Hey all,
For my non-tactile maze robot project, I am using the Arduino Duemilanove 328 with the Ardumoto Motor Shield expansion.
I am having a bit of trouble running it untethered from my PC.
As of right now, I am using a 9v battery to power the whole thing.
I converted the round plug end of an AC adapter to connect to the 9v battery and to plug into the Arduino.
Any suggestions you can give would be welcomed!
Thanks!
What motors are you using?
(2x) Mabuchi FA130-RA
They are built into the Tamiya 70097 Twin-Motor Gearbox.
@dxw00d
Sorry about cross posting, I wasn't sure if I has put this under the right topic.
FA130-RA
refers to 3 different models. You still have not precisely defined which ones you have. However, the last column in that table is important.
There is no way that a wimpy 9V battery is going to output even 0.9 Amps. Period. End of story. Powering just the Arduino board from a 9V battery is not recommended. Put the 9V battery back in the smoke detector you stole it from, and plan on using some real batteries.
If you don't know what real batteries are, take a trip to a hobby store (brick and mortar or online), and see what kind of batteries they have.
Yes, some of them carry 9V batteries - to power transmitters, not motors.
As others mentioned, forget the tiny 9V battery, unless some kind of R/C car pack, in which case
it would be called "9.6V".
6 rechargeable NiMH AA-cells in series should give plenty of powerful for this app. 7.2V should be
plenty for the Duemilanove, as it uses an MC33269 5V regulator which has 1V dropout. Also, 9V is
probably too much for those little Tamiya motors. They'll likely get hot and squeel a lot.
The one problem with trying to run motors and also controller from one battery is the motor
electrical noise will get onto the controller power, so you might need an extra filter capacitor
across the input power buss, eg 470 to 680 uF. Those toy motors produce an especially lot of
electrical noise.