BTS7960 Driver burning out on Arduino FFB wheel

Hello everyone,

I am creating a ffb wheel using RFR wheel config, I have a rotary encoder setup with a MY1016 24V 350W 16.5 Amp motor with the hopes to use a BTS7960 to control it hooked up to a 18.7A 24V power supply.

My rotary encoder works as it should however my motor driver seems to burn out after 5 mins of intial use and then cannot be used again. I have used multiple BTS7960s and multiple PSUs but they all end up in the same place where they a no longer working. the BTS7960 is connected at 5V for VCC and L_EN and R_EN pins, and my 2 pwm pins are connected to pins 10,11 on my Arduino Leonardo. When i hook up a working bts7960, the software works as normal but then the motor has a pwm and then spins continuosly at lower power before my psu shuts off probably due top overcurrent and my bts7960 never works again.

Please any advice or help will be so meaningful I have spent ages on this project and way too much money. Thanks in advance.

Hi, @coolcrumbl
Welcome to the forum.

Can you provide a link to the BTS7960 modules you are using?

From here;

Do you have a DMM? (Digital MultiMeter)
To measure your motor current?

A schematic and images of your project would also help.

Thanks.. Tom.. :grinning: :+1: :coffee: :australia:

1 Like

MY1016 Electric Scooter Motor DC 24v 350w Brushed 24 Volt 350 Watt 6mm Chain | eBay Motor

Amazon.co.uk BTS7960

I am adhering to this diagram:Diagram 1.pdf - Google Drive (diagram 1 first page I cannot attach files yet)

And yes I do have a DMM to measure my motor current and everything checks out,

Thank you in advance

When checking PWM voltage on the BTS7960 pins , I found it was around 3.17V and before the controller burned out i could hear a distinct PWM hum, my suspicion is that my BTS7960s are fake as the text on the chip is hardly visible. The BTS7960 controller input voltage lines (5V) using a 24V to 5V buck converter hooked up to the psu and two L_PWM + R_PWM hooked up to the arduino

Hi,
Thanks for the info.

Yes you could have fake 7960.
3.17V on the output of the UNO.
If you measured it with the DMM, it should go up and down with selected speed.
The DMM is reading the average of the PWM pulse signal, not the peak of the pulse.

Tom.. :grinning: :+1: :coffee: :australia:

The start/stall current, which a brushed DC motor briefly draws every time it starts moving, is typically 5X or higher than the "rated current", so, in the range of 100 Amperes.

For something like a force feedback application, where rapid direction reversals might be happening, double that value, so around 200 Amperes.

Before reversing a motor, make absolutely certain that the shaft rotation has come to a dead stop first.

What does this mean, I need a 100Amp psu? a 100amp driver or a certain gauge cable that supports 100Amp. Also I am using a firmware to handle my force feedback called RFR wheel config, and I have been following tutorials for the basics and they seem to work fine without any PWM humming. Thank you for the help I really hope I can get to the bottom of this.

Thank you for the reply, when I measured 3.17 V i believe the motor was still and no voltage was vbeing outputted to the motor, I never measured voltage when ffb was on . Also where can I find "real" BTS7960s, I have looked around and tried different sellers on amazon but my results are inconclusive.

Both. That is a fact of life with your choice of a 350W motor, and the situation is much worse if you rapidly reverse the direction of spin.

You will keep burning out motor drivers until you follow the design rules.

There are current limiting drivers that control the startup current draw (for a "soft start"), which typically last around 10 ms when the motor is not heavily loaded.

If it helps, this is the psu im using: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C23MCTZC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details everything checks out in terms of voltage

Are you using one of these?

Yes but my one doesnt have those symbols printed on the PCB

So is it a good idea to sell this motor for an alternative? If so what is a comparable alternative with similar torque as I am using a 6:1 gear ratio to achieve 7.33Nm with the current motor.

They are cheaply made with very poor thermal design, meaning they get hot and burn out.
I wouldn't use them with a motor that uses more than 12A

Are you referring to fake ones without any symbols being cheaply made, so if i manage to buy a real BTS7960 with the safety symbols it can handle at least 20A?

This one seems to even have a the arduino logo on it, will this be able to handle my motor? Double BTS7960B DC 43A Stepper Motor Driver H-Bridge PWM For Arduino Smart.f W02 | eBay

The tutorial I am following is this guys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pEiYvWLGJ4&t=11s

He uses the same motor as me and seems to have no problem with a fake BTS7960, is there any reason for this such as his choice to use battery power?

Do you really expect an amateur youtuber to be honest about failures?

If they manage to get something to work once for a video, that is enough for them, and you certainly can't expect help.

If you are really interested in this project, it is time to get serious and start learning the basics of mechanical and electrical engineering.

Yeah tbh, I didnt blindly follow the tut either cus a lot of his choices were just stupid, I mean he had two massive car batteries just to power the thing, I am considering buying another BTS7960 (real) and monitoring voltages and what not to get more data for you. Thank you and please give me any advice you have on my next step

Yes
Using that driver with a power supply can cause excessive voltages on the driver and destroy it
Also note that he had a FAN on the driver