Controlling 12V car LWR Stepper Motor for xenon headlights

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Hi to everybody,

I am an Arduino enthusiast and I would like to use it to allow auto height adjustement for car lights through an LWM stepper motor according to the road inclination (using an MPU 6050 MEMS sensor).

My LWM stepper motor can be controlled through a tension between 0 and 12V which sets the motor to a predefined height (unluckily no specs can be found on the stepper motor).

I do know that Arduino outputs only 5V tensions and they can be modulated through PWM. What's the best approach to convert Arduino modulated 5V to modulated 12V ? As far as I understood reading the forums a mosfet with an RC low pass filter could be fine otherwise I have to use a digital potentiometer...what's the best approach ? Any schematics is greatly appreciated (I am a programmer not an electrical engineer)!

Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

2

You can't just use a MOSFET as that is only single-sided drive - you need a half-H-bridge,
or perhaps more simply a MOSFET low-side driver chip, which can be PWM'd from 5V.
The output would be low-pass-filtered with an RC circuit.

Alternatively you could low-pass filter at 5V and use an opamp to amplify in the analog
domain to 12V.