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[Reply #15 on:]

No problem. Glad I could help.

Chris

[Reply #16 on:]

I was wondering, I haven't had much experience driving DC motors. I gather that you are using PWM, but how are you controlling speed? is it done by simply increasing the duty cycle, or can it be done by changing the frequency of the pulse, like you would with a stepper motor?
Sorry if these are daft questions, but I really don't know anything about DC motors!

Chris

[Reply #17 on:]

Yes, speed control is provided by changing duty cycle. It is proportional to voltage.

In order to understand effects of frequency over pwm here is a quote from the http://homepages.which.net/~paul.hills/SpeedControl/SpeedControllersBody.html

The frequency of the resulting PWM signal is dependant on the frequency of the ramp waveform. What frequency do we want? This is not a simple question. Some pros and cons are:

•    Frequencies between 20Hz and 18kHz may produce audible screaming from the speed controller and motors - this may be an added attraction for your robot!

 

•  RF interference emitted by the circuit will be worse the higher the switching frequency is.

 

•  Each switching on and off of the speed controller MOSFETs results in a little power loss. Therefore the greater the time spent switching compared with the static on and off times, the greater will be the resulting 'switching loss' in the MOSFETs.

 

•  The higher the switching frequency, the more stable is the current waveform in the motors. This waveform will be a spiky switching waveform at low frequencies, but at high frequencies the inductance of the motor will smooth this out to an average DC current level proportional to the PWM demand. This spikyness will cause greater power loss in the resistances of the wires, MOSFETs, and motor windings than a steady DC current waveform.

[Reply #18 on:]

If using a software solution you should be aware that the two phases should not make the two halves of your bridge conducting at the same time.Otherwise you will blow up you motor drivers. The motor drivers usually have some security that avoid cross conduction of the 2 transistors of the same halve. Choose your bridge carefully.