Monitoring current draw of MDS40B?

Autonomous Robot, Manual Robot, DC Motor Driver, Stepper Motor Driver, Servo, Multi PWM chip.....

Monitoring current draw of MDS40B?

Postby h00die » Tue Oct 12, 2021 10:38 pm

Hi - I recently posted about using an MDS40B in analog mode, and found it better to drive with a microcontroller instead. This gives me more capabilities anyway.

One thing I want to do is monitor the load on the motor and reduce the motor speed to keep the motor under it's rated current and prevent a stall.

I have a working setup using a Particle Boron (nrf based micro), an external shunt resistor on the supply-side (VB+) of the motor controller, and an INA219 current monitor.

CODE: SELECT_ALL_CODE
                     --------------------------------------------------------
                    \/                                                       |
battery (12v+) -> shunt -> cytron -> 12v brushed motor                       |
|                              |-> 5v -> Particle Boron/nrf                  |
|                                                       |-> 3.3v -> INA219---|
|--------------------------------(0V/gnd)-------------------------------


This setup works, but only for a short period of time because the INA eventually overheats and dies.

The theory is there is either a ground path problem, or some voltage spikes which are overheating the INA. Until we can put an oscilloscope on it, this is a theory.

My question here, is there a better or recommended way to do this? Does the cytron have a place on it where I can see this current instead of adding my own monitor?

Thanks!
h00die
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