mcbaker01
USA
Asked
— Edited
Do I need one controller per motor or one controller per side?
In another thread, DJ said, "one controller per set" but in the same paragraph he said "running multiple motors (in series or parallel) is a bad idea"
Are the 2.5A controllers enough? Apparently this thing draws 14A max.
Is there a controller I can get that will manage acceleration, turning, motor braking? Is this a better way to go?
You will be okay with one higher amperage controller for the motors - but it isn't recommended in electronics. For example, we all do many things that "work" but are not recommended
Measuring the stall of a motor, or no-load current is funny in a way also. When working with moving electronic hardware like motors, the measurement is really a game of statistics. You watch the current over a variety of loads and temperatures and motors. Eventually you will get enough values that you can add them up and divide to get an average.
That same inconsistency that you can visualize between measurements is also why physical hardware is not recommended to share solidstate drivers.
People who work in audio will understand
It's similar in speakers with amplifiers. A proper audio configuration does not include multiple speakers per amplifier. Cheap car audio people will connect multiple subwoofers to a single amp, but that's not something i would ever do either
:) Well, I'm not building a military grade, Mars type rover with independently driven motors utilizing active feedback monitoring systems (yet
) nor selling cheap audio tricks! just trying to offer good suggestions, based on research and experience... and a passion for helping others, where able technically, as many have and are helping me.
So DJ, which motor drivers do you recommend for the Thumper 6WD?
The 2.5 that we have on our store is great. You'd need one 2.5 HBridge per set of motors... So you would need 3 2.5's for the 6wd.
Otherwise, you could connect one heavy duty Sabertooth controller for all the motors - that would work too. But I do not know what Sabertooth's warranty is on connecting to multiple motors (even if the load is less than their supported load).
Checked on that... . Sabertooth controllers are meant to drive one motor per channel.
So those motors will work on 7.2V or does it have to be regulated down to 6V?