Apologies in advanced, I am still new to the hardware side of things.
I am planning to power a 12v DC motor that might pull up to as much as 5A depending on the load :o
I was just going to buy a simple power supply for prototyping and seeing how many amps it will draw before eventually switching to a battery, but these supplies do not carry proprietary connectors or a ground connection, like this one.
What kind of adapter or module do I need to hook something like this up to my motor? From what I've read, using the arduino "vin" is not a good idea and risks frying the board if pulling too many amps at one time..
What kind of connections does your motor have? If the motor draws 5A running, it could draw more than 30A starting, a 3A supply is probably not going to work. Could you borrow a motorcycle or lawn mower starter battery to test with? Were you planning on controlling the motor with Arduino? If so will it be 1 direction or reversible, 1 speed or variable?
JCA34F:
What kind of connections does your motor have? If the motor draws 5A running, it could draw more than 30A starting, a 3A supply is probably not going to work. Could you borrow a motorcycle or lawn mower starter battery to test with? Were you planning on controlling the motor with Arduino? If so will it be 1 direction or reversible, 1 speed or variable?
Its a simple 12v encoded worm drive motor found here
The power supply I mentioned was more of an example just to show the type of end-connector I was talking of. This would be more close to what I would buy for the project since its inexpensive and can supply the full amount of amps (and a little extra) before the motor stalls-out.
I am just now realizing that I could probably just cut the power end and strip some of the protective casing away, but seeing as this power supply is coming from the wall and I am inexperienced with electrical stuff, I feel a bit skeptical about doing this and would rather use an adapter or something more appropriate for the task. This way I can have a cleaner connection from one to another.
Also, I am bit unsure if the arduino itself can ground that much of a connection.
Looking at the questions on the web page, current is somewhere between 1 and 5 Amps, so that PS may be OK. You can NOT power the motor through Arduino, but you CAN control it with the proper components, how are you planning on using the motor?
I use these screw terminal strips for general wire splicing and tapping, you can cut as many off the strip as you need, keeps things neater and avoids "rat's nests". Terminal Strips