If I have learned this stuff right from reading here and other robot boards for the past two months, with full load of 14AMP, you are going to need something a lot heftier than the EZ-B motor controller. A Sabertooth 2x25 or a pair of RC-ESC's of higher than 14A (you always want some overhead above the max rating of the motor) would be what I would be looking at.

Alan

So if I use the sabertooth x 2,, with the correct amps nerd, I am still able to use the ez-robot controller to control forward an,backward and full rotation motions?

Ok thanks

Hi GotRobbed,

That is right. Alan is correct. You need an H Bridge or Electronic Speed Controller rated for at least 14A. The 2X25 Sabertooth provides forward and reverse for two motors. Don't forget you will want an independent power supply for those puppys to drive them (not the EZ-Bs power).

v/r

Kevin

How about using a power supply like this to run both or do I still need the to be independent? Werker 12V 12AH AGM Battery .250 Terminal WKA12-12F2.

Hi GotRobbed,

You will want to run the motor power from this battery directly to the Sabertooth motor supply pins as this power source can handle the current demands of your motors.

Looking at the Docs, the Sabertooth circuit board requires a 5V regulated power source for the circuit driver (logic) power. Your EZ-B can deliver this. (correction....the port is for powering external circuits..it is an output to drive servos, receiver, and possibly even the EZB....as TJ points out further down this post)

As for powering your EZ-B off this battery, you want to consider how many other things your EZ-B is going to be driving. As DJ has said in a few of the forums the higher the higher voltage you provide the EZ-B and the more things you run (higher current) the hotter the regulators are going to get. Stepping down the voltage may be something you want to look at but the EZ-B can handle up to 14V as per the documentation.

I am running my EZ-B at 7.2 volts right (manual says that is ideal) now with no issues but I am watching those regulators on the EZ-B.

The Sabertooth looks to be a very robust H bridge with alot of settings. You will want to check docs and the forums on how to set it up with the EZ-B. I don't have one (yet) so I don't know how well they are working.

Good luck!

v/r

Kevin

I usually run my ez- b controller off of a 7.2v 3 amp rc battery with about 6 Servos running along with it, with no problems. But I figured using the werker 12v 12ah agm battery from the ez- b controller to run the sabertooth 2x15 which run 2 12v dc reversible gearhead motors 160rpms( is powered by 2 12v batterys), a 12v lighting system, a mp3 trigger and also probably another servo controller which runs another gearhead motor, which would be controler by a joystick controller probably the ps3. Do you the this set up would be ok? Without burnning out anything? Or should add some sort of power converters 12v to 6vand 10 amp and 5amp fuse blocks?

Thanks for helping out

I am very interested in this thread and will be following it closely. I am going to be trying to hook up the EZ-B and Sabertooth 25x2 motor controller with a wheelchair based robot in the near future. Hopefully I can get good info on the setup. Have any of you that are working with a wheelchair encountered a problem with auto brakes on the wheelchair motors? If so did you have to remove the motor mounted brakes? A tutorial would be greatly appreciated. Lloyd v

http://youtu.be/xT2WtVC9wjo is the link if you dont see the video

there are 2 threads dedicated to this, possibly 3 because i asked the same question. i got my sabertooth and airplane tx and rx to work, but not working with the ez-b yet.

email me so we can post in 1 place and not repeat ourselves. plus i can give u some advice from already using the sabertooth. TJ http://www.TheGoodRobot.com

Hey TJ Thanks for the response. I went to the link you posted. But only got your online store. Couldn't find an email for you. I'd like to talk to you about using the Sabertooth, etc. Please email me at: robotz12248@cox.net Lloyd

TJ, I was looking at your web site. What do you use for charging the 12 volt batteries on those beasts? I am building a fairly hefty robot and planned to use a 17Amp Hour 12 volt battery from a B&D electric lawnmower that I bought before discovering it was not the battery but the control circuit on the mower that was dead. (I can also split the battery into 2 6v, so lots of flexibility, but heavy). Since the lawnmower circuit is dead though, I don't have a regulated charger for it so I am trying to find something suitable without spending too much.

Any ideas?

Alan

my email is TheGoodRobot@yahoo.com my cell to text me is 5026827777 i'm in usa.

my so called bots are currently just remote controlled electric wheelchairs, but as soon as i get the ez-b and sabertooth motor controller to talk to each other, it will be a smart bot.

i skip the built in motor controller and microprocesser. if you are remote controlling, you dont need the joystick or the microprocessor/motor controller.

