Hello,
This is my first time posting so please forgive any ignorance that may come across.
I’m considering hooking up two gear motors (Devantech 24V, 49:1 Gear Motor w/ Encoder) to a motor drive (MD49 - Dual 24 Volt 5 Amp H Bridge Motor Drive). I’d like the gear motor to be about 60 feet away from the motor drive, connected through wiring.
Would this distance cause any issues with feedback/control etc through voltage or current losses?
Also, I assume that the motor controller will cause one motor to go CW and the other CCW?
Links:
robotshop.com/en/devantech-2 … coder.html
robotshop.com/en/devantech-m … river.html
Thanks in advance,
Radek
Hi Radek and welcome to our forums!
That’s an interesting setup… It’s hard to say how well it work at a distance of 60 feet. The motor comes with cables that are 1 foot long, and most people probably use it this way so not a lot of testing with longer distances.
I’d think that the motor should work well in this setup, but there’s a few things that you should watch…
How much current do you expect the motors will typically consume? The higher the current, the most risk of problems.
First, you need to probably use larger gauge wires to ensure there’s not too much loss, but also might need to put distance between the power wires and quadrature signals to minimize forms of interference.
Second, how fast do you expect the motor to be typically turning? Longer cables mean that the quadrature signals will deteriorate due to the resistive and capacitive properties of the wires. To minimize the problem, slower speeds are better.
In most industrial setups with signals travelling distances like this, the signals will be encoded with a differential pair to minimize problems. It could be possible to convert the quadrature signals to use this if you’re having problems.
Hope this helps,
Hello Jeffrey,
Thank you for the prompt reply. I’m willing to try it out. I’m looking for the motors to output ~120 RPM. The rated current of the Devantech motors I want to buy is 2.1A, does this mean at the rated output of 122 RPM?
Other than the two Devantech motors and the Devantech motor driver, is there any other components I’d need to get up and running? I have a 24 VDC power supply (250W). If I wanted to control speed, how would I do that?
Do you know when these motors will be in stock?
Thanks,
Radek
Oh, I should mention what I’m building - it’s a tennis ball product that collects balls from a ball machine:
www.PickupWall.com
The motors are for the two ends of the ball track that turn an auger which moves the balls towards the middle of the court.
One motor goes CW, the other CCW.
Best,
Radek
Thanks for the information: that looks like a great product!
In this case, there might be another motor controller that would suit your needs better than the MD49. To confirm, do you need to be able to adjust the speed of the motors? And you probably don’t need the encoders to be able to measure the specific speed of the motors?
If you don’t need speed control, you could just connect power wires of the motors directly to your 24V power supply (with a switch and fuse if that’s not done elsewhere in your circuit). You can easily make one motor turn one way and the other turn the opposite by switching the black and red wires for one of them when connecting to your power source. Is this maybe what you would like to do?
