Tamiya Twin motor gear box

Hi guys 

I have a question 

Does the tamiya twin motor work with the L293D Motor Driver IC

I am going to connect it to a picaxe would it work.

The motors stall current is 2.1 amps can the motor driver handle that? 

No the driver cannot handle
No the driver cannot handle stall currents. You should put a 1A PTC Fuse in series with the Motor Drivers Regulator. Tamiya Motors are “loud” electrically speaking.

look for the L298D. as I’m

look for the L298D. as I’m also gonna use it for same goal. it can handle 2amp each motor (with headsink). also ad the diodes as described in the datasheet. 

Motors

No it won’t. I had the same problem with my gearbox. I built my own motor driver and they were still to much amprage so I ran them using PWM to keep the current down. Then I was on the Pololu site and I found they have higher voltage lower current replacement motors and they work great.

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1117

 

Here is the link and I hope my little bit of exprience has helped.

The SN754410 is capable of
The SN754410 is capable of driving the Tamiya Gearbox, however it does get warm under operation. Pin Compatible, so its a drop in replacement.

buy it

Where can i buy this ( I can not find it)

** SN754410**

I looked it up it says it can only do 1amp per a channel. Does it still work?

Double post

PLEASE PLEASE!!

If you double-post, please delete the other one.

Removed the double post.

Removed the double post.

solarbotics…

Except some dutch shops i didn’t know actually. But a quick google search says solarbotics sells it: http://www.solarbotics.com/products/l298/

They also offering a complete kit to make it some easier (as it can be a bit difficult for a beginner to hook up a motor driver) http://www.solarbotics.com/products/k_cmd/

 

they have it on ebay too,

they have it on ebay too, L289N (i think the letter refers to minor variations in the hight of the package)

can a TO-220 heatsink be

can a TO-220 heatsink be used with this?

You’re thinking of the L298N

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9479

09479-03_i_ma.jpg

2A per motor. The '298D is around 800mA IIRC. The L298N has a strange staggered leg arrangement. Get the breakout board or it's a hassle. There is also the L298HN that lays down flat if you find it too tall.

Okay, it may not work for

Okay, it may not work for long (max runtime I have tried is ~5 mins), and it WILL damage the motors, but it will work. The driver will drive the motors, and thus far in my experience the motors have been the only things to get hot (the driver is supplying more voltage than intended for the motors, and I have never let my motors stall, or even get close). As a long term solution your answer is no; if you are looking for something to test on your answer is yes, but you want to get the replacement motors for Pololu as soon as possible. I am using PWM, and going no higher than a value of 50 to drive the bot, which from my understanding is going to slightly lessen the stress on the motor driver, but from the heat on the motors after 5 minutes of run time I wouldn’t trust this at all for a long term soluition.

Another suggestion, since you seem to be a beginner (much like me) is to work on reading the datasheet for your motordriver. This will list the maximum current recommended/allowed for the specific chip in your application. If the max current is less than the stall current for your motor (+ a few % to be safe) your motor/gearbox is incompatible with the motor driver. From all the reading I have done you will not find a good motor driver for this motor/gearbox combo.

With that being said all previous posters have much more accurate information than me, I’m just trying to provide an opinion from a complete beginner that is experimenting with a similair setup. I am driving Tamiya tracks just fine for short distances with a 1A motor controller, and have not had an issue yet other than motors getting hot for my ~5 minute test.

"the driver is supplying

"the driver is supplying more voltage than intended for the motors"

How do you mean? The logic 5 volt voltage is separate from the voltage the motors getting. In other words: those l298 drivers has 2 different + voltage inputs. so I don’t see why they should get to much volt.

oops…

My mistake. I indeed mean the L298N, also called multiwatt version in the datasheets. you have to bend the pins a bit to make it fit into a standard pcb. and like JAX is saying, soldering is a bit difficult to do. that board from solarbotics is worth it.

for heatsink I have sawn an old pc heatsink into half. if youre making a metal frame for your robot you can use that as a heatsink. Only remind you that the metal outside of the l298n is connected to pin 8 (ground). but I don’t think the heatsink has to be that big as that 2,1 amp you’re meassured is max. and on my big blue robot it takes that current continue.

EDIT: just meassured that my motor with tamiya tracks turning freely uses under 400 mA. with some resistanse the double. you don’t need such a big heatsink. a small one will do.