I am working on a wheelchair with tracks. It currently runs off standard mobility electronics PG Drives 120A R-Net. The main issue I’m having is after just a few minutes of runtime the controller overheats and shuts down. The other issue is the chair has no low end torque. Ultimately what I would like to do is upgrade the motor driver, maintain the analog controller or something similar and be able to switch between analog and RC for loading and unloading.
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@Samuel123 Welcome to the RobotShop Community. Have any photos of the design? As you suspect, motors to drive tracks need to be extra beefy, especially considering something that will move a human. The motor controller’s current ratings need to match those of the motor to ensure it can deliver the continuous current required when rotating on the spot as opposed to moving in a straight line.
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The motors are 2 to 3 times larger than what you would typically see on a wheelchair. I haven’t been able to locate any writing on them.
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The track system is from an ATV - exactly what I would have expected. Nice, and overall looks very professional. So long as you know the motor type and voltage, is there any way you can feed a motor directly to get a sense of the current consumption? That would allow you to choose a better suited DC motor controller which won’t overheat or trip. My guess is at least something from RoboteQ which often have multiple input methods including RC.
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Thanks. I wouldn’t know exactly how to read the voltage consumption. I have been looking at the RoboteQ. Would it be compatible with the analog controller I have on the chair?
It is a 24V set up.
It’s unlikely anyone can say which motor controller might work without knowing the current requirement of the motor.
Regarding the controller, do you know if the joystick provides 0-5V analog signal? If so, that’s pretty standard and you can check each motor controller datasheet to see if that’s what it accepts.
It sounds like without knowing anything about the motor’s current consumption, you might need to measure it. For example:
with:
and one of many interfaces such as: