polulu overheating

davidss

My polulu Micro Dual Serial Motor Controller is shutting off while driving a motor. I believe it is shutting off because it is overheating, since it does not shut off at slower speeds and takes longer to shut off if I point a fan at the polulu. My multimeter is reading that its only drawing .1 Amps and polulu claims it can give 1 Amp. Is my polulu busted? Am I supposed to attach a heatsink to it? Should I be giving the motor supply pin more voltage (its getting 5v right now and the polulu is shutting off when I try to give 3.0v to the motor).

Thanks for your help

-DAvid

dandreae

Hello,

It sounds like your Polulu motor controller could be·damaged.· Does it still get hot without driving the motor?· If so, it could be in thermal runaway.· Make sure that your motor falls within the specifications of motor controller and your power supply too.· Has it ever worked for a descent period time?

Dave·

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Dave Andreae

Tech Support
dandreae@parallax.com
www.parallax.com

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davidss

It does not get hot when not driving the motor. I've been getting this behavior since I set it up. It only happens when I'm driving the motor to its limit (3.0v), which draws just .1 Amps.

]\David

Bruce Bates

David -

Based on the information on the following Pololu web page, the MINIMUM operating voltage for the motor controller is 5.6 volts DC. If you are only supplying 5 volts DC it may be as simple as that.
http://www.pololu.com/products/pololu/0101/

Regards,

Bruce Bates

davidss

That is for the Dual Serial Motor Controller. We are using the Micro Dual Serial Controller. According to the specs and the manual the motor supply voltage should be 1.8-9.0V.