Help with control by wire.

Jul 23, 2004 3 Replies

I am bulding myself a carrier unit. A small powered cart for lugging stuff about. I want to be able to control this unit by a handheld wired control panel connected to the cart. I will be using two motors and one/two 12v car/motorcycle batteries. I want to be able to control motion but don't want the electronics to get to complicated. Just a simple wire it together and away we go. I will be making a lid for the cart on which I will mount a solar panel. Intially this will be used to charge the batteries while at rest but as I go on will link to the motors. To power the motors or to charge the batteries depending on the light levels. But that is a project for a later day. Any advice on how to wire this together those three componets. Any wiring diagrams avliable? I don't want to have to program any componets.



Thanks for any help



TrailRat


Well. The dead easiest way to do is is to use 2 DPDT switches, ala here:

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The problem is you have no control over the speed of the motors. That may or may not be an issue for you. If you need speed control, the complexity goes up a bit.

I will need a certain amount of speed control so I can control the rate of turn of the cart. I was think if I was to put a varible resistor after the switches, I could then control the amount of current they get. Any ideas on this? I am not bothered by complexity as long as I don't have to program any IC chips.

TrailRat

You don't want to do it with potentiometers like that. Instead of lowering the amount of energy consumed, they convert the "excess" energy into heat. You want a PWM speed control circuit. There are plenty on the net and in books at the library. Search for "h-bridge" "pwm" and maybe even "555" ... that should give you something.

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