Using more powerful motors with a pololu lv-168

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

Hi eveyone,

I’m building a mobile robot, starting with the Pololu Orangutan LV-168 microcontroller. I understand that this microcontroller has 2 motor drivers, but the power deliverd to the motors is somewhat week (5v max). How can I proceed if I would still want to use the microcontroller’s motor drivers, but use “bigger” motors? Would it be possible to use another source of power for the motors?

Thanks for your help!

2

Thanks for your reply!

When using what you call a standalone motor controller; would this controller be interacted with using the Orangutan? I’m guessing using one of the Analog/Digital I/O lines would be the way to control the controller…right?

I’ve been looking at the Dimension Engineering Sabertooth Dual 25A, which seems to be a great solution for my project. I understand that I could also power my MicroController from it. Can you tell me if the Orangutan LV-168 can be used to communicate with this controller?

Thanks for your help!
Francis

3

All methods that come to mind would require addition of external electronics to provide either more voltage or more current. We therefore suggest a standalone external motor controller tailored to the motors you want to use.

4

Your Orangutan can work with anything we sell basically. The Atmega168 on it is quite versatile. Use the 8 general purpose I/O ports for communicating with the Sabertooth. Perhaps set one port as a UART and send “simplified serial” command packets to the Sabertooth.