Hi all! Skip to the next paragraph if you don't care about the background of this question. Also, sorry about how horrendous the link formatting is, I tried to fix it. I have been tinkering with Arduino for a while now, and I have encountered an issue with a drone I am building. I want my drone to be low-cost and easily and cheaply built, to allow swarms and other fun things. What makes this project difficult is that I don't want to spend $100 on drone motors and ESCs, so I am using normal DC motors. Over the year I have spent on this project (on and off building), I have tried a variety of prototypes, large and small, and none have taken off. This most recent prototype is by far the most promising, and I am one step away from it being able to take off, which is why I am here.
Greartisan DC 12V 10RPM 40Kg.cm 8mm Double Shafts Self-Locking Reversible Worm Gear Motor with Cable, High Torque Speed Reduction Motor, Turbine Electric Gearbox Motor
Great! How should I pick out a diode? Most examples use different ones, and idk which is best. Would the 1N4007 diode you had in your schematic work with the SI2302-TP MOSFET?
Great, thanks! Okay, so I went to order them, and the best date for delivery they gave me is a month from now. That's fine if that's what it takes, but I also heard about the irfz44n MOSFET. Any chance that would work too? (It has better shipping) Sorry to keep bothering you, I just don't want to put my project on hold for a month unless I have to.
The IRLZ44 has been recommended many times in this forum. Note the L in its name which means that it is designed to work at logic voltage levels, normally 5V, but I am not an expert in this area
Use the term logic level MOSFET in your search. Look for 1A to 5A continuous drain current and very low Rdds(on) (say < 30 milli Ohms) specified at 5V or less.
I'd say look for at least 10A drain current and low on-resistance - you'd never be taking a MOSFET anywhere remotely near its rated current unless you want to water-cool it!
Note that for fast accurate speed control you may need half-H-bridge for each motor and use synchronous-rectification mode - so be prepared if simple single MOSFET control is too sluggish (it depends how quickly the props spin down in response to reductions in drive - smaller props spin down quicker and are more responsive). Having said that coreless/slotless motors are very small so I'd imagine tiny props.
Update: I ordered the FETs, but they were tiny surface mounts. Joke's on me for not doing my homework. I looked into the IRLZ44 that UKHeliBob suggested, and the stats checked out, but I wanted to do a little more digging, and I found a potentially better candidate, the IRLB87221PbF. Both the IRLZ44 and the IRLB87221PbF can be purchased on Amazon, and I made sure that they are large enough for prototyping. The stats seem very similar, but the input capacitance of the IRLB87221PbF is about a third of the IRLZ44's. I'll list out the stats for both of them so you guys can see if I'm missing something.
