Questions on dc motor controllers and drivers

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

I have 2 small greenhouses and I wanted to use a number of solar voltaic arrays connected to an MX60 Outback brand charge controller and lead acid trojan batteries to provide electricity for lighting and running a pump. You have two devices I was interested in that could make my two sets of panels more effective if they could track the sun on a pivoting frame I am designing. The photo sensor circuit will output TTL logic to move the array left to right and back and up or down as the seasons change in accordance with my 33 degree latitude. The two devices in question are as follows:
L298 Dual H-Bridge DC Motor Controller

Product Code : RB-Ite-141

Cytron 10A 5-30V Dual Channel DC Motor Driver

Product Code : RB-Cyt-153

The L298 will be used on a small solar array with a surface of 4 square feet to experiment and trial with my understanding on how it will work as a proof of concept with my gimbaled apparatus. The Cytron will power 2 larger geared motors to move 2 Kyocera 125 watt panels (56" x 25.7" weight of 26.7 lb each). The same sensor circuit will be used on this second device outputting the logic to turn on/off or reverse as needed. In the future I hope to learn more about the Arduino and the coding to substitute a smarter device with more bells and whistles and probably more current draw.

Now that you know what my plans are, will this work or is there a better device to use and is there a difference between a driver and controller when I am using the same logic sensor and just different size geared down motors?

Robert Chase

817-269-1498

[email protected]

2

Hi Robert,

Nice project you are working on. However, why not using geared steppers and stepper controller instead of using DC Motors ? You will have a better positioning accuracy for your application.
It depends on what do you mean by “Driver” and “Controller”. Sometimes, a driver and controller would be the same thing, however, when for example you are using an Arduino board to control a Cytron 10A 5-30V Dual Channel DC Motor Driver, then the Arduino would be the controller and the Cytron would be the driver. Choosing a driver depends several considerations which are : nominal voltage of the motors, continuous current consumed by the motors, the controlling method (serial, analog, PWM, RC, etc…) and number of channel outputs. If these considerations remain the same for both sizes of the geared motor, you won’t have to change the driver. In case, for example, changing the motor for one that draws more Amps than what the driver can provide, in this case you will have to replace the driver for a more powerful one. Here is a blog post that can provide you some useful information.

Hope this helps,