Simple Tiny Motor Controller

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chavoD
 
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Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2022 10:39 am

Simple Tiny Motor Controller

Post by chavoD »

Background:

The short story here is that i built an UNO R3 and blynk local server based chicken coop controller / brain. It runs several temp sensors, water heater, and a few doors with reed switch feedback for remote control and monitoring.

The doors are a non-branded automatic door that i opened up and re-soldered the boards to supply remote power and button input from a relay panel at my brain.

The problem:

The small OEM control boards in the doors are beginning to act funny, and I want to replace them with something i have more control over...

Current control scheme:

The main brain currently controls the doors by simply sending a single trigger when necessary to the small OEM board for either door (trigger is soldered to the open/close button).

the OEM board works like this : If the door has stalled (went over current and stopped during opening, or went overcurrent and stopped during closing, or hit a chicken accidentally) then the motor simply stops. When the trigger is hit again, the motor spins the other direction until the same stop condition is called based upon current draw (I assume it measures current, i did not make this board).

The question:

I am looking to build a small board combo that will be powered by the ~4.7V line (power line replaced 3x AAA batteries) that i have brought to the doors. This board/shield combo needs to be super tiny, and able to replace the function of the OEM board- meaning it needs to be able to current sense for a stop condition using a 5V DC motor successfully (resolution wise), drive a single DC motor bi-directionally, and accept a trigger input for the routine to flip directions and cycle again each time.

I have no problems conceptualizing doing this with an UNO, a motor shield, and probably a filter on the current sensing line- but would prefer something much more tiny, just what i need, and that wont require additional line filtering if possible.

Can someone suggest a board, or board + module, that fits the bill here well? There are a lot of new options in the ranks and i'm admittedly a bit confused by the many possibilities (feather stuff, trinket stuff, etc.)

thanks!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Simple Tiny Motor Controller

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The Feather Motor Wing has essentially the same circuitry as the full-size motor shield - but in a much smaller form factor. The main caveat however is that the TB6612 drivers on those boards do not have current limiting. So motor stall conditions can cause damage if the stall current is more than about 1.2A.

None of our motor controllers has built-in current monitoring. You would need to use something like an INA219 current sensor for that.

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chavoD
 
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Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2022 10:39 am

Re: Simple Tiny Motor Controller

Post by chavoD »

Thank you Bill

I will try out 3458, 3650, and 2927 with some short headers facing eachother on the outside boards and try to smush it all together tightly for a solution.

thanks

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