Enhanced 10Amp DC Motor Driver (MD10C) is an enhanced version of the MD10B which is designed to drive high current brushed DC motor up to 10A continuously. It offers several enhancements over the MD10B such as support for both locked-antiphase and sign-magnitude PWM signal as well as using full solid state components which result in faster response time and eliminate the wear and tear of the mechanical relay. Apart from that, it consists of two buttons on board which is specially designed for testing. When the proper connection and power supply are connected to MD10C, we can press either of these two buttons to test the MD10C by turning the DC motor in clockwise (CW) direction and counter-clockwise (CCW) direction. Therefore, in this tutorial, I will demonstrate the simple method to test the MD10C in fast way with minimum connection. Before that, let me introduce a little bit about the MD10C elements that will be used in this tutorial as shown in the following:
Figure 1: Important elements of MD10C in this tutorial
As shown in Figure 1, the terminal block is used for connect the DC motor and power source. Thus, the board supply should be connected to PWR in this tutorial so that we can direct use the power source from power supply of about 14V to power up the MD10C and the DC motor simultaneously. After that, to test the functionality of the MD10C, we just need to press down the test button A or B and then observe the response from DC motor. If the motor is running after either of these two test button was pressed, the indicator LED will be ON, it means the MD10C has no problem on the functionality. Is it simple to do this? Anyway, I will explain in step by step about the testing procedure in this tutorial.
- MD10C (Enhanced 10A DC Motor Driver)
- DC motor
- DC Power Supply
The following shows the procedures to test MD10C with minimum connection:
1. First of all, we turn on the DC power supply and zeroing the value without connecting its output terminal to MD10C as shown below so that the voltage do not exceed the limit for MD10C when we connecting to it.
Figure 2: Zeroing the power supply before we use it for MD10C
**Note: The purpose of zeroing the output voltage to prevent any unexpected damage on MD10C during we connect power supply to the MD10C
2. After that, we need to make sure the mini jumper of MD10C on board supply is selected with PWR as shown below:
Figure 3: Select PWR for board supply of MD10C
3. Then, we connect the DC motor and the power supply to the MD10C as shown below:
Figure 4: Connection between MD10C with DC motor
**Note: Please make sure that the polarity of power supply is correctly connected to prevent permanent damage on MD10C.
4. Next, we slowly adjust the knob (COARSE) to increase the output voltage until reach about 14V as shown below:
Figure 5: Adjust the knob until the power supply reach 14V
**Note: By referring to the MD10C User Manual, it mentions that when the board supply is connected to PWR, the board is powered by motor power input and also require voltage of at least 14V of motor power to make it works. In addition, the PWR indicator LED will be ON when the voltage is enough to power up the MD10C board but we still continue to adjust the knob until it reach 14V.
5. Now, it is the time for us to start the test. To test the functionality of MD10C, we simply need to press down button A or button B to turn the motor in 2 direction (CW or CCW) depend on the motor terminal connection. Therefore, if we can turn the motor in both direction, it means that the MD10C is functioning well. The following shows the test buttons function:
(i) Test Button A – test the DC motor in CW direction (depend on motor terminal connection)
Figure 6: Press button A to test DC motor in CW direction
**Note: the red LED A will be ON if the motor is running during button A pressed.
(ii) Test Button B – test the DC motor in CCW direction (depend on motor terminal connection)
Figure 7: Press button B to test DC motor in CCW direction
**Note: the red LED B will be ON if the motor is running during button B pressed.
6. If the DC motor is running once the test button was pressed, it means that the MD10C is functioning well. If not, the MD10C might malfunctioning. The fast test ends here.
In a nutshell, after going through above demonstrations, I believe that you will became more familiar with the ways or steps to test the MD10C in short time.
That’s all from me, see you again next time 🙂 !