Setup & Configuring a Copley Motor Controller
Posted inElectrical & Electronics

Setup & Configuring a Copley Motor Controller

I generally try and use Copley motor controllers whenever I can. This is for several reasons including: ReliabilityLinux software API (for a small fee) which can easily be wrapped for using in ROS Copley, if you are reading this you should make CML available to everyone for free...Same software API for a wide range of different controllers (AC, DC, brushed,…
R3 motor controllers
Posted inComputing & Networking Electrical & Electronics

Motor Controls & Computing – Hands On Ground Robot Design

This post is part of the Hands on Ground Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics http://robotsforroboticists.com/hands-on-ground-robot--drone-design-series for information on mechanical, electrical, motion control, computing, sensors, and more. Check out the post below for some pro tips on getting better support when talking with motor controller vendors. Motor Controls We used Copley BPL-090-30 and Copley ADP-180-30…
Oriental Motor
Posted inElectrical & Electronics

Wiring Oriental Motor Motors

I really like the Oriental Motor motors and gear boxes. The motors work well and they have nice gearbox configurations. In particular I like these for driving wheels on medium size robots. Internals of the hollow shaft gearbox. The motor attaches below the gears on the right. Then a drive shaft is inserted into the keyed hole on the left.…
shunt regulator
Posted inElectrical & Electronics

Fuse Locations, Protection, Shunt Regulation, & Motors

Hi all I wanted to write a quick post today about where to place fuses and how to protect your robot. When you design a system it is often tempting to place a fuse on every component. This idea is fine for most batteries, sensors, and computers. However this can really cause destruction when you are working with motors. I…
hall detection
Posted inElectrical & Electronics

Controlling Brushless DC motor with no Encoders

This is just a quick post on controlling DC brushless motors with no encoders. This post applies to brushless motors that typically use hall sensors for commutation. This post does not apply to the hall-less ESC (electronic speed control) motors that typically run at very high speeds and are used for things such as quadcopters and boats. To go back…
power beer analogy
Posted inElectrical & Electronics

Motors: Active, Reactive, and Apparent Power

There are a bunch of confusing powers involved when we look at motors, especially with DC brushless motors. When your boss comes and asks you to measure the electrical power that your motor is using, it is often not straight forward. Typically the easiest way to get the current used by a motor is to measure the current draw going…
Copley controller
Posted inElectrical & Electronics

Copley Motor Controller Review

Update: Click here to learn how to configure Copley motor drivers Hi allThis is a post about the Copley Controls motor controllers. For this review I will be using a ACJ-055-09 (55Vmax and 9Apeak) motor controller (I love when product names mean something useful) with a 3 phase DC brushless motor. This is a good controller for distributed motion control.Copley…
PID equations
Posted inSoftware & Algorithms Systems & Sensors

PID Control (with code), Verification, and Scheduling

Hi allPID controllers are the workhorse of the controls world. PID controllers have the goal of taking some error in your system and reducing it to 0. While there are many other control strategies out there PID is probably the most common (unless you count human control) outside of just setting a setpoint. There are many advanced control strategies out…
CAN topology
Posted inComputing & Networking Electrical & Electronics

CAN bus (CANopen & CiA) for Motor Control

A Controller Area Network, or CAN for short is a common message based protocol used in cars and other vehicles. If you are trying to interface with a car/truck/bulldozer, there is a good chance that you will be reading data its CAN bus, and sending it commands via its CAN bus. It is also used in industrial/robotic applications such as…
motor architectures
Posted inElectrical & Electronics

Motor Controllers & Amplifiers

Hi all I recently wrote a post on different types of motors and feedback options, now I want to talk about how to control those motors. Each motor is often refereed to an "axis", so a 8 axis motor controller can control up to 8 motors. There are two different components used in the control of motors and people often…
brushless motor
Posted inElectrical & Electronics Mechanical

Motors and Feedback (encoders)

Hi all There are many types of motors and feedback methods to choose from. Which do you need? Keep reading to find out more about selecting your motor stackup. Since most field robots are DC powered I am skipping the many types of AC motors that are out there. In addition to this post you can find out all about…