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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. Wagnard

    Wagnard Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    why not 1 dual channel + 1 single channel ?
  2. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    I'm not sure one dual channel board will can manage two 24V 750W motors. The vendor advise that the board is designed for a 500W motor. Also the price of 2+1 is more expensive than 3 single channel boards st this time.
  3. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    Well the single channel board I posted above is a crap, is not a 100A board, it only brings 30A so the vendor are cheating people. I start a return and refund and pulled the trigger to get three same boards the OP post, one for each motor.
    • Like Like x 1
  4. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    Its always a risk trying out new hardware that is not tested. There are very few economic choices for good dc motor drivers
    • Agree Agree x 2
  5. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    Yes, the good news it are easy to return without problems and well, we all now know that boards does not fit for relatively powerful motors.

    I'll post the dual channel boards performance in my setup when the new motors arrive.
  6. Trent Robinson

    Trent Robinson Member

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    Are you guys using these with or without buffer batteries?
  7. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    I started to work with these boards this week. I'm only doing tests with my new 24V-750W motors, only first movements with SMC and with FlyPT, without load.

    It is good for me know if it is needed use buffer batteries with this boards too when I'll work with load. I'll keep investigating it.
    • Like Like x 1
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2024
  8. Richard Ortengren

    Richard Ortengren Florida Racing Fan Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    I am not using batteries. I have (3) 12V 100A PSU one for each motor controller. So far no problems. I usually run them for 1-3 hours per session. None of the motor controls have failed yet.
    • Useful Useful x 1
  9. Wagnard

    Wagnard Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    Battery here because with PSUs, the motors would have some small halt because of the regenerative power when the motor is driving the motion simulator down (direction of the weight). No issues with the batteries as they eat the regen energy.

    Note I also used a 100A diode to protect the PSUs, so all the regen would be stuck probably in the motor controller.
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2024
  10. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    Thanks, can you please show to us how do you connect all things?

    Thank you!
  11. Wagnard

    Wagnard Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    There is nothing special to show yet for this as I only started using it. I<m just putty 2 battery in series (to get 24V) and they are directly connected to the controller (of course there is stop switch / breaker too). No psu whatso ever at the moment. So after +- 2h of uses , I must recharge the batteries. One I get everything more normal, Psu + batteries , I'll add a screenshot.
  12. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    Finally I I throw it in the trash these boards, they (the boards I received) are literally crap. I don't know how they install that little plugs, if it is impossible insert the 35A sized wires I don't mind how impossible plug 100A sized wire will be.

    My motors consume 31A (750W 24V) and the boards go so hot that the tin literally melts and the nude track go on fire. As I said, crap boards.

    IMG_3516.jpeg
    • Informative Informative x 1
  13. Trent Robinson

    Trent Robinson Member

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    Oh great. I just received mine. Hopefully mine aren't as bad. Maybe I should initiate a return and just use IBT.
  14. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    One of my boards did this, however the fault was not the board but the pid tuning and a failed battery. How did you tune the pid ? My motor was using too much P and overshooting very fast. An alternative is to use 12v and slowly ramp the P up
  15. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    I'll check the exactly config values when in home but I put the "by default" values.

    Kp=400,
    Ki and Kd set to 0
    PWM max don't remember the value but I stoped to increaseing that when the motor start moving
    PMWrev half PWMmax (IDK why BTW)
    PWMmin set to a low value

    I'll post a screenshot later when in home
  16. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    Set pwm min to zero
    Set pwm max and max rev to 225 (Set it to 255 once everything works ok)

    P 1
    I 0
    D0

    Slowly increase p till the sim just tracks the sine wave.

    What p number did you use to get this far ?
    • Useful Useful x 1
  17. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    You can repair this board with solder

    Running on 12v may help you get the pid under control
    • Like Like x 1
  18. Josh_Possa

    Josh_Possa Active Member

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    Yes, the first time the track burned I repaired it with copper, lit and soldering. The boards are still running but started to bounce and have a weird behavior (maybe caused by a bad config).

    I'll try your tips to configure that but what I can't do is running it at 12V coz the motors are 24V motors.

    I'm very bussy now so I'll try it as soon as possible (that is the cause still does not pull the trigger for the sabertooth yet)

    Thanks so much!
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2024
  19. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    a 24v motor will run at 12v

    one of my sims runs 24v 32 amp brushed motors - they are almost too powerful and move at very high speeds
    running them at 12v gets the motion under control

    you can see it on 12v here - at 24v it was too frightening for the driver !

    • Useful Useful x 1
  20. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    my guess is the board has turned on in both directions at the same time - you have probably changed direction back and forth much faster then the board can switch. I have coded a down time when the direction changes back and forth again to prevent this from happening - a bit like a debounce
    • Like Like x 1