I am trying to control the direction and speed of an old electric trolling motor with a joystick via Arduino. Ive written a sketch and everything works on the bread board prototype. Now I need to be able to supply at least 30A to the motor. Ideally Id like to something that will handle more juice but Id also like to be able to afford it.
Cytron Single 10- 45V, 40A Brushed DC Motor Controller
Is what I’m looking at. If I’m reading everything right I can connect this via jumper wires directly to my arduino to control the motor.
My plan is to use a 3 axis joystick with a switch. The Y axis for direction and speed, the switch for “cruise control”, X axis for steering via a servo and finally Z axis for some kind of tilt and trim using a linear activator.
I have the L293D shield, and my thoughts were to connect it directly on top of the Arduino. The 12V L293D would power the Actuator and allow the use of the Servo. Will I run into any issues with this plan, using the Cytron board?
Does this seem like an overall good plan?
Is there a better motor controller I should be looking at instead of the Cytron?
Hello @Carob and welcome to the RobotShop community,
If I’m reading everything right I can connect this via jumper wires directly to my arduino to control the motor.
You are correct
I have the L293D shield, and my thoughts were to connect it directly on top of the Arduino. The 12V L293D would power the Actuator and allow the use of the Servo. Will I run into any issues with this plan, using the Cytron board?
As the Cytron Motor Driver isn’t a shield and only requires a few inputs there will be no problem using both boards with the Arduino. Although I thought I should mention you will also need a battery to power the motor driver (check page 9 on the manual for tips).
Does this seem like an overall good plan?
Yes, I see no problem with it.
there a better motor controller I should be looking at instead of the Cytron?
There are lots of options you could be looking into, however, for the specs you mentioned that motor driver sounds like a good choice. There are some motor drivers that can control the DC motor as well as the servo so you wouldn’t have to use the L293D shield, however as you mentioned your budget is limited what you chose seems good. There are also some drivers that take analog inputs (like the joystick you mentioned, however as you said you already have an Arduino and made a sketch to control the actuators using the combo you mentioned sounds good.
