RB-Gra-09 Dual motor controller and tamiya 70168 twin-motor

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

I have a Tamiya 70168 twin-motor gearbox kit and an Arduino Nano RB-Gra-09 Dual motor controller. Is there any documentation or example sketches for hooking them up? The Tamiya motors suggest not going above 3V power supply. Any tips or suggestions welcome.

2

The documentation for the Arduino Nano 7-12V, 2A Dual Motor Controller unfortunately does not include sample code at this time. The manufacturer only indicates “coming soon”.
The same motor controller is used on the DFRobotShop Rover V2, so you may try adapting the sample code found in the DFRobotShop Rover Guide.
You are correct that the Tamiya gearbox is really meant to be operated at 1.5 to 4.5V. 7V would not destroy the motor, but it would greatly reduce the lifespan.
We can confirm based on experience that a similar product, the Tamiya Twin Motor Gearbox, can have its motors replaced with the 6-12V brushed DC motors.
Unfortunately we cannot confirm if this can be done with the gearbox you have.

3

Thanks for the quick response. You just sold two motors!

4

Got my motors right away - work great! I tried Sketch #1: Basic Rover – Full speed forward from the DFRobotShop Rover Guide and I had to modify is so that M1 was set to pin 4 to get directional control on that motor:

[code]int E1 = 6; //M1 Speed Control
int E2 = 5; //M2 Speed Control
int M1 = 4; //M1 Direction Control
int M2 = 7; //M2 Direction Control
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(5, OUTPUT);
pinMode(6, OUTPUT);
pinMode(7, OUTPUT);
pinMode(4, OUTPUT);

}
[/code]
Thanks!

5

So the 9 volt batteries are draining pretty quick. Could I use a 12 volt 1800mAh rechargeable lithium battery to run this rig or would it get too hot and/or fry the nano board? I would attach it to the rear posts on the controller board. Cheers!

6

You were using a normal 9V battery? Those are really intended to be used with electronics which don’t consume much current.
An 11.1V Lithium battery should be fine.