set PID output limits to match PWM range myPID.SetOutputLimits(0, 255);
// Turn the PID on myPID.SetMode(AUTOMATIC); } What is a PID Controller
// Debug: plot to Serial Plotter Serial.print(setpoint); Serial.print(","); Serial.println(input);