160A continuous motor driver

SmartDrive160

SmartDrive160 is one of the latest smart series motor drivers designed to drive high power brushed DC motor with current capacity up to 160A continuously. MOSFETs are switched at 16 KHz to ensure quiet operation and no annoying whining sound. Besides, it also equipped with a microcontroller unit to provide smart features such as multiple input mode, current limiting and thermal protection. SmartDrive160 can also be hooked up with another similar unit and operates in pair. This make driving a robot with differential drive a truly plug and play experience.

Features:

• Bi-directional control for a single brushed DC motor.
• Support input voltage from 8V to 28V.
• Maximum current up to 190A peak (1 minute), 175A (2 minutes) or 160A (continuously).
• 16 KHz switching frequency for quiet operation.
• LiPo battery low voltage warning.
• Thermal protection.
• Current limiting base on temperature.
  • Below 60°C : 194A
  • 60°C to 70°C : 175A
  • 70°C to 80°C : 163A
  • 80°C to 90°C : 144A
  • 90°C to 100°C : 125A
  • 100°C to 110°C : 100A
  • Above 110°C : 50A
• Multiple input modes: RC, Analog, PWM, Simplified Serial and Packetized Serial.
• On board push buttons for fast test and manual operation.
• Dimension: 122mm x 178mm x 8mm

http://www.cytron.com.my/p-mds160a

Or:

SmartDriveDuo-60
Finally, it is ready! The smart drive duo-channel 60Amp driver is here! After Cytron's 1st 10Amp smart drive, now we introduce the 60Amp version! It supports dual channels, 60A continuous current for each channel. Building combat/sumo robot become easy, choose motor+wheel, get high power battery, thick wire, connect it to MDDS60, choose a RC controller and you have a robot !! Do check the User's Manual for details. Quick Start Guide is here.

With knowledge and feedback we gathered from MD10C, MDD10A, MD30C, MDS40A, MDDS10 and MDS160A, we are thrilled to launch this smart motor driver and can't wait to see what you can do with it.

SmartDriveDuo60 has smart features of MDDS10, with higher continuous current capability, 60Amp each channel. It even has brushless fan attached on the top cover to cool it! MDDS60 is ready with the capability to accept RC (Radio Control) signal for mix mode drive, analog voltage from potentiometer, PWM from microcontroller (Arduino, PIC, or any other microcontroller), and even controlled via UART (serial) command. The operation modes is configure by the DIP switch on MDDS60. The commonly used configurations are printed on bottom cover. High current MOSFETs are switching at 16KHz for quiet operation. To cover the driver properly and to mount the fans for cooling, we have added top and bottom cover! Nice!

With the on board temperature sensor, this smart driver is able to limit the output current stage by stage preventing itself from overheat and burnt! The peak current is 100A for 1 second and it will automatically limit the output current.

Not to forget, to make it RC receiver friendly, we have added 2x3 header pin; with just 2 RC extension cable, the wiring is done, and it takes 1 minutes!

With MDDS60, you can now series up 3 SLA battery to power your motor as it support up to 45V DC input. And you only require one power input to operate the motor and driver. Don't worry, 3-cell and 6-cell Li-po battery are within the operating voltage Hey! It also come with battery low voltage warning feature, what else do you need?

* Do use proper wire/cable for battery and motor connection. Think jumper wire/cable cannot support high current application. We recommend using AWG8 Red and Black multicore wire.

Features:

• DC Brush motor Driver, not for brushless motor
• Input Voltage (Motor): 7 - 45VDC
• Single power operation, just connect power to battery input.
• Dual Channels, it can drives two brush motor independently, or mixed.
• Operating modes: RC (RC servo signal), Analog, PWM, simplified and packetized UART.
• Support Signed magnitude and Locked Anti-phase in PWM mode.
• Top cover comes with two DC brushless fans to cool the driver.
• Two manual/test buttons for each channel.
• Two output indicator LEDs for each channel.
• Power, Error indicator, RUN status (Left and Right) LEDs
• On board reset button to restart the MCU after changing operation mode.
• Temperature feedback for current limit and prevent overheating of MOSFET.
• Support up to 60A continuous current at room temperature.
• Support up to 100A peak for 1 second. Current will be limited as temperature raises.
• Suitable for combat or sumo robot.
• 16KHz switching frequency for quiet operation.
• On board switching voltage regulator for higher power efficiency.
• Battery low voltage monitoring mode.
• We have tried this driver with single power window motor at 24V, full load without smoke coming out
• NO polarity protection, please double check the power input connection.
• Do use proper cable/wire for the battery and load, thin/normal cable/wire will melt and burn.
• Dimension: ~190mm x 121mm x 45mm.

http://www.cytron.com.my/P-MDDS60

The SmartDriveDuo-60 at us142 looks like a nice alternative to the big sabertooth 2x60.

Agree, up to 100A peak is a lot. Also hot is the price, $130 is not too bad. @BlazinH this motor driver could be used with your code as a Sabertooth replacement with small modification (if any)...

Yes, looks promising, but so did MMs.

You know I like burning things...

Hi @Pit. I checked these over and neither Sabertooth simple or packet serial will work with these controllers. Simple serial would be simple to modify though. Packet would take a little more effort because it uses a different packet structure. Motor control and startup implementation is different too.

Other observations however are:

No serial timeout feature to stop the motors if something goes wrong (that I could find).

Exchange only for a factory defective unit other than a 30-day return period if unused.

On the Duo-60 model:

I’m not sure the motor connectors are robust enough and I don’t like the plastic housings.

I’m concerned they think this is a good test, “We have tried this driver with single power window motor at 24V, full load without smoke coming out”. What’s that, like a 1/8hp motor?

And while its nice it has a built-in low-pass filter for PWM control if you wanted to go that route, no telling how much it would smooth the input signal.

Also maybe price is different here or the Christmas special is over but price stated in USA is $159.00.


Since the Sabertooth 2x60 is only $30 more, it has serial timeout and a whole slew of other features, and they will replace it for free for one year and then for half-price after that if you blow it up somehow, I still recommend Sabertooths. However, the 160amp model is a beast but at over $200 to control just one motor its quite pricey.

Thanks @BlazinH for your thoughts. Some additional information on the warranty:

• Product warranty is valid for 12 months.
  
  
• Warranty only applies to manufacturing defect.
  
  
• Damaged caused by misuse is not covered under warranty
  
  
• Warranty does not cover freight cost for both ways.

I'm trying to marry up cytron 2 x 60amp to two brushless motors circa 400w. My mate attempted this with two DC wheelchair motors circa 350w including sabertooth 2 x 60A also An Old but working Transmitter/receiver with retro plugin crystal setup. . however. all he got was left motor reverse right motor forward remaining on permanently transmitter appeared totally non responsive any advice on improving this. grazie mille cooper silverstone gross britannien