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i know what i want,,but do not know what it is called

Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:53 pm
by dacflyer
hi all..
i had another brain storm . i got the luck to get ahold of another electric wheel chair..perfect parts to build me an R/C lawn mower.

i have a few old 4 channel R/C units recievers and radios
i am looking for a device that can plug into the servo section of the radio and it then control the 2 motors
i am sure this is a common item, since i think that many are used in robots already..especially them fighting type robots. ( i miss that show )
robot wars.
anyway each channel would have to control the motor foward and reverse

i am guessing my idea would work sort of like the controls of a tank ;)

thanks for any info and direction of where to look..

Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 6:26 pm
by hp
It's usually called an ESC (Electronic Speed Control). Tower Hobbies (www.towerhobbies.com) sells them to the R/C type people. You'll have to spend quite a bit ~$50 to get a good one. I wouldn't recommend R/C products though since they are sometimes very poorly designed.

Parallax also makes one that supports motors up to 25 amps @ 13.8v. It even includes a cooling fan and easy to replace fuse. http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=29144

Harrison

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 8:52 am
by dacflyer
looks like what i need, but i need 24 volt power use..
now that i know what its called i can try to search more..
thanks

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:48 pm
by dacflyer
i didn;t think these controllers were so expencive
this one i looked at onthe right hand side ( 2X25 )
http://www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/it ... 22&catid=5
has a lot of nice features, but i am wondering if theres anything cheaper ?

Sounds like overkill

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:19 am
by arealperson
Hi:

The motor & gearbox were made to drive around a 200lb person. Unless you plan on stepping on the mower as it is moving; 24 volts at 20 amps per motor sounds like over kill to me! You can bring down the cost by using relays.

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:45 am
by dyarker
What happened to the controller that was in the wheel chair?

Seems like just replace the chair's joystick with the RC link. Or is a burned out ESC why the chair was available?

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:51 am
by dacflyer
arealperson >> the motors are rated at 10Ahr
and if i just use relays...then its difficult to control and jerky


dyarker - the controller was missing,
so i am looking into getting something that will work,,

Motor speed controllers

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:21 am
by slamer
There are several high amperage motor speed controllers to choose from.
The most important thing to consider is the stalled motor current draw and use that as your baseline for your choice. Here is a page that has many links to the controllers We have proven in Robotic Combat. They are towards the bottom of the page..

http://www.teamkiss.com/newkiss1220.html

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:43 am
by eblade
I have been really pleased with controllers from these guys:

http://www.dimensionengineering.com/

The Sabertooth controllers are all dual channel, which means you can control two motors. The other thing I really like, is they are quite a bit less expensive than a lot of the others I looked at.

I have a 2x10 and a 2x10 R/C. The difference is the R/C will only interface to an R/C receiver, and the regular model can be hooked to a microprocessor, or just some 5k pots.

These units also have built in Battery Elimination Circuits (BEC's) for the Receiver. I fried the 2x10 because I hooked a battery to the receiver. (Didn't read the directions before hooking it up). I emailed the guys to ask if there was a way I could fix it, and they replaced it for me for free. Great customer service.

If you want to go super cheap, and learn a lot about controllers, you can always build your own following the Open Source Motor Controller (OSMC)plans:

http://www.robotpower.com/osmc_info/