Do ESC's provide anything else other than speed control? I need propulsion for a robot, tried converting servos to continuous rotation, found out that it's a bitch to figure out which resistance will keep it at neutral, so am not looking at motors as an option. However, ESC's appear to be quite expensive (50 bucks? loool) and on first look seem to be unnecessary. Is it possible to get a motor to "go" using an analog port on the axon?
Uh, NO
(loool)
First off, do you even know what a Analog Port is. It's a input that
RECEIVES a Voltage and is able to send the micro controller the number at a 8-32bit precision.
2. The Atmel ATmega640 can only withstand 20-30 mA per IO pin (A Standard DC motor pulls about 5000 mA at stall.) Thus placing a DC motor directly on a I.O pin would Fry/Kill your Axon instantly
3. A servo is nice because it has a built in ESC or Motor Driver, a gearbox, and a motor in a nice plug and play package.
ESC's appear to be quite expensive (50 bucks? loool)
A good assembled ESC or Motor Driver should run at $40-$5000.
Is it possible to get a motor to "go" using an analog port on the axon?
[/quote] If you only want it to go only one way you could use a Power transistor.( not using a analog port of course.)
P.S This question has been ask before so I think a good hour of searching the forum for DC motors, and motor drives, and H-bridges would benefit you greatly.
As for a good quality Motor driver I recommend Pololu.com Motor drives.