Hi. I’m looking at a tank-track chassis that comes with motors included. Are they suitable for being controlled by a Blue or should I use an external motor controller? For what it’s worth, I’m looking at powering the Blue with a 1600mAh LiPo battery.
Here are the details of the motors:
Operating Voltage Range: 3~7.5V
Rated Voltage: 6V
Max. No-load Current(3V): 140 mA
Max. No-load Current(6V): 170 mA
Max. Stall Current: 2.8 A
Thank you. My apologies if this query is miscategorised.
Beaglebone can source few dozen mA at 3.3V so you do need to put some controller to drive those motors.
Thank you.
You should be in good shape. The Beaglebone Blue has a Toshiba TB6612FNG chip for the motor driver. You should be below the average current spec unless you are planning on have a huge load. The stall current does exceed the spec, but it is protected from thermal overload and will simply shutdown. You software should also check for a stall and turn off the drivers anyway. HTH Mark
Thanks, Mark. That’s what I was hoping to hear.
Sorry, I didn’t read your email carefully—you were talking about Blue, which as Mark points out has power drivers that can drive motors, so forget what I said below.