Please recommend a motor controller to drive four motors

Support Motor controllers/drivers and motors
1

Hi folks,

My first post :slight_smile:

I have a Rover 5 from DFRobot. It has four motors with four encoders.

I’d like to drive same with my Arduino’s or Raspberry Pi.

Specification of Motors / Encoders is as follows -

Motor rated voltage: 7.2V
Motor stall current: 2.5A
Output shaft stall torque: 10Kg/cm
Gearbox ratio: 86.8:1
Encoder type: Quadrature
Encoder resolution: 1000 state changes per 3 wheel rotations
Speed: 1Km/hr
Four motors
Four encoders
Encoder interface:
Red = +5V
Black = 0V
Yellow and White = Quadrature encoder outputs>

Could you please recommend a motor controller that takes account of the above stall current etc?

Much appreciated,

Michael

2

Hello, Michael.

For use with an Arduino I recommend our Dual VNH5019 Motor Driver Shield for Arduino and reading the encoders using one of the Rotary Encoder Arduino libraries.

Since the Raspberry Pi is not particularly good at precise timing applications like reading encoder signals, I suggest something like the RoboClaw 2X7A, which can process your encoder signals. The RoboClaw 2X7A could also be used with an Arduino if you want one controller that would work with either board. You can find an Arduino library for it in the “RoboClaw and MCP Motor Controller resources” link under the “Resources” tab of the RoboClaw’s product page.

-Derrill

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