TinyTwo Speed Controllers

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Rapidrory
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by Rapidrory »

No, I'm using a different chip; I have one that I'm using for testing atm, although just ordered 50 more :P They seem to be pretty robust from the tests that I've done, though i plan to do some more rigorous tests soon (*EDIT* just been running both Tinny's motors in parallel off the one driver chip, with varying speeds, loads etc. directly from a Lipo for about 5 mins, and it's not even warm to the touch! Also ran one on those big cheap 3v motors that you always get in kids kits; The motor got pretty warm after a while, but the chip felt barely above room temp. I'm quite surprised if i'm honest! It obviously warms up a bit more under fast switching, but if that's kept to a minimum, I think it should be fine). They should be fine as long as HP motors aren't used with it... Although if they are, another chip can be stacked on top to give 2.4A (although with reduced cooling from stacking the chips, it would probably be a bit less than that.) It's more aimed at things like flippers (it has a 6v 1.5A reg on there) which need less motor power, but needs a decent supply to the RX. Considering it's only gonna cost about £15, it would be quite good for people wanting to run on a budget; nothing hugely powerful, but that's traded off with the fact it's tiny and cheap :)

Yeah, I've had a look at the deltang, might try using it with a NanoTwo for a flee weight at some point. Maybe one day I'll do an all in one board; I do want to learn RF circuit design at some point.. However i think I'll just stick to ESCs for now..
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Rapidrory
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by Rapidrory »

Ok, I fear i'm double posting here, but I hope it's worth it.

Here is the first working NanoTwo HP, finished this morning (having been only designed last Thursday :L )

Image

13mm x 13mm
3.5A per channel, 6A peak
6V @1.5A aux for servos and Rx
On-board mixing
Thermal shut down
A heat sink can easily be attached to the thermal pads on the driver chips

Hoping to have 4 going by the AWS.
It's not stable on a 2 cell LIPO atm as the motor driver chips only run down to about 8V before they cut off, so I'm gonna be using a 3 cell for a bit.. but I've got a fix for that coming soon; the advantage of this design is that it supports a fairly wide range of motor driver chips with minimal change in design, so I've got the chips for a cheaper version coming soon that'll do 1 and 2 cell lipos, and I'm currently searching for a driver chip that can cope with 1, 2, and 3 cells. These things only take me about 15 minutes or so to solder up, so the price is going to be between £15 and £20 per board depending on the driver chips.
Last edited by Rapidrory on Tue Mar 04, 2014 5:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
haz
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by haz »

I want one :)
danjr1
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by danjr1 »

so do i!
Rapidrory
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by Rapidrory »

You may not be surprised to hear I'll be discontinuing work on the TinyTwos, and just developing the Nanos from now on (despite having worked on the TinyTwos for 4 months :roll: ). They're much simpler and less time consuming to build (about 15 mins as apposed to 2 hours!), and almost half the size of the TinyTwo, so there wouldn't be much point in making them any more :P

As I say, I'm aiming to make a 1 cell compatible version, and possibly set a few up with those micro deltang receivers to try help make the sub-ant weight classes more viable and cost effective.

I have coursework and exams coming up, so these probably won't be in large scale production till about June I'm afraid.. However I will be working on the designs and running more tests in the mean time, so hopefully by the time I do release them, the design should be pretty solid :)
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Remote-Controlled Dave
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

I also want one
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peterwaller
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by peterwaller »

Yes I ran into that problem of motor drive chips not working below 8v which as you say isn't much good on two cells.
Here are a couple of pictures of the prototype mounted on a board with a Deltang receiver.
The motor sockets are a bit on the large size.
Image
Image
I found that making good reliable connections to the board that could withstand the G forces experienced by ants was the thing that limited how small you could make the board.
Rapidrory
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by Rapidrory »

Yeah, I'm planning to do some experiments to try and make the boards as robust as possible; may look into potting the board in something to keep everything in place, whilst not being to solid to make replacing parts impossible...

I have found a few suitable driver chips that run at lower than 8v, however they're not easy to come by; the two best ones I've found so far either have to be shipped from china or the US. The ones I'm using here are from RS, and I actually didn't notice that they had the 8v cut off till after i'd bought them :roll: Still, if anyone wants to make a 3 cell ant with huge drive motors, I'm gonna have 4 of these higher voltage high current versions built :L
Looks like your using Allegro chips as well? I'm using the A4950 on this version.. I thought all their 8-lead SOIC motor driver chips were 8Vs though?

For my robots at least I'm planning to solder the ESCs straight to the motors rather than using sockets, however not entirely sure what i'm going to have on the commercial version, as i know a lot of people aren't so keen on doing that... but most sockets will double the size of the controller :L
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
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Rhys
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by Rhys »

Put me down for a high voltage, high current one please! I've been happy enough with the baby o for 2 cells, but I've got a 3 cell project that I've been looking for a decent controller for. Might as well give it a go. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and I'd be happy to help with some feedback for development etc.
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shakesc
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Re: TinyTwo Speed Controllers

Post by shakesc »

Looking good Rory
Be interesting to see this at AWS

Chris
I started out with nothing and still have most of it left
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