Super Hercules 9V-36V, 15A Motor Driver

Introduction

Super Hercules 9V-36V, 15Amp Motor Driver can take up to 30A peak current load and can be operated up to 10KHz PWM. It also gives out fault diagnostics outputs and presetable overload protection limit. This motor diver is designed to drive large DC brushed motors. It can take up to 10Amp current continuously at 27°C ambient temperature without any need for external cooling. For 15Ampere load you need to mount small fan on top of the MOSFETs. Super Hercules series motor drivers are designed for precision control of the DC brushed motors for servo control applications. This motor driver actually shorts the motor winding during PWM off cycle for tight motion control and uses synchronous rectification to reduce power dissipation.

The motor driver has terminal block as power connector and 16 pin FRC Connector for the logic connection. It comes with necessary mounting hardware. It is suitable for precision Servo control applications, high performance robots, Robocon, Robocup, US First, Battle robots etc. This motor driver is also used in NEX Robotics’ Intelligent Autonomous Transport Vehicle (IATV).

Specifications

• Operating voltage: 9V to 36V
• Output current:
  • 10A without any cooling
  • 15A with small airflow
  • 30A with adequate cooling
  • 80A with excellent cooling
• PWM control signal up to 10 KHz. For large motors 1 to 5Khz PWM is highly recommended.
• Indicators: 2 Motor direction LEDs and Power LED.
• Under voltage shutdown
• Overload protection
• Fault diagnostics output
• Power Connector: 4 Pin Terminal Block
• Logic Connector: 16 Pin FRC Connector
• Size: 50.1mm x 75.7mm

Package contains

1 x Super Hercules 9V-36V, 15Amp Motor Driver
1 x 16 pin FRC wire with 15cm length
1 x 16 pin male FRC connector
4 x 10mm mounting studs
8 x M3 mounting nuts

Download Product Manual

Important

• Product is highly sensitive to the static electricity. Observe strict antistatic protection.
• Make sure that motor supply ground and logic ground is common. Make sure that there is no potential difference between logic ground and the motor ground even under high current load; else it will damage the motor driver because of negative logic levels caused due to difference in ground level.
• Motor driver is not protected from reverse polarity. Applying reverse polarity will instantly damage the motor driver.
• Use copper wire with at least 2.5mm2 area of cross section for proper current handling capacity.
• It is highly recommended to use of 20A or 30A fuse between motor driver’s supply lines.
• If you change motor’s direction suddenly while motor is moving in one direction even at 4Amps, depending on the type of the motor, surge current may reach to very high value and motor driver may go in to protection mode. Do not reverse the motor’s direction suddenly unless it is absolutely required. It is a good practice to stop the motor for 10 to 100 milliseconds between sudden direction changes.
• All the motor divers are thoroughly tested before shipping for sudden direction change at full voltage with surge current exceeding 80Amps for 100 times with frequency of 0.5Hz.

Correct Motor Driver Selection:

For generic motion control applications we recommend Hercules series motor driver that provides satisfactory performance at affordable price. However, for precision servo control applications, Super Hercules series motor driver is strongly recommended. Following is the difference between these two series of the motor drivers.

In case of the Hercules series Motor Drivers, the PWM OFF signal switch off the lower MOSFETs. Which means during PWM off period the motor is free wheeling. DC brakeing is achieved by connecting IN-1 and IN-2 to the logic 1 or logic 0 simultaneously.

Super Hercules series Motor Drivers actually shorts the motor winding during PWM off cycle for tight motion control. It also uses Synchronous Rectification to reduce power dissipation across MOSFETs when motor windings are shorted. In order to do all this, it uses high power MOSFETs and smart motion control methods. In this case, DC brakeing is achieved by simply setting PWM to logic low.

Interfacing motor driver with the microcontroller

To drive the motor driver you need DIR, PWM-1 and PWM-2 pins. DIR pin is used for motor direction control. PWM can be applied to either PWM-1 or PWM-2 pin. Other PWM pin should be connected to the logic 1.

Reset pin of the motor driver is internally pulled up at Vcc (motor supply 9V to 36V). To reset the motor driver connect RESET pin to the ground. This can be done by connecting a switch. If you want to reset the motor driver using microcontroller then use Opto-coupler / Open collector logic interface / transistor such as BC548 between microcontroller and the motor driver in order to match the logic levels.

Diagnostics pins can be connected directly to the microcontroller. Connect 10Kohm pull-up resistors between Logic Vcc (5V) and diagnostics pins.

Use Fuse Holder with Fuse Blow Indicator to protect motor driver from overload

Recommended Motors Super Hercules DC Motor with Planetary Gearbox and Side Shaft Super Heavy Duty DC Gear Motors
Recommended Battery Any High discharge 3cell 11.1V Lithium Polymer battery above 1800mAh.

Connections

Motor Connector Pins

Logic input Connections:

Truth Table in Normal Operating Conditions

Note:

If you want to drive motor without using PWM then connect both PWM-1 and PWM-2 pins to 5V logic level.

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