MAKE SURE YOU DISENGAGE THE 24 VOLT BRAKES if you use an electric wheelchair, or you can burn EVERYTHING up, like the brakes, the wheelchair, the sabertooth and maybe the ez-b!!!!

the electric wheelchairs have 2 12volt batteries and they are run series to make 24 volt. i use a standard 24 volt electric wheelchair battery charger and it hooks into the standard charging port, usually on the joystick console. you temporarily hook the joystick to the wheelchair's microprocessor, then plug this battery charger in the joystick, or plug it anywhere you normally charge the wheelchair.

i think these are 2 35amp hour 12 volts, run in series to make 70amp hours at 24 volt (if i remember correctly.) these batteries are $125 new. they are sealed gel batteries you get at a home medical store.

i'm updating thegoodrobot.com sorry its just a sample shopping cart website showing pics of some of the r/c bots i'm making.

more to come! email or text if you need anything specifically, or post here so everyone can see! TJ

ps: search youtube for robots4sale or smartstuff2buy or thegoodrobot to see my videos. add as a friend, subscribe, rate, etc etc http://youtu.be/xT2WtVC9wjo

KKEAST, you say my sabertooth needs 5volt? actually that is a 5volt output to power something like my airplane receiver that i had hooked up. the board gets powered by the 24volts coming in from the high voltage side. i think i would be short circuiting it if i put the ez-b's power supply hot wire into the 5volt low voltage place of the sabertooth. thegoodrobot@yahoo.com

TJ

TJ,

Thanks for the correction TJ... I see that now. Are you using that port to power the EZB-B and/or your R/C receiver or are are you adding an additional voltage source? Seems quite a bit different from the lower AMP H bridges I have been looking at but loaded with options. Looking forward to getting your input when you get EZB talking to it. Great vid btw.

Kevin

TJ,

Thanks for the great info on wheelchair motors. I was planning on using windshield wiper motors, but if there is anything good about the delivery problems DJ has had and the delay in my order, it is that I have had more design time, and also landed a good deal on a pair of wheelchair motors. So, now I am thinking my steampunk K9 may be more like a steampunk pony and is going to need flip down foot stands on the side and a plug in handle bar so I can ride it. (gonna need bigger batteries, bigger "steam tank", bigger car to transport it... Damn you DJ, your inexpensive little board is going to send me to the poor house... ).

Alan

Alan I bought a fully functioning electric wheelchair and good batteries for $150 and another for $100. When two motors costs $60 and one battery costs $125 (usd) then you need to just buy whole used unit like I did.

Kevin After I unplugged the receiver from my sabertooth so my transmitter wouldn't work, I then hooked up the ez-b. I left the settings on r/c mode on sabertooth. I have the battery pack that Dj gives with the ez-b since I only connect to the sabertooth with d0 and d1. I connect d0 and d1 grounds to low output ground on sabertooth, but not sure if that is required. I don't connect hot (red) wires from ez-b, and I connect d0 to s1, and d1 to s2. (s1 & s2 are signal 1 & 2 inputs). I only need that power to send signals to motor controller, no servos yet. I use two 12 volt batteries (24 volt total in series) on the electric wheelchair to power the sabertooth, it has a built in step down to power it's own circuit board.

Update: 8pm on 1-18-12 Using everyone's advice, and used dj's wall-E example file, I edited the arm slider bars to move d0 &d1. I deleted all the other junk like speech recognition and camera stuff because I'm not ready to test that.

Good news: I moved slider 1 and slider 2, it moves wheels different directions. Finally!

Bad news: when I use up, down, left & right Movement Panel in ARC the wheels don't turn at all. I made sure it was configured correctly d0 & d1. Only horizontal or vertical panels work, why does the arrows not work if the slider does??? TJ

I thought I replied but maybe my iPhone messed up. The 24 volts power the sabertooth and it has optional out put if 5 volts for receivers and things by using a built in step down transformer. I have the battery pack that Dj sent with the ez-b but later I will put some 7.2volt rechargeable batteries in parallel to get me a longer lasting battery pack for the ez-b.

Testing my sabertooth in a few hours. I got the slider to control the sabertooth motor controller and motors but why does the Movement Panel not control it?

I chose the correct pins in the config.

I had a project once where I needed a 12v and 6v voltage so I got two powersonic 6volt sealed batteries from shields electronics and had two seperate circuits , one in series making a 12v loop and two paralleled both batteries pos and neg for a twelve volt circuit. In doing this I had a inline filter too , a capacitor. Saved me weight and cost of having more batteries or dc to dc converter

Hey TJ - did you solve this problem? I am having what appears to be the same issue.

Cam

@gotrobbed: Are you selling the motors you talked about at the beginning of this thread??? If you are , whats yer asking price?