Lesson CHEAP CHINESE MONSTER MOTO CLONES AND PROBLEMS

I bought 10 MM from Ebay last year 12dollars each. My mistake is that I didn't have time to test them until a year later... turn out 5 board only motor A work... B doesn't....

That seem to be the magic ratio, 50/50

Is it me or it's crazy to ask 20-30amps out of this little tiny thing? Personally, I don't think the terminal can handle 20-30amps continuous, let alone the chip. I'm going to have to measure how much amps my rig pull when it's back to together. Mine doesn't get above 55F , peltier cooling power.

I just got this joke because I hadn't heard until now that the Samsung note 7's have been catching on fire too!

p.s. I just heard that replacements are now available in the US though.

fine @BlazinH, ruin my day..................................

still got my hoverboard

@SilentChill

may I ask you the power rating of your motors? No doubt Sparkfun monster moto are the best choice for reliability, but i'm goint to be cheap with my first rig ...

i ordered a chinese MM on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/272370380651 and now i'm worried it is going to blow up, but the real things are $70 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10182 so not sure i'm into spending that unless there is a problem with the el cheapos.

would putting a heat sink on help? can't hurt right?

also, i ordered only 1 for 2 channels. would it be better to order another, one per channel? i have a 24v 200w motors.

or should i switch to 2 of these 43As?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Double-BTS7...685281?hash=item46552c6be1:g:LdAAAOSwSv1Xla45

thx

PS, just found this
https://www.xsimulator.net/community/faq/motor-driver-for-arduino-compatible-controller.11/category

my MMs arrived already but not the arduino yet so i don't think i can test them yet. and i don't have a scope, only a meter.

problem is it takes so long to get stuff from china, even if they test ok now, then blow up in use, i'm set back 2-3 weeks.

i guess for $11 each, its not a bad idea just to go ahead and order the 43As. are they more reliable? a quick search on the forum and i don't see any bad press?

@steveh2112 mms are cheap order extra. besides testing bad on arrival they have not been a huge problem for me. Although I can't speak for others. It is easy to blow them if you have a loose connection that is how I toasted the ones that died. test them when you get them then cool and keep your connections tight.
I have no advise on the 43a although others have had success.

and now they are burnin too lol
note 7 officially pulled and production stopped. 2.5 million units globally.

Cooling wise I use something different (CPU cooler -see below) I have three of these 'modules' in my sim with each pair of Dual MMs driving one motor. Just keep them cool ! when in use. Nearly 12 months usage now with no issues.

@steveh2112 The 43a drivers are pure garbage they would not even power my old 2DOF without cutting out. I think they are meant to say 4.3amps

If you mean the IBT-2 when you refer to the 43A ones then they are like all the others and have their limits...

I have used them for a few years without problems but the 43A isn't the continuous rating and my setup doesn't load the motors that much (design is equiv to a 20mm lever). The heatsinks don't have heatsink compound so that's the first thing you need to fix and it makes a big difference. And like most drivers, heat is their main enemy, keep them cool with fans or something.

That being said I would consider the MMs to use more modern and better performing drivers so if you are burning them up don't expect much from the IBT-2.

I used to buy one good MM and two bad cheap ones for every MM I needed. The good ones where always delivered sooner and the china ones in 1-2 months, so in case one good MM failed I had something on the way to replace it.
I used to do the same way with Arduinos too, and sometimes it saved my a$$

It's unfortunate that they're the only really cheap option that I've seen (you can buy a clone with two driver chips and a PCB for less than it costs to buy a single VNH2SP30 off of digikey). I've yet to have a bad one sent to me, but I ordered twice as many as I needed just to be safe. I wonder if there's a beefier option that's still cost-effective for the larger rigs? Most of the people that I see burning up MMs here are using large levers on platform sims, or running 6DOFs, which would naturally consume a lot more current.

Has anyone ever actually had problems with the small terminals not being able to handle the current? I've only ever seen the cloned chips as the root-cause of the problem.

The poor connections from solder on screw terminals are what caused heat build up resulting in blown chips. But again this was my experience. Also I burned one up by having a loose pwm pin wire from the ard, it was in dual mode and the one that had a good connection burned up due to overload.

I haven't had a problem in a couple months. I race about 15hrs a week on average with most races being a couple hrs each.

I have never had any problems with terminals over heating.

Another thing I noticed with the last batch of clones I got were that when the motors were stationary they were making a lot of noise until the chips overheated and shut down or burnt up.

For my sins I have ordered another 10 from China from a different supplier, will see how they work.

The terminals themselves don't really overheat to the point they fry. But the poor connection of the terminals has caused heat build up on the chip resulting in failure. Again this is only my experience.

Hope it works out for you Craig. that is truly an impressive collection of mm's.

I heard. At least with MM's you don't have to worry about them burning up when they're in your pocket!

This interests me. I am waiting impatiently for my two clone MM.

Well I have had 11 MM's burning off..
First thought it was my settings in the SMC3 code which were wrong.
But it do tend to be worst when the MM's try to hold my motors in neutral. Sometimes the temps rises and they will blow up.