Okay, I know this is going to sound weak, especially since I can’t find the original link that I was reading last night on the couch, but I have looked for that site for 30 minutes with no luck just now. If I find it, I’ll post it later.
I was looking for sample Arduino code and they had a good list of sample functions etc.
But in the “Notes” section, they say not to put more than 3 Volts to the motor voltage input, and don’t ever do a full stop or it could fry the motor controller.
It seemed nuts to me, cuz the spec says it can take up to 7 volts and doesn’t mention full stop problems.
The name of the site was something like pscrobotics or the like, there wasn’t a forum for me to inquire further.
Any idea what this could be referring too? I don’t want to cook my controller right out of the box.
I don’t know of the site you’re referring to. The things you are describing should not in themselves destroy the motor controller. However, there are many things that lead to limits on a motor controller being exceeded. For instance, if the motor draws 5A at 3V, then higher voltages can lead to more current that could be beyond the controller’s limit. If full stop actually means something like switching direction, that can also cause the current to be higher than you might expect.
Separately, I have seen some really bad examples the few times I looked into Arduino stuff, and what you’re describing could be another one of those sites by someone who does not really know what they were doing. The low-voltage motor controller often gets used with high-current, noisy motors that can affect the rest of the system if they are not handled appropriately.
I finally found the link. Re-reading the “stop” frying the MC, I think they were referring to grabbing the wheels, not necessarily executing a stop through software (assumption):
The only thing I see is in the “Special Notes” section; is that what you’re talking about? I don’t see why they’re saying the things you are concerned about or what motors they are using. In general, stalling the motors is not a good thing: if you have small motors, they might melt first; if you have big motors, the board can die first. There’s definitely no protection built into the board, so if you’re concerned about it, you should put a fuse in line with the power supply. Also, the whole point of this board is that it can work at such low voltages. If you want higher voltages, we have a lot of better alternatives.
