I am currently trying to design a model railway turntable so that I can simply select an outgoing road and the turntable will consistently rotate and line up to outgoing tracks. I have purchased an Arduino Uno and am having fun relearning programming!
The motor I am looking at seems suitable in that it has 400 steps per rotation and a 5mm shaft to match the base of the turntable.
However I note that it is rated at 3v and 1.7A. As the Big Easy Board needs at least 7v to operate will it harm board or motor if I apply a 12v supply (basic voltage on the model railway)?
Whilst I am OK programming I am a bit lacking in my electronics knowledge! Any guidance would be appreciated.
Doolish:
I am currently trying to design a model railway turntable so that I can simply select an outgoing road and the turntable will consistently rotate and line up to outgoing tracks. I have purchased an Arduino Uno and am having fun relearning programming!
The motor I am looking at seems suitable in that it has 400 steps per rotation and a 5mm shaft to match the base of the turntable.
However I note that it is rated at 3v and 1.7A. As the Big Easy Board needs at least 7v to operate will it harm board or motor if I apply a 12v supply (basic voltage on the model railway)?
The Big Easy controller uses a chopper drive chip - this is fine with high voltage supplies, it automatically down-converts the voltage
like a buck switching regulator sa needed to provide the nominal current to the motor. Make sure its set up for the current you want
and that the supply is well above 3V. The higher the supply voltage the faster you'll get the motor to move (overcomes back EMF at
higher speeds). The higher the supply voltage the less current it will need (at slow speeds at least) due to the automatic switching
regulation.
However for your application speed is clearly not an issue - in fact torque will be and reduction gearing might be more useful. At least
that motor is pretty powerful and the microstepping ability of the controller will be useful.
Note that at the full 1.7A it will run hot - a small fan or a heatsink is recommended in this case. Consider reducing the current when
the turntable is parked.
