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Reasonably Priced 100A Motor Controllers

Discussion in 'Motor actuators and drivers' started by Richard Ortengren, Jan 29, 2023.

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  1. Richard Ortengren

    Richard Ortengren Florida Racing Fan Gold Contributor

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    If you are searching for motor controllers that are reasonably priced and capable of handling high amp loads, I can enthusiastically recommend the following controllers. They are available on ebay and aliexpress for around $50 US. I purchased 3 of them after burning through a bunch of cheap $15 IBT2's. These 100A controllers have been working flawlessly for me so far. They advertise that they can handle TWO 100A continuous loads, with spikes up to 260A momentarily. Though I have not tested that capability, I have been using (3) 40AMP 12V motors for a while now and the controllers have never gotten hot, in fact only just barely warm. Also, I do not run fans on them. Just holding them you can tell how much heavier, bigger, and higher quality they are than the IBT2. Even with (2) IBT2 in parallel, I would still fry the IBT's, but no issues with these! Give them a shot if you are running into issues with IBT2 or other motor controller overheating. Specs appears below along with a wiring diagram I made for connecting the controllers to an arduino. Big shout out to Gadget999 for telling me to have a look at these!

    [​IMG]

    upload_2023-1-29_14-46-15.png
    upload_2023-1-29_14-49-32.png

    upload_2023-1-29_14-51-2.png

    upload_2023-1-29_14-52-13.png
    • Like Like x 2
    • Informative Informative x 1
  2. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    so far they have been faultless :)
  3. zapata_h

    zapata_h Active Member

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    100A and such a small heatsink?
  4. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    I use a fan and thermoswitch on mine

    100A at 24v is 2.4kw per motor !!! A lot for a motion sim
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2023
  5. zapata_h

    zapata_h Active Member

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    That's why I said it, it's a lot of power :roll
  6. Richard Ortengren

    Richard Ortengren Florida Racing Fan Gold Contributor

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    Perhaps they are optimistic, I have not tested their failure capacity! But I can assure you that they handle my 40A motors without breaking a sweat!
    • Informative Informative x 1
  7. Wagnard

    Wagnard Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    Can this be used with SMC3 ? or you used custom Arduino code ?
    • Agree Agree x 1
  8. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    yes - you can use with SMC 3
  9. Wagnard

    Wagnard Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    Oh nice ! directly without any changes to the code ? Mode 1 or 2 ?
    Sorry for asking without looking at it myself, just not home right now and kinda excited by this little controller.:rolleyes:
  10. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    I cant remember which type off the top of my head - but the driver will work
  11. CoolZero

    CoolZero New Member

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    I just ordered this controller on your recommendation and feedback in usage. But because this does have any type or serial nr finding examples for this is quite hard. Does/can someone here provide me an example arduino code that fits the schematic as shown in the first post?
  12. Richard Ortengren

    Richard Ortengren Florida Racing Fan Gold Contributor

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    Hi CoolZero, I just use the standard SMC3 utilities with an Arduino Uno R3 clone with the sketch set to Mode 1 (which is the default I believe) and it works great. Let me know if you have any other questions!
  13. CoolZero

    CoolZero New Member

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    I’m new to what SMC3 is, but I’m looking for just to control the connected motor by arduino (speed , and forward/backward) for remote controlling it trough pwm.

    meanwhile I wil take a deeper look at what SMC3 is and if it can be used for what I’m looking for
  14. Wagnard

    Wagnard Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    I'm using one of theses with smc3 with power set at 245 and my 18v led psu trip(turn off a few second and restart ).
    Any ideas?
    Before I was using ibt2 and the psu never trip.

    also if I set power in SMC to 200, it won't trip.
    Last edited: May 19, 2023
  15. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    You are pulling more current than the psu can provide

    Use a 12x battery to buffer the power
  16. Wagnard

    Wagnard Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    I don't think so (unless the IBT-2 has some sort of current limiting), as it was working with IBT-2 with same setup and also I saw something really weird / interesting, if I put longer wire for the connection between the motor controller and the motor, the PSU does not trip.
    I wonder what exactly change when I use longer wire. I suspect it possibly filter something. no idea lol

    But I may try the 12v battery to buffer as you said. Only down side of this is that I'm supposed to use 18v.
    Last edited: May 20, 2023
  17. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    the wire is probably too small in diameter and is restricting current flow

    I bet it gets hot over time !
  18. Claudemir

    Claudemir Member Gold Contributor

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    What a wonderful friend!
    I also bought 2 boards to use in my 250W motors.
    I need to handle large loads on my sim.
    I'm designing a 3dof sim hope it works just like yours!
    Sorry I don't speak english and I use google translator
  19. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    Hello, good to see this product. Thanks to that I searched a little more and I found this:

    Captura de pantalla 2023-11-13 a les 9.31.37.png

    It seems to be the same one but single channel instad of dual channel. The channel-price is better if buy the dual channel but for those who want drive three motors maybe install one single channel for each motor is better solution, IMO for these reasons:

    1) You can connect two motors to one dual channel and one to a second board, in this case you'll have one free channel that you paid for it and will never be used. I'm not confident to install two 750W 24V motors to one dual channel.

    2) Buy three dual channel, one per motor, is "costly".

    My tougth is to go ahed for three single channel, what do you think?
  20. adgun

    adgun Active Member

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    If you couple 2 motors without backlash they act as one
  21. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    Ok but I don't understand your reply nor how it is related with mine, sorry.