Zeroborg motor controller

Submitted by cgv1205 on Tue, 07/31/2018 - 20:55

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I am using my Zeroborg motor controller on the motors of a Thunderborg. I wanted to be able to have full control of all four of my thunderborg motors(part P37UK12). I was using a 12V power supply into the Zeroborg motor controller even though it is only rated for 9V. When i would use the set up examples and Setmotors to a value between -1 and 1. If i used a value lower than +/- 0.6 the a high pitch noise will come from the motors, and the motors will not move. Once I set my motors higher than +/- 0.6 the motors begin to move, but at much higher speeds that I would like. I then switched to a 9V power supply like the ZeroBorg motor controller should use, and I still had the same problem. Looking for a possible reason why. Thanks!

piborg's picture

piborg

Wed, 08/01/2018 - 08:34

The noise you are hearing has two common causes:

  1. Not enough power to get the motor to move
  2. The board is detecting a problem:
    1. Board tries to power motor
    2. Circuit protection detects a problem
    3. Power to the motor is disabled
    4. The board waits for a very short period of time
    5. Repeat from 1

I think the trouble is basically down to the pairing, ZeroBorg may not be powerful enough to drive the MonsterBorg motors properly. My guess is that the motors are exceeding the 1.5 A continuous limit of the ZeroBorg when they are stationary, which is causing the problem.

Another possible culprit is that your power supply is not able to provide enough current. You will need at least 2 A per motor you are trying to run, ideally more. If the ZeroBorg is also powering the Raspberry Pi you will need to add another 1 A as well.

On a different note, how much higher are the speeds than you need? If you are testing the motors with the wheels able to spin freely they will move much faster than they will in contact with the ground moving a robot. If you need very slow speeds a 300 RPM motor might not be the best choice.

Do not use the 12 V power supply with the ZeroBorg. Some of the chips on the ZeroBorg are only designed for a 10.8 V maximum and are likely to be damaged when using 12 V!

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