Cytron Technical Forum

This is regarding smartsrive 40. I am using this motor driver for combat robotics. which requires sudden change in motor directions i.e. forward and reverse. during this sudden change the driver can experience large currents. does the driver has some build in capability to sustain against these currents? i saw that some drivers use schottky diode. Do i need to use external diodes with smartdrive?

The SmartDrive40 firmware already includes the feature to protect the driver from damaged by rapid motor direction change.
Thus, no external circuit and components are needed for protection.

Just make sure that the motor driver is powered from a battery instead of a power supply so that the battery can absorb the current generated from the motor.

Thank you so much for your reply. as you said the battery absorbs the current generated by the motor. does it charge the battery then? like a regenerative drive? I would also want to ask one for thing. I am using two Smartdrive40 in a robowar robot. I am using an ampflow E30 400 motor for a spinning weapon. the motor doesnt have internal capacitors. It is located near to the smartdrives. Is it necessary to add EMI shielding to the motor driver? I am planning for aluminium tape and ferrite bead shielding.

Yes, the SmartDrive40 is a regenerative motor driver. The generated current will charge back to the battery.
However, I notice that the current for the ampflow motor can go up to 200++A.

This may kill the SmarDrive40 instantly.

I would recommend you to use the SmartDrive160 (http://www.cytron.com.my/p-mds160a) instead for this motor.