Author Topic: Relay shield to controll small dc motors?  (Read 1794 times)

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Offline BumboltTopic starter

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Relay shield to controll small dc motors?
« on: December 12, 2012, 08:28:32 AM »
I'm planning to buy a small platform to experiment with robotics. I found this one (http://iprototype.be/products/robotics/platforms/robot-a4wd) now this doesn't include a motor controller. I already own a chipkit (= arduino uno) and the relay shield for arduino.

Now i want to control the small motors by using this relay shield. Is there any danger in doing it that way? (could save me the money of buying a motor controller)

Offline Soeren

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Re: Relay shield to controll small dc motors?
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2012, 04:19:45 PM »
Hi,

Now i want to control the small motors by using this relay shield. Is there any danger in doing it that way? (could save me the money of buying a motor controller)
If the relays can handle the current of the motor(s), which they probably can (I don't know what relay board you're thinking of), The only drawback is that you only have full speed or no speed.

If you can follow a schematic and solder together a few components, you can add speed control to the relay board, but you'll need an I/O line for controlling each (assuming 4 circuits).

Each wheel has got an encoder, so you need four more I/O's to read them.
Regards,
Søren

A rather fast and fairly heavy robot with quite large wheels needs what? A lot of power?
Please remember...
Engineering is based on numbers - not adjectives

Offline BumboltTopic starter

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Re: Relay shield to controll small dc motors?
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2012, 06:31:48 PM »
Thx for this reply i will do this just to experiment with the making my own electronics. It seems a pretty simple circuit to make.

For now i decided to spend the extra 15 euros since the total made the shipping free the controller actually only costs me 5 euro :)

Offline Soeren

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Re: Relay shield to controll small dc motors?
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2012, 10:36:51 PM »
Smart move ;D
Regards,
Søren

A rather fast and fairly heavy robot with quite large wheels needs what? A lot of power?
Please remember...
Engineering is based on numbers - not adjectives

 


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