hello there!
So, I am trying to make a project ; for which I need to control 5-servo motors and 6-DC motors
considering that all the motors are powered seperately than the arduino board, In which board can I achieve this much control!
Also to add to it, i am going to utilize LoRa sx1278 to control these motors from a range of around 200meters.
I currently have arduino uno, which to my understanding is not enough to provide signals for all these motors but then I am also confused about whether investing in arduino MEGA will give me the required outputs
EDIT::
application- it is a robotic arm(5-servo motors) on a car(6-DC motors)
I am actually trying to build a robotic arm which is stationed on a car ; both controlled wirelessly
the reason that I didnt go for NRF24l01 is because I saw some videos on youtube stating that those module have a range of around 10-30meters although they have high data transfer rates.
As for the motor drivers for DC motors, I am looking forward to use L9110 or L298N (or other one if you can recommend) [all I need to do is control the car; so all I need is control over forward and reverse of the motor]
Using the high power nRF24 (with external antenna) for the base unit should give you the range you need assuming you are working in line of sight. I have achieved 100m range in a test with a pair of low-power nRF24s (with the PCB antenna).
An Arduino Mega should be easily capable of controlling your servos and motors. If funds are tight a clone Mega costs about £15.
thanks for replies tom and robin2
so yea I looked again for the motor driver and I think I should go for BTS7960B so that I would just need 2 of those to control all my DC motors (12v DC with 100/200rpm)
and as for the RF module, I did search as you told and I am now going to use the NRF24l01 with power amplifier and antenna, because although most of my application is outdoor and line of sight based , i would like to keep some range in indoor conditions as well.
As for the board I am looking forward to ARduino Mega2560 as it has got 15 pwm pin(that is what the information online says) , but looking at the board itself i just see pins 2-13 as PWM(i.e, 12pins)
I this is what you mean by a BTS7960B then it seems to me that you need two of them for each motor - unless there is something about your project that you have forgotten to tell us.
Why would you need more than 12 PWM pins? You don't need PWM pins to operate servos.
It would be worth searching for motor drivers that are controlled like the L298 in that they need one PWM input and separate simple I/O signals for direction. Many motor drivers need separate PWM signals for forward and reverse which means 2 Arduino PWM pins per motor unless you use some external "steering" circuit to route a single PWM to different driver pins.
You have not told us anything about the DC motors that you want to control. Maybe it would be easier with an Electronic Speed Control (ESC) which appears to the Arduino to be a servo. They can be a cheaper solution for high current motors. The HobbyKing website has a range of them.
From looking at the picture of the motor drivers in that instructable I think the guy has two motor driver boards that use BTS7960 chips and each board has two of them. If you can get those driver boards they should be fine. The Instructable seems to have a link to the supplier. What I linked to earlier was a webpage about the BTS7960 chip.
Also, from what I can see he is driving three motors with a single driver board so, as far as the Arduino is concerned, it just sees two motor driver boards.
Also to add on that, the motor driver shown in the instructable seems to be able to wire 2 motors only, so how would it be even possible to control 3 motors with one of that driver?
On the other note, is there any other motor driver that i could use?
I am also looking forward to reduce the number of DC motor and now I would like to go for 4 DC motors instead of 6 , because of financial reasons.
hardik_khatri:
Also to add on that, the motor driver shown in the instructable seems to be able to wire 2 motors only, so how would it be even possible to control 3 motors with one of that driver?
I presume he has joined the wires from the 3 motors together and connected the bundle to the driver so all the motors on one side work at the same speed controlled by a single driver. Imagine connecting one motor to an AA battery. Now imagine connecting 2 motors to it at the same time. etc.
You could do the same with a similar robot that has only 2 wheels on each side.