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| jarrin > Interests > Electronics > Motorized Armchair | |
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Microcontrolled 4/24/2006 9:15 PMDespite having accidentally blown up a TIP102 transistor (I was trying to check the voltage across the motor connections but had the red lead of the meter in the wrong (unfused!) jack - I assume this has happened to everyone at least once) I was able to program a PIC microcontroller to alternately run and stop the motor via the remaining half of the H-Bridge. I've learned that I can indeed control the motor with the MCU. I have no doubt that I'll be able to control both motors and also perform PWM on both simultaneously. However, I've also learned (or strong suspect, anyway) that the TIP102 and TIP106 Darlington pair transistors are not rated highly enough to handle these motors. After a dozen seconds of 50% duty cycle both transistors were too hot to handle. While I haven't yet clamped them to heat syncs, I seriously doubt they'd be able to handle the power necessary to move a couple hundred pounds of motorized armchair. I think I will upgrade to a more powerful transistor in a TO-3 package. I hope I don't accidentally blow one of those up. |
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