Motor Driver 24v12 controlling 6 peltier tiles

Hi,

for my project Im using 6 peltier to heat and cool a hexagonal housing with liquid inside,
i am curious as to whether i could use a pololu simple motor driver or controller 24v12 to control my 22.5v max, 12A max peltier modules wired in series in terms of the bi-directional polarity. I was also wanting to set a temperature and keep the temperature steady, the temp range is 10-50 degrees Celsius.

Also, do i need to use the arduino microcontroller with an external power source if i were to use this pololu motor driver? or can i just simply ignore the need for an arduino and/or the power source and just use a motor driver with an attached interface?

Hello.

I do not think it would be practical to wire all of your Peltier devices in series and control them from one Simple Motor Controller (SMC), but you could use a single SMC to control a single Peltier device. I am not sure what kind of duty cycle you expect for your Peltier devices, but continuously running the 24v12 with a 12A load would be operating it right at it’s threshold. If you plan on operating close to the full load of your Peltier devices to maintain the temperature you set, I recommend using the higher power 24v23. The same advice applies for our high-power motor drivers (HPMD), and the one I recommend using if you need more power is the 24v23 CS.

Both the HPMDs and SMCs can only control a single Peltier device, but the Simple Motor Controllers have additional logic on them that allows them to be daisy chained together to control multiple SMCs with a single TTL serial interface (from a microcontroller like your Arduino). You can learn more about how to do that inside the “Daisy Chaining” section of the SMC’s user’s guide, which you can find under the Resources tab of its product page.

-Jon

No I plan on running them at about 50% not full capacity. I mean at different voltages the peltier can only heat up so much so I guess in a sense I want to control the voltage going through the peltiers to maintain a certain temperature. I was thinking of using a breadboard to hook up the arduino and motor driver to the peltiers and maybe an external power source if needed. The arduino and motor driver would just be the brain in the setup to maintain a temperature or voltage throughout. The peltiers max out at 125 degrees Celsius I only need 10-50

wiring it similar to this (kryothermtec.com/assets/images/series_.jpg) so the two end wires will go into the motor driver

You forgot to mention that these are 3.75 V (max) Peltier modules, not 22.5 V as your first post states.
forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=303173.0

If your devices are only 3.75V each, it sounds like you could get your system to work with your Arduino and a single controller like you mentioned in your first post. Also, a breadboard is probably not going to be able to handle anywhere near 6A, so I recommend soldering everything together or using high current connectors.

-Jon

Would I need a Motor driver or a motor controller? Or do they do the same thing?

Thanks

You could use either a motor driver or motor controller to control your Peltier devices. We make a specific distinction between the phrases “motor driver” and “motor controller”, and you can read about that at the top of our motion control modules page. Basically, the motor controller has additional logic and features that the driver does not. So, if you do not need those, then you would probably be fine using a motor driver. Please note that others might not follow the same distinction.

-Jon

If I were to use a thermistor to read out the temperature, Ive seen that it has to be coded into the arduino, would I still be able to use a PID code on that same arduino or does it need to be separate? I plan on getting an arduino, motor controller 24v12, a LCD display, and an 24v12 external power supply hooked up to 6 peltier tiles in series. Does this setup seem possible? Also if the power supply gives off 24v can I adjust how much voltage or current the peltiers get using the motor controll or do I adjust that using the knob on the power supply?

Thanks
-Johnny

Also is it possible to connect a motor controller, lcd display, keypad, and thermisor to the arduino? Or will I need a arduino mega?

I do not see anything obviously wrong with using all of those parts together. I recommend starting simply by separately testing individual elements of your system to get them working, then building up and integrating everything (e.g. get a single driver and Peltier device to work with your Arduino first before connecting everything together and expecting it to work).

You could likely write all of the code you need to control your system on a single Arduino, though depending on how much you want to add, you might want to use a Mega. (You should determine beforehand which pins and libraries you plan to use for each component to see if everything will work together.)

The motor drivers and motor controllers both effectively adjust the voltage supplied to the motor they are connected to. So, you do not need to adjust the voltage on the motor supply.

-Jon