I’m looking at using my baby Orangutang to drive a Tamiya twin-motor gearbox for a mini-sumo. A friend pointed out the the baby O can handle 400mA, is this enough to actually drive the Tamiya motors under load? If not, is there any way to upgrade to a heftier H-bridge?
Thanks!
Hello,
Paul made a small sumo robot based on the twin-motor gearbox and our micro motor controller, which uses the same H-bridge. However, you won’t be able to get much out of the gearbox, so I don’t recommend it. If you build the gearbox well and keep the loads right, the draw will be under half an amp, which the motor driver can handle fairly well.
However, you really want to be pushing hard, and the motors will draw several amps in that case. We recommend using the low-voltage motor controller, which is designed specifically for motors like those in the twin-motor gearbox.
Also, keep in mind that you’ll have to cut down the axles since they span 10 cm without any wheels on them.
- Jan
So I should figure out a way to use a different motor controller, right?
The easiest fix would be if the baby O could handle a heftier h-bridge, is that possible?
I also have some of the serial dual motor controllers coming in, they can handle 5 Amps. I don’t know how the baby O would talk to them tho.
If that won’t work then I’ve got a dual channel lynxmotion controller, I know it can be controlled by an OOPIC or similar, could.
Which of these alternatives would be the best way to handle the motors?
Thanks
Hello,
The Baby Orangutan would talk to the dual serial motor controller via a serial line. You can use the hardware UART or “bit-bang” the serial in software if you want to save the UART for something else.
I’m not sure which Lynxmotion product you are referring to, so I cannot specifically comment on it. The ones I see on their web page are bigger than our controller and cannot go to a low voltage (such as 3V), which is what you want for the Tamiya gearboxes.
- Jan
