Hello.
I am trying to build a very small quadcopter with Arduino (Uno or nano, not sure yet).
The motors I'll be using are similar to this:
My question is can I connect them directly to arduino and control the throttle individually or do I need a separate battery for them and if so how can I controll them?
Thanks in advance,
Renato Silva
My question is can I connect them directly to arduino
No.
Absolutely not.
AWOL:
No.
Absolutely not.
If I can't connect it the arduino can you explain how to control the throttle?
This question comes up so often. Is there a simple resource that we can point the newbies towards? There must be somebody that has written up all the various options for motor drivers applicable to quadcopters.
Scott, you need to do some more googling. Let us know what you find, so maybe the next person can see what links were helpful to you.
Thank you for answering.
There is plenty of information online but only for larger brushless motors. And those use ESCs. That is my problem. For such little motors I have no idea of how to control throttle.
For such little motors I have no idea of how to control throttle.
But the motor looks massive on my 27 inch monitor. (hint)
They are about 2 cm high
Hi Scott,
It's a small DC motor, so you need a FET for each motor, only certain FET's work directly from the arduino pins.
What current does the motor take when running and when Stalled?? You may be able to get away with something small like a 2N7000, etc. You can control the motor's speed with PWM, look for code in the example or playground pages.
But we need more info to help you.
Hope it helps, regards.
Mel.
What I know about the motors is:
Do the math. The size battery would need would probably be too heavy for the thrust from such a small motor and props.
raschemmel:
Do the math. The size battery would need would probably be too heavy for the thrust from such a small motor and props.
Even for short flies like 6/7?
A SN754410 stepper motor driver has exactly the same pin layout of the L293D (which you will easily find lots about on Google) and can supply 1A (which should be fine for your 810 mA motors. You will need 2 to control all 4 motors and a power supply or battery capable of giving at least 4 Amps of power (4 x 0.8amp motors, arduino and anything else).
However, these can only go as low as 4.5 volts. meaning these may not be the drovers for the job as you will most likely drop quite a bit below that when using PWM to slow the motors.
I would recommend trying to find some slightly bigger motors maybe motors taking 11.1 volt - this way you can use a 3 cell lipo to power both the motors and everything else - including the arduino.
I will probaby try to make a normal size quadcopter with brushless motors.
If you can drive 6" props your fine.
And are the motors able to do that?
It is kind of a good idea but right now im more interested in quads.
Why build when you can buy probably cheaper.
I know I could probably buy one cheaper but whats the fun in that....
Hi All,
Just for the fun of it I purchased a small coper from Bang good in China, cost about £6.50 all in, the battery was a small lith-ion? rated at 170mA the coper could fly for about 5-6 mins between changes. But I was amazed at the power and speed in that tiny motor, good fun for a time...
An hovercraft now there's an idea, no wheels??
Regards
Mel.
Greensprings:
build a hovercraft with the props facing down
This.... so much this....
I have a GPS/Manual controlled quad on the books to build, but this would be an awesome project to do. I've always wanted to build a full sized one, but the threat of catastrophic failure using second hand parts for budget reasons always kind of scared me away.
An RC hovercraft is now on the to do list...