Hi everyone, new here. I am just going to throw this out there too see if Im working in the right direction.
My project requires a single motor, forward & reverse at variable speeds. It also requires it to be radio controlled. I am looking at the TReX Jr. for the motor controller.
My two questions would be A: Is this the tReX Jr. the right controller? and B: Does anyone know of an RC unit (single / dual channel) that is not for hobby? Maybe that I could connect my own controls to? Ideally I would like to remotely control this motor with a single forward / reverse joystick that is mounted in my own housing.
If you motor stays within the specifications of volts and amps you can use this controller in combination with a RC receiver.
In this case you have to stick to the software that was developed for you. I decided for my project that I needed the freedom of developing my own software. I use a baby-O ATmega328p connected to a 18CS25 motor driver. Input is a capture of a Rx signal.
For Rx transmission I suggest you use a 2,4 Ghz signal which is more reliable than the older style transmitters. If you do not like the looks of a RC transmitter you may wire the stick input to an external potmeter.
Have you thought of fail safe, what has the system to do when the transmission is lost. For a model airplane there are receivers on the market that can be programmed to act if transmission is lost for safety. If the transmission is lost the motor has to go idle and flaps deployed so we can see someting is wrong.
A goos sw example for driving a motor with pwm is the demo3 software that is available in the LV168 resources.
It’s difficult for us to give much advice since you haven’t said anything about your motor. The TReX controllers do two bidirectional channels and one unidirectional channel, so you’d be paying for extra channels you don’t need. We have the jrk 21v3, a single-channel motor controller with the same output capability as the TReX Jr, which costs a bit less and has a lot more features. If you can make do with the typical 7.2-8.4V nominal supply range of many RC speed controls (or ESCs for electronic speed controls), you can get a lot more power for a similar or lower price.
The hobby RC products will generally give you a lot of performance for a low price, so even pulling out the guts from a commercial unit and sticking it in your own housing might be far simpler and cheaper than trying to make your own or using some sort of industrial radio control system. If you want to look into doing your own wireless system, the XBee modules seem popular, though I don’t have any direct experience with them.
