QuadSink Motor Control Board

Finally, a useful motor controller for the student or hobbyist that's easy to use!

QuadSink is the perfect choice for general purpose motor control applications. This board supports up to four permanent magnet (PM) DC motors. It can also drive two bipolar stepper motors, or one unipolar stepper. It is not a high-precision stepper motor controller, nor is it meant for industrial or process control. What it is designed to do well is support the student or hobbyist in controlling motors! Whether using it to drive a motorized, tracking telescope mount, building an automatic pet feeding mechanism or a roving, four-wheel drive robotics platform, this board can handle many such applications very well.

QuadSink comprises seven discrete functional blocks: BASIC Stamp Microcontroller, Digital PWM Generator, Drive Control, the H-Bridges (including thermal warning LEDs and motor current sensing), Terminal I/O Block, Logic Power Supply, and a user Prototyping Area.

It was designed around National Semiconductor's LMD18200T DMOS H-Bridge, and supports all features of this versatile chip. Each H-Bridge is capable of driving motors up to 55 volts and 3 amps continuous (6A peak). If your motor's drive requirement fits within this window, this board's for you!

Most functional blocks of QuadSink were initially instituted to build a four wheel drive robotics vehicle (see below). Subsequent changes were made to make the board more flexible in other motor control applications. Fully populating the board will set you back about $130, and that's including a BASIC Stamp module. A bare printed circuit board goes for about $35.

Block Diagram DSL Rover

Inquire via email for more information, and/or download the User's Manual (1.5MB) or Block Diagram to see the details.

since 23FEB07

Corey Hatch <hatch@cs.utah.edu>