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Author Topic: inverter IC for input into motor circuit?  (Read 2286 times)

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Offline flamingpintoTopic starter

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inverter IC for input into motor circuit?
« on: September 20, 2013, 09:18:24 AM »
I have built a low-current motor controller for my Atmega8 controller based on the L293D chip (I also built a high-current controller based on the L298N chip).  It works fine except that it needs three pins per channel to control bi-directional motors using PWM (total of 6 pins for 2 motors).  The logic of the L293/L298 is such that:

FORWARD:
input1 =H
input2 =L               
enable=H (PWM)

REVERSE:
input1=L
input2=H
enable-H (PWM)

BRAKE:
input1=input2

FREE-ROLLING-STOP:
enable-L

I don't need active brake and wanted to reduce the number of pins required to control the motor so I ordered a SN74HC14N inverter chip to add an inverter circuit before the motor controller.  I plan to input the the output of one of the ATmega digital pins so that it is inverted (input=H(5V)=0, inputL(0)=~5V).  By feeding the output of the digital pin to input1 of the motor controller, and feeding the output of the converter to iinput2 (digital pin output inverted), I should be able to control the direction of the motor with 1 pin from the ATmega.  I think this is how the motor control is implemented on the Aduino motor shield V3 which uses the same L293 controller chip and only requires 1 input for motor direction per channel (DIRA or DIRB) along with the PWM signal.

Any thoughts on how well this will work or any gotchas I need to be aware of?

The circuit I built for the L293D is straight out of the Spec sheet for bi-directional motor control.  Same with the L298N circuit, adding 1AMP fast recovery diodes as recommend.

Here are the links for the spec sheets of the ICs I am using:

Inverter chip:  http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/sn74hc14.pdf
L293D:  http://www.st.com/web/en/resource/technical/document/datasheet/CD00000059.pdf
L298N:  http://www.st.com/web/en/resource/technical/document/datasheet/CD00000240.pdf

As a side note, I have used the output of a single PWM pin as input to the enable pin of both channels on the motor controller.  This gives me synchronized speed control of both motors and only uses 1 PWM pin on the ATmega.  I know this works as I have successfully tested it.  Is there any reason why I shouldn't do this other than the limitations on available rotational speeds on the different motors? 

Using these methods, I hope to gain bi-directional PWM control of 2 motors using only 3 pins on the ATmega.  I have done this successfully using the Arduino Motor Shield and my ATmega controller.  This will give me syncronized forward, reverse, and rotation in both directions, which is all I need for this portion of the project.

Offline jwatte

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Re: inverter IC for input into motor circuit?
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2013, 10:08:37 AM »
When doing industrial designs, you will need to worry about propagation times.
I think it will work well enough for a hobby robot. Especially if you don't change direction often.

Offline Webbot

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Re: inverter IC for input into motor circuit?
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2013, 12:54:47 PM »
Seems like each wheel has fwd, rev, and coast (like disconnecting the motor in webbotlib). So everything will be fine so long as you don't need to come to a stop quickly ('panic button' mode or 'am about to hit a wall' mode).
Only other thing to think about is whether the robot will be on a slope. If so then your missing 'brake' mode would keep it stationary (weight permitting) whereas 'coast' mode may allow the robot to free-wheel back down the slope.
Webbot Home: http://webbot.org.uk/
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Offline flamingpintoTopic starter

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Re: inverter IC for input into motor circuit?
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2013, 01:07:35 PM »
These are great points, I had not considered them.  I don't think I will need brake for this particular build but now I am thinking I will add some jumpers to disable the inverter and enable the second digital pin to the second input in case I need brake for a future project.

Thanks!

Offline jwatte

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Re: inverter IC for input into motor circuit?
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2013, 11:54:04 PM »
The brake is not an active brake, it just bleeds off the magnetic energy of the motor.
Panic brake mode should reverse the current and drive the motor backwards; that will actually stop the robot.
Braking for going down hill can also do the same thing.
The best way to get a constant and well controlled wheel speed is to use encoders to measure the actual speed, and a PID controller to drive the current output and direction to keep it at a desired rate.

 


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