Regenerative braking?

Do any of the high-power controllers offer regenerative braking? I suppose I can do it with one of the high-power drivers by correctly controlling the PWM(H/L) lines? Thanks.

Hello.

Yes, in the same way all normal H-bridges support regenerative breaking. It’s up to you to control the MOSFETs to get the effect you want. Please note that some of the high-power motor drivers do not have PWML and might not be suitable for the type of regeneration you want to do.

- Ryan

Hello.

Ryan’s answer is about our high-power motor drivers; you say “controllers” once and then talk about “drivers”. If you have any more questions, please be more specific about the product you are asking about.

- Jan

That’s right, Jan. Thank you for reading my question carefully, as it was about both the drivers and the controllers.

As I said, I could envision how it can be accomplished with the drivers, but what is less clear to me is how the controllers work in this regard.

We have discussed regenerative braking a bit in the past:

(Mostly I remember being skeptical about what benefits are really there when manufacturers make claims about regenerative braking.)

Our high-power motor controllers have some regenerative braking as a side effect of variable braking, but it’s not something you get much practical energy out of. Basically, the braking duty cycle has to match up well with the speed your motor is going, so unless you are actively monitoring and responding to the details of what the motor is doing (which our motor controllers do not), there will be relatively few times when current is going back into the battery.

- Jan