Need help with improving/ building motor driver

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Hey guys!

Sorry this is probably going to be a very noob question but I am a Com Sci student not EE Eng. I am trying to build my first robot, a little balancing bot, nothing too intense just one that I can program to drive around the house and take readings, or turn my house mates hifi off usung IR ;). They motor supply in my country is average at best and these are the only ones that I could find in my budget:

http://www.netram.co.za/Mechanical/Wild-Thumper-Motor-with-751-gearbox.html

The only driver in my price range is this:

http://www.netram.co.za/Power/Motor-Driver-1A-Dual-TB6612FNG.html

My problem is that the max current that the driver can handle 3.2A peak, and the motor has a stall current 5.5A. Now I'm not entirely sure what stall current means, I searched the forums and found a post relating the stall current to the amount of weight the motor has to carry (weighing all my components together is 500g. How do I work out the current that will be produced?
If the current is above what the driver can handle what steps can I take to fix this? (Other than buying a different motor.)
If I can't improve this driver, would it be possible to build my own? How would I go about this?

Thanks, and again, sorry for the noob question!

2

Stall current is the current the motor draws when the motor is...stalled, i.e. the rotor is locked solid.
Isn't Ohms Law taught in CS these days?

3

Thanks, we did Ohm's Law in school. So now that the driver is not adequate how do I resolve this without having to buy on of the more expensive drivers?
Or could you point me in the right direction of building my own?

4

You might search to see if anybody has used continous rotation servos for a balancing bot.

5

@Zoomkat, I was originally warned away from for being too slow? Also they are nearly double the price of the Wild Thumper motors.

Thanks

6

You might do a speed hack on the servo like below.

7

Thanks zoomkat I will look into that